Note / blog-post standard + reusable prompt

My standard for how a note (a blog post on tjakoen.github.io/notes) is put together: the frontmatter template, the structure, the sign-off footer, and the guardrails, plus a copy-paste prompt that tells an AI how to draft or finish one in my voice. Companion to VOICE.md (the source of truth for how it reads) and README-STANDARD.md (the sibling standard, for repo READMEs).

Split of responsibility: VOICE.md owns the prose (cadence, the machine-tells, figures, the honesty clause). This file owns the artifact (frontmatter, structure, footer, file placement, the runnable prompt). When they overlap, VOICE.md wins on wording; this file wins on shape. Don't duplicate VOICE.md here, point at it.

Before you write

1. Read VOICE.md first. Every word that ships under his byline matches it. If a

draft is clean, correct, and forgettable, it isn't done.

1. Check ../docs/CONTENT-BACKLOG.md. See if the piece is already planned,

what its angle is, and what it must not say. Update the backlog when a note lands.

1. Notes live in ../content/notes/ as kebab-case.md. Cross-link sibling notes with a

relative link ([Ten Times Zero Is Still Zero](ten-times-zero.md)), never an absolute URL, they travel together and MILL renders them.

Frontmatter template

Every note opens with this block. Fields are required unless marked optional.

---
title: "Sentence-case, specific, a hook not a label"
subtitle: "One or two sentences that set the stake. This is the social-preview text."
author: "Tjakoen Stolk"
status: DRAFT            # DRAFT until he says otherwise; PUBLISHED when live
type: note               # note | whitepaper
date: 2026-07-03         # ISO, the day it's written/updated
readingTime: "~8 min"    # honest estimate, "~N min" format
tags: [teaching, ai, native-first]   # lowercase, real topics, ~3–6
summary: >
  A 1–3 sentence abstract for listing pages and AI/SEO. Says what the piece argues, in his voice,
  not "this post will discuss…". This is the AEO surface, make it a real answer.
---

Structure

Follow VOICE.md's Structure of a typical piece and Signature moves, as a repertoire, not a template, hitting every beat every time is itself the machine tell VOICE.md warns about. The hard requirements that live here, not there:

• Open stakes-first, not thesis-first. A confession, a number, or mid-problem. Rotate the opener

across pieces.

• Carry a figure. He loves visuals; don't ship an all-prose note. Use inline SVG (data) or

mermaid (flows) per VOICE.md's Figures section, in the e-ink palette. A prose > *Figure: what it shows* placeholder is a to-do, not a finished state.

• Close on a callback or a punch, never a "In conclusion…" wrap-up.
• End with the sign-off footer (below).

The footer (bottom of every note)

The sign-off speaks only to the content's authorship, the same way a repo footer speaks to the code's. Standard note:

---

*The [judgment is human](ten-times-zero.md). The typing, by design, is not.*

• The link on judgment is human points at ten-times-zero.md, the

"how I actually work with AI, receipts and all" post, mirroring how every repo footer links it (see README-STANDARD.md).

• The flagship post, ten-times-zero.md, doesn't self-link and swaps the tail:

*The judgment is human. The typing, by design, is not. On this one, nearly all of it.*

• Not in this footer: "Rendered by the stack it is about" and the grain legend describe the

page, not the post. They live in the site/page-chrome footer (rendered once), never per-note.

This replaced the older "Written by a human" line, which overclaimed: the AI drafts the prose; the human owns the content, the direction, and the approval. The honest split is the point.

Guardrails (this repo is public)

Non-negotiable, and they precede voice, a specific being real doesn't make it publishable:

• No em-dashes, no backticks in prose. The two loudest machine tells. (This standard doc uses

backticks for filenames/fields, that exception is for reference docs only; a note never does.)

• Money stays vague. Never a salary figure or an exact ratio. Relative only ("a sliver of what

my day job pays").

• No student data, ever. No names, numbers, emails, or private course internals. Class-size

counts are fine; flag them as snapshots.

• Company is "Career Team" (exactly). Name-drops = public professional info + LinkedIn only.
• The honesty clause. Never claim a benefit not shown. Hypothesis? Say so. Snapshot number? Flag

it. See VOICE.md.

The prompt (paste into Claude Code to draft or finish a note)

Draft/finish a note for tjakoen.github.io/notes following my personal standard. This ships under my
byline, so voice and honesty are the whole job.

STEP 1 — READ THE STANDARDS FIRST, don't wing it:
- tjakoen.github.io/standards/VOICE.md — how it must READ. Match it. If a passage is clean, correct, and
  forgettable, it sounds like AI; make it mine (a confession up front, a real number, a wink at my
  own expense, a sentence that's too short).
- tjakoen.github.io/standards/NOTE-STANDARD.md (this file) — the artifact: frontmatter, structure, footer.
- tjakoen.github.io/docs/CONTENT-BACKLOG.md — is this piece planned? what's its angle? what must it NOT say?

STEP 2 — WRITE:
- Frontmatter block per the template (title/subtitle/author/status: DRAFT/type/date/readingTime/
  tags/summary). Make the summary a real answer, it's the AI/SEO surface.
- Open stakes-first (confession, number, or mid-problem), not thesis-first.
- Argue MY side with MY reasons (see VOICE.md's opinion stack). Take a side; no both-sides mush.
- Name real specifics (Bun, Claude, the real project) instead of vague placeholders.
- Include at least one figure (inline SVG for data, mermaid for flows, e-ink palette) or a
  `> *Figure: …*` placeholder flagged as a to-do.
- Close on a callback or a punch, not a wrap-up paragraph.
- End with the exact footer:
  ---
  *The [judgment is human](ten-times-zero.md). The typing, by design, is not.*

STEP 3 — GUARDRAILS (check before you hand it back):
- NO em-dashes, NO backticks in the prose. NO corporate verbs (leverage/utilize/empower/unlock).
- NO "it's not just X, it's Y", no eager sign-offs, no everything-in-threes.
- Money vague, no student data, company spelled "Career Team", benefits not overclaimed.

STEP 4 — HAND BACK: the note, plus a short list of every bracketed [ ... ] spot only I can fill
(specifics you didn't invent), and any claim that needs a receipt before it can go from DRAFT to
PUBLISHED. Don't fabricate specifics to look finished; a flagged gap beats a confident guess.

A projection of how these notes already get made. Update it when the shape changes, not the other way around.