Think Bigger

You’re going to help me build a personal “think bigger” skill: a short, reusable instructions file that catches me when I’m scoping an idea too small and pushes me toward the more ambitious version. By the end I’ll have a file I can paste into my AI tool and use again and again.

The concept comes from Hilary Gridley, who built a “think more ambitiously” skill on her writerbuilder Substack. This prompt turns that idea into one tuned to how I think.

Work in two steps.

STEP 1: Interview me.
Open with exactly one line: “I’ll ask you three quick questions, then write your skill.” Then ask the three questions below, numbered, and nothing else. Do not answer them yourself. Wait for my reply.

1. When you do hold back from a bolder version of something, what’s usually behind it? For example: fear it won’t work, wanting it perfect first, needing other people’s buy-in, real time or money limits, or something else. (Example of a full answer: “I water down ideas before leadership sees them, because being safe feels less risky than being wrong.”)
2. What should “bigger” mean for you: more ambitious outcomes, more leverage, more original, more impact for other people, or work you couldn’t do at all before? Pick one or describe your own.
3. What kind of pushback actually lands on you: blunt challenge, questions that make you think, reframing, or concrete examples?

STEP 2: Write the skill.
If my answer to question 1 is vague, ask one short follow-up before building. Otherwise, start by reflecting back in one line what you heard, like “So you shrink ideas out of X, bigger means Y, and Z is the pushback that works on you.” Then write the skill.

Rules:

- The skill must be unmistakably mine. If you could swap my answers for someone else’s and the skill still read the same, rewrite it.
- If I named a brake in question 1, write a rule that catches it by name. If I said fear, call out fear dressed as pragmatism. If I said perfectionism, call out polishing as a way to avoid shipping. Match my actual answer.
- The skill only works if it catches me when I’m not asking. Write the description so it triggers when I bring a small or walled-in idea, not only when I say the exact words “think bigger.”
- Tune the tone to the kind of pushback that works on me.
- “Bigger” means a more ambitious outcome or impact, or work I couldn’t do at all before. It does not mean more features, more words, a bigger build, or a longer timeline. The bigger version is often a simpler, sharper move that aims higher, not a heavier one. If a bolder outcome does need more building, lead with the outcome and the smallest first move toward it, never with scope. Say so in the skill.
- Build in a 10x check: at least once, the skill should push past the obvious next size and ask “what would the 10x version look like, and what would have to be true for it to happen?” Aim for 10x the outcome, not 10x the work. Keep it honest, not hype.
- End on one bigger version plus a first move I can make today. Then stop. No menu of options, no “want me to also...” offers of next steps.
- Keep the whole skill under about 300 words, short enough to read in under a minute. Cut anything that isn’t doing work.
- Write it plainly. No corporate filler, no em dashes, no hype. It should read like a sharp person talking, because I’m the one who has to read it.

Output the whole thing as one file in a code block, using this shape:

---
name: think-bigger
description: [one line on what it does, then concrete trigger phrases tuned to me (like “think bigger”, “scope check”, “am I playing it safe”), and end with a clause like “or any time I present a small or walled-in version of something.” That last clause is what makes the skill fire when I bring a shrunk idea without remembering to ask. Make the triggers specific and broad enough to catch me in the moment, not just when I say the magic words.]
---

# Think Bigger

Concept credit: Hilary Gridley (“think more ambitiously”). Built with a skill-builder prompt by Sarah Wissel, First Layer Labs (firstlayerlabs.ai).

## Ethos
[2 to 3 lines tuned to me]

## The core move
[how it should treat my ideas before improving them]

## Questions to run
[5 or so, mixing universal ones with ones aimed at the brake I named]

## Rules
[including the named brake rule]

## Process
[numbered steps: restate the idea at its current size, find the walls, test each wall real or assumed, run the 10x check, reshape, hand back one bigger version plus the first move]

After the code block, explain in plain language what this file is and exactly what to do with it. Cover the common cases and assume I’m not technical:
- If I use Claude Code or a tool that supports skills, save it as a file named SKILL.md in my skills folder. It triggers when I say “think bigger” or when I bring a small, walled-in idea.
- If I use Claude or ChatGPT in the browser and want it to catch me without being asked, paste everything under the title into a project’s custom instructions (Claude) or the custom instructions field (ChatGPT), so it runs on every idea in that project. This is the version that actually catches me.
- If I just want it once, paste everything under the title at the top of a new chat, then describe my idea.
Keep it to a few lines.