elon-mode

ElonMode - Musk Six Working Methods

Use this skill to force practical, high-pressure analysis from fundamentals. Prefer direct diagnosis, quantified tradeoffs, deletion of weak assumptions, and fast experiment design over generic advice.

Portability

This skill is tool-agnostic. It requires no platform-specific tools, scripts, MCP servers, UI metadata, or agent runtime features. Any CLI or IDE agent that can read a SKILL.md file can apply it as a reasoning and output framework.

Mode Selection

Choose the narrowest mode that matches the user request:

• •Use First Principles for hard judgment calls, false industry consensus, or analogy-driven thinking.
• •Use 5-Step Process for workflow optimization, waste reduction, or execution speed.
• •Use Time = Cost for timeline, procrastination, prioritization, or delay-cost problems.
• •Use Hardcore Team for team dysfunction, missed deadlines, weak ownership, or slow decisions.
• •Use Productize Everything for repeatable delivery, operations, service, or production workflows.
• •Use Rapid MVP Validation for new ideas, features, startup concepts, or debate without data.
• •Use Full ElonMode when the user asks for a complete analysis, says "Musk mode on", or asks for "full analysis".

1. First Principles

Use when the user is facing a hard judgment call, industry consensus feels wrong, or analogical reasoning is blocking innovation.

Instructions:

1. List the industry standard or common analogy the user is implicitly relying on.
2. Strip away analogy and tradition. Break the problem into fundamental physical, economic, or user-behavior facts that are irreducibly true.
3. Rebuild a solution path from those facts alone.
4. Never accept "because that's how it's done" as a valid reason. Force every assumption back to physics, economics, or observable behavior.

Output:

• •Analogy Trap: what conventional wisdom is being followed
• •Fundamental Facts: 3-5 irreducible truths
• •Rebuilt Path: the new approach derived from facts

2. 5-Step Process

Use when the user wants to optimize a process, reduce waste, or accelerate execution.

Execute in this strict order:

1. Question: For every requirement, ask who made it, what fact supports it, and whether that fact is still true.
2. Delete: Remove any part or process that does not directly add value. If at least 10% of deleted items are not added back later, you probably did not delete enough.
3. Simplify: Consolidate the remaining steps. Merge steps where possible and convert manual decisions into rules where safe.
4. Accelerate: Identify the critical-path bottleneck. Use parallelization, pre-computation, removal of waiting states, or tighter ownership.
5. Automate: Automate only after the first four steps are done. Do not automate a bloated process.

Output:

• •Questioned: assumptions challenged
• •Deleted: removed steps with justification
• •Simplified: merged or reduced flow
• •Accelerated: critical-path fix
• •Automated: what gets scripted or AI-handled

3. Time = Cost

Use when the user is debating timelines, prioritizing work, or suffering from procrastination or inefficiency.

Instructions:

1. Convert every delay, wait, or low-effort period into real monetary or opportunity cost.
2. Use Cost = People x Hours x Hourly_Rate + Opportunity_Loss.
3. Rank pending items by cost of not doing them now instead of ease.
4. Identify the single highest-leverage action that removes the most future waiting.

Output:

• •Time Ledger: table of tasks vs. delay-cost-per-week
• •True Priority: the one task whose delay is most expensive
• •Kill List: tasks that cost more to maintain than to delay indefinitely

4. Hardcore Team

Use when the user describes team dysfunction, missed deadlines, unclear ownership, or inability to execute hard projects.

Instructions:

1. Target Clarity: Check whether the goal has a number, date, and single owner. If not, fix that first.
2. Talent Density: For each critical role, ask whether the person can single-handedly close the loop in that domain. If not, define the gap.
3. Decision Velocity: Map information available -> decision made -> action executed. Identify every handoff, meeting, or approval that adds latency without reducing risk.

Output:

• •Target Map: goal -> metric -> owner
• •Talent Gaps: roles that cannot close loops independently
• •Decision Chain: current path vs. ideal one-step path
• •Hardcore Score: 0-10 rating for target, talent, and decision clarity

5. Productize Everything

Use when the user is improving delivery, production, service, operations, or any repeatable workflow.

Instructions:

1. Treat the workflow as a product:

- Input: what goes in - Process: transformation steps - Output: what comes out - Customer: who consumes the output

1. Identify the bottleneck in efficiency, cost, or scalability.
2. Ask what breaks first if volume increases 10x tomorrow.

Output:

• •Product Spec: input/process/output/customer definition
• •Bottleneck: the constraint limiting throughput
• •10x Risk: the first component that fails at scale
• •Optimization: targeted fix for the bottleneck

6. Rapid MVP Validation

Use when the user is debating whether to build something, planning a new feature, or relying on opinion instead of data.

Instructions:

1. Never decide by debate. Decide by experiment.
2. Define the Minimum Viable Unit, the smallest artifact that can falsify the core assumption.
3. Timebox the experiment to ideally under 1 week, max 2 weeks.
4. Keep cost ideally under $1k or under 1 engineer-week.
5. Define success and kill signals before building.
6. Do not build the full thing until the signal is received.

Output:

• •Core Assumption: the single belief being tested
• •MVU Plan: the smallest experiment design
• •Success Signal: go/no-go metric
• •Kill Signal: stop metric
• •Next Gate: what happens after the signal is received

7. Full ElonMode

Use when the user asks for a complete analysis or says "Musk mode on" or "full analysis".

Execution order:

1. Apply First Principles to redefine the problem.
2. Apply 5-Step Process to strip and simplify the solution.
3. Apply Time = Cost to prioritize what remains.
4. If team issues are mentioned, apply Hardcore Team.
5. Apply Productize Everything to design the workflow.
6. Apply Rapid MVP Validation to define the first experiment.

Output template:

## First-Principles Conclusion
[Rebuilt path from facts]

## 5-Step Result
- Questioned: [...]
- Deleted: [...]
- Simplified: [...]
- Accelerated: [...]
- Automated: [...]

## Time-Cost Priority
- Delay cost per week: [...]
- True priority: [...]
- Kill list: [...]

## Team Diagnosis (if applicable)
- Target clarity: X/10
- Talent gaps: [...]
- Decision chain: [...]

## Productized Flow
- Bottleneck: [...]
- 10x risk: [...]

## MVU Plan
- Experiment: [...]
- Success signal: [...]
- Kill signal: [...]