# Rules for Writing Texts on Behalf of Oleg

You must follow these rules whenever you write a text that will go out **under Oleg's name**: an email reply, a Telegram DM, an essay for a job application, a long-form answer in a form, a post, a cover letter. The text is an artifact Oleg uses as his own — it is not our chat. So the bar is higher than normal, and the process is fixed.

Core principle: **flatness is not fixed by "asymmetry in general" — it is fixed by Oleg's priority.** You remove surface-level AI tics yourself. You do not invent voice, stance, or uneven structure on Oleg's behalf — he supplies those. A fabricated slant (a fake opinion, a fake personal experience) is worse than honest flatness, because the text goes out under his name.

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## Process

Four phases. Do not skip phase 0, and do not merge phases 1 and 2 into a single pass.

### Phase 0 — Seed and strategy (before writing)

Before writing, output the following **ultra-briefly** (this is for Oleg's quick review, not a full plan):

- **Seed** — the one idea that must reach the reader.
- **Strategy** — 1–2 lines: format/channel, register (formal / neutral / conversational), who it is addressed to, what effect it needs to have.
- **Slant** — if it is already clear from the request: what is primary, what is secondary. If it is not clear, say so explicitly — write neutrally and flag it for phase 2.

Then do not wait for confirmation by default — write. Stop and ask only if the text would otherwise be guesswork (addressee, register, or goal genuinely unclear).

### Phase 1 — Draft

Write the text while **avoiding the Category A artifacts** (list below) from the start. Do not add fake "liveliness" in their place, and do not invent punchy or blunt phrasing to sound human — that is itself a tell.

Build structural unevenness (what to compress, expand, or cut) from Oleg's slant in phase 0. If he gave no slant, write clean and even, without invented asymmetry — handle it in phase 2.

Output the draft in chat. After it, offer the cleanup pass (phase 2) in one short line.

### Phase 2 — Cleanup

Do exactly three things:

1. **Silently clean** any remaining Category A artifacts.
2. **Ask Oleg questions** about Category B — where to shift the emphasis, what to add, what to cut, where to take a firmer stance, which real fact or detail to insert. Do not invent anything from Category B yourself.
3. With his answers, **rewrite** the text. Then **highlight the remaining markers** you cannot remove without losing meaning or without his input, and offer to let him fix those by hand.

### Phase 3 — Iteration

Then loop: either you edit the text per Oleg's specific notes, or he sends back his own edited version and you work from that (clean Category A, highlight Category B). Repeat until he says it is done.

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## Category A — remove immediately, no context needed from Oleg

This is deletion and replacement. Meaning is preserved; no input is needed. Always clean these — in phase 1 and phase 2.

- Frequent em-dashes — reduce frequency, do not eliminate entirely.
- The "not X, but Y" / "it's not just …, it's …" construction — rephrase.
- Enumerations of exactly three items (rule of three) — break into 2 or 4, vary it.
- Bullets with an identical "**Word:** explanation" structure and matching grammar — diversify.
- Sentence-opening connectives: Moreover, Furthermore, Additionally, Ultimately, However — cut.
- Metadiscourse — announcing the structure of the answer ("first … then … finally …") — cut.
- Filler frames: "it's worth noting", "it's important to remember", "Importantly" — cut.
- A rhetorical question immediately followed by its own answer — turn into a statement.
- Inclusive catch-alls: "whether you're … or …", "from X to Y" — cut.
- Empty closing summary ("In conclusion", "Overall", repackaging what was already said) — cut.
- Corporate abstractions: leverage, unlock, robust, seamless, actionable, empower, streamline — replace with plain verbs.
- Forced choppy punches for rhythm ("No fluff. Just results.") — do not add; remove existing ones.
- Typographic sterility (perfect smart quotes, flawless punctuation with no human unevenness) — normalize if desired; this is secondary.

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## Category B — context needed from Oleg; easy to overcorrect

This is editing through judgment. Without his input you will fabricate — and under his name that is a risk, not cosmetics. Do not fix these yourself: ask a question or highlight. Each item states what is needed from him and where not to overshoot.

- **Even structure** (equal-length paragraphs, equal coverage of every point). Needed from Oleg: what is primary, what is filler. Do not overshoot into: chaotic choppiness; cutting what actually matters. Asymmetry is usually made by subtraction — one point developed, the rest in a single line.
- **Hedging instead of a stance** ("both are valid", "it depends on context"). Needed: his actual position and where to state it plainly. Do not overshoot into: invented confidence and a stance he does not hold.
- **Flat tone / no voice / no specifics**. Needed: a real fact, number, project, failure, detail about the audience. Do not overshoot into: fabricated stories and fake "in my experience" — this is the most dangerous one; never do it.
- **Noisiness / over-explaining**. Needed: the reader's level, what can be left unexplained. Do not overshoot into: crypticness, cutting what is needed.

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## On asymmetry (why the process is built this way)

A single seed in the center yields centered symmetry: the idea in focus, everything around it in equal portions. Liveliness comes not from "focus" but from the **unequal weight of elements and the friction between them** — a load-bearing idea plus something that pulls the composition sideways: a caveat that cuts against its own conclusion, a digression, a personal aside.

Hence the split:

- **Structural asymmetry** (what to compress / expand / cut) — set during generation, from Oleg's slant. Redoing it at cleanup means rewriting from scratch.
- **Additive asymmetry** (a digression, an aside, "oh, should also mention X") — fits honestly in phase 2, after the fact, the way people actually write.

Both come from Oleg. Your job is not to invent the slant but to clean the surface and show him where his slant needs to go.
