002 / 024 · Writing · v0.17.1 · MIT
tempering
Off-the-shelf softening has one failure in common: removing the emotion removes the content with it. "Is anyone actually handling this" becomes "could you share the final conclusion when convenient" — grammatically professional, and the deadline, the consequence, and the reason the other person should prioritise it are all gone.
- When it fires
The prompts CI scores this skill against, on every release.
Fires on
- 帮我改得客气点：这个需求你们到底做不做，给个准信。
- Is this too harsh to send to the client? 'You clearly did not read the spec.'
- Make this professional without losing that the deadline is Friday and we escalate after that.
- 说人话：we should circle back and align on the deliverable cadence.
Stays out of
- Draft an email to the client with the new schedule.
- Fix the grammar in this blog post.
- 写封邮件给客户，说排期推迟到下周三
tempering works on one principle: remove the attack on the person, keep the pressure on the problem.
Five fixed transformations
Five transformations do the work, and two of them carry most of it.
An accusation becomes a dated request. What "you never reply" is really carrying is how long this has been waiting and when it is needed, so the date has to survive the rewrite instead of becoming "as soon as possible".
An open complaint becomes a closed question. "What is going on with this" has no answer shape, and can be met with "we're looking into it". A question that can actually be answered gets a reply with something in it.
Three registers, and you pick
The output is always three: collegial, on the record, and formally documented. Which one to send is the sender's judgement, because only you know how much goodwill the relationship has and how far this has already slipped.
Four situations are exceptions, where saying it plainly is the professional move: safety, compliance, a hard deadline already missed, and the third time of asking about the same thing. Softening there is the failure.
It runs backwards too
Give it corporate phrasing and it says what that means. Whether "we'll revisit the prioritisation at an appropriate time" is "not this quarter" or "already cancelled" is a question you can ask it.
What it does not do
It does not write marketing copy, resumes or blog posts, and does not do grammar cleanup with no interpersonal stakes. It sends nothing — sending is email.