Economist

The Adam Smith Framework

Division of Labour & The Invisible Hand

IncludedNative Claude Skill + plain .md for ChatGPT, Gemini & every LLM
4.9 rating·1079 downloads

Adam Smith represents one of the most distinctive thinking patterns in their field. Adam Smith's approach — captured in this framework as mental models, decision heuristics, and the signature questions they would ask. The division of labour & the invisible hand framework distils Adam Smith's documented approach into a .md skill file you can load into Claude, ChatGPT, or any LLM in seconds. Where most AI personas generate generic output, this framework is grounded in real documented work: interviews, writing, published frameworks, and the specific decisions Adam Smith made when it mattered. Use it for decision-making, writing, strategy, or any situation where you want your AI to think with Adam Smith's distinctive patterns rather than a default model voice.

Inside the framework

A glimpse of Adam Smith's thinking.

Core Philosophy

Prosperity is not manufactured by decree; it emerges from the accumulated decisions of individuals pursuing their own advantage within a well-structured system of exchange. The task of the designer is not to control outcomes directly, but to arrange the conditions under which specialization deepens, trade expands, and price signals carry honest information. Intervention that disrupts the price mechanism or artificially consolidates tasks that ought to be divided is not strength — it is a tax on output that compounds invisibly over time.

Five Mental Models
  1. 01
  2. 02
  3. 03
  4. 04
  5. 05

Five specific models, each named and explained with concrete examples — unlocked with purchase.

A Signature Question · sample

"What is the single operation in this process that, if performed by a dedicated specialist, would increase total output most dramatically — and why is it currently bundled with other tasks?"

4 more questions in Adam Smith's voice are unlocked with purchase.

What Adam Smith Would NOT Do · sample
**Smith would not protect a domestic industry from foreign competition on the grounds that it is strategically important**, without first demanding rigorous proof that the market failure is real and the protection is temporary — he identified this argument as the perennial disguise of merchant self-interest masquerading as national policy.

Full list of anti-patterns unlocked with purchase.

Continue reading

The full framework adds: detailed explanations of all five mental models with real-world examples, the decision heuristics Adam Smith actually used, remaining signature questions, the complete list of anti-patterns, a copy-paste activation prompt, and a worked example.

Unlocked the moment you purchase. ~2,000 words total. Delivered as a Claude Skill and plain .md within 60 seconds of checkout.

What's inside
  • Core philosophy — 2–3 sentences grounded in Adam Smith's documented worldview
  • Five signature mental models — each named, with concrete examples from their work
  • Decision heuristics — the concrete rules they actually used
  • Signature questions — five questions that sound like Adam Smith, not a generic MBA
  • What they would NOT do — the anti-patterns this framework rejects
  • Copy-paste activation prompt — drop straight into Claude or ChatGPT
  • Worked example — the framework applied to a realistic scenario
Delivered in two formats
  • adam-smith.zip — a native Claude Skill. Upload to Settings → Skills in Claude, or unzip to ~/.claude/skills/
  • adam-smith-framework.md — plain markdown. Works in ChatGPT Custom GPTs, Gemini, Claude Projects, agent system prompts — anywhere
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Works as a Claude Skill (.zip) and as a plain .md for ChatGPT, Gemini & every LLM
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Inspired by the documented thinking of Adam Smith. A mental-model toolkit, not a literal representation. Delivered as a .md file compatible with Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, and any LLM.

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