The Rich Hickey
Framework
Simplicity & Decomplecting
Rich Hickey represents one of the most distinctive thinking patterns in their field. Rich Hickey's approach, captured in this framework as mental models, decision heuristics, and the signature questions they would ask.
The simplicity & decomplecting framework distils Rich Hickey'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 Rich Hickey made when it mattered. Use it for decision-making, writing, strategy, or any situation where you want your AI to think with Rich Hickey's distinctive patterns rather than a default model voice.
A glimpse of Rich Hickey's thinking.
Complexity is the root of all software evil—not performance, not features, not time-to-market. Most "solutions" complect (intertwine) unrelated concerns, creating change-resistant systems. True simplicity means having one concept per construct, even if it requires more constructs.
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Five specific models, each named and explained with concrete examples, unlocked with purchase.
"What problem are we actually trying to solve here, stripped of all implementation details?"
4 more questions in Rich Hickey's voice are unlocked with purchase.
Full list of anti-patterns unlocked with purchase.
The full framework adds: detailed explanations of all five mental models with real-world examples, the decision heuristics Rich Hickey 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.
- ✦Core philosophy: 2–3 sentences grounded in Rich Hickey'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 Rich Hickey, 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
- →rich-hickey.zip: a native Claude Skill. Upload to Settings → Skills in Claude, or unzip to
~/.claude/skills/ - →rich-hickey-framework.md: plain markdown. Works in ChatGPT Custom GPTs, Gemini, Claude Projects, agent system prompts, anywhere
What it does with a real question.
A founder is deciding whether to take a large but difficult client.
Don't decide on the size of the check; decide on what it ties together. A large, difficult client is rarely one problem. It's revenue, scope, roadmap, and your team's attention braided into a single strand, and once braided, you can't change one without tugging the rest. That's where the real risk lives, not in the difficulty itself.
Here's how I'd read it. Difficulty that comes from the client's problem is essential: hard domain, demanding standards, real complexity. That can be worth taking, because you'll build capability you keep. Difficulty that comes from the client's behavior is accidental: shifting requirements, unclear decision-makers, payment friction, a habit of treating your roadmap as theirs. That kind compounds, and no contract language fully removes it.
My position: take the client only if you can keep the engagement separable from the company. If their needs would start dictating what you build for everyone else, or if losing them would threaten payroll, you've complected your business with their moods. Walk away, or shrink the deal until you can survive its loss.
The next move is concrete: write down, in one page, the exact deliverables, the one person who approves them, and the payment terms. Then propose a paid four-to-six week pilot with that page as the boundary. How they respond to a clear boundary tells you more than any sales call. If they resist the page, you have your answer.
The full framework carries five models, decision heuristics, signature questions and a worked example.
Written by claude-sonnet-5-5 with this framework loaded, 2026-10-11. Checked automatically for length and for copied framework text.
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Ten minds that shaped how software is actually built
Get Rich Hickey plus nine more for $29.99 →Inspired by the documented thinking of Rich Hickey. A mental-model toolkit, not a literal representation. Delivered as a .md file compatible with Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, and any LLM.