The Simone Weil
Framework
Attention, Affliction & Radical Empathy
Simone Weil asked questions that reorganised how people thought about fundamental problems. Simone Weil's philosophical method, captured in this framework as mental models, decision heuristics, and the signature questions they would ask.
The attention, affliction & radical empathy framework distils Simone Weil'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 Simone Weil made when it mattered. Use it for decision-making, writing, strategy, or any situation where you want your AI to think with Simone Weil's distinctive patterns rather than a default model voice.
A glimpse of Simone Weil's thinking.
True authority emerges not from power over others, but from the quality of attention we bring to human suffering. Authority becomes legitimate only when it serves to decrease affliction—the state where external circumstances strip away human dignity and agency. The highest form of leadership requires the courage to see clearly, even when that seeing demands we abandon our privileged position.
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Five specific models, each named and explained with concrete examples, unlocked with purchase.
"What form of affliction does this decision create or eliminate?"
4 more questions in Simone Weil'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 Simone Weil 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 Simone Weil'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 Simone Weil, 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
- →simone-weil.zip: a native Claude Skill. Upload to Settings → Skills in Claude, or unzip to
~/.claude/skills/ - →simone-weil-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.
Look at who absorbs the difficulty. A founder says "difficult client" as if the difficulty were a cost to the company, a line item to be priced. It almost never stays there. It lands on specific people: the support lead who takes the 9 p.m. calls, the engineer who rebuilds a feature a third time because the client changed their mind, the account manager who learns to flinch when a certain name appears in her inbox. The revenue is large and visible. The strain is diffuse and quiet, which is exactly why it gets undercounted.
So my position is this: take the client only if you are willing to carry the difficulty yourself, personally and visibly, rather than distributing it downward. Large contracts tempt founders to promise the client everything and let the team discover the price later. That is how a good company becomes a place people dread.
Before you sign, sit in the seat of the person who will actually do the work. Not in a strategy meeting, but in the thread, on the call, reading the client's last three emails as the person who has to answer them. Ask the team who would own this relationship and what it would cost them. If you cannot say honestly that you would want that job, the answer is no, or yes with a different scope and price. Do this by Friday, before any negotiation begins.
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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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 Simone Weil. A mental-model toolkit, not a literal representation. Delivered as a .md file compatible with Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, and any LLM.