The skills

Side build · This portfolio · Oct 2026

From a pedalboard to a palm leaf

Claude and I drew eleven concepts for one page. Ten were turned down, mostly for being too clever. Here’s how the palm leaf won, and what each round taught me.

My part
The brief, the feedback and every call
Paired with
Claude, who drew each round as a working board
Took
4 rounds, 13 to 14 Oct 2026
கற்க கசடறக் கற்பவை கற்றபின் நிற்க அதற்குத் தக one leaf, one skill
Where it landed: one leaf per skill, and the agent writing the next one.

The spark

Not a plain list

  • Emil Kowalski’s skills page got me to package mine. But I didn’t want a plain list.
  • I wanted what Thenga does for my experiments: a story the page tells, that still works at twenty skills.
  • So Claude drew each idea as a working board, and I reacted.

Round 01 · Collections

Four shelves, no point

  • Pretty containers for skills. None of them said what a skill actually does.
  • The pedalboardturned down
  • The spice tinturned down
  • Seed packetsturned down
  • The card drawerturned down

Open the round 01 board, as it was

“Not convinced. Show what a skill is for, and how it holds six or more.”my feedback

Round 02 · What a skill does

Clever, and hard to use

  • Each one explained skills well. Each one was also a new widget to learn.
  • The agent’s metroturned down
  • The apprentice’s benchturned down
  • Cartridgesturned down

Open the round 02 board and try it

“Too creative. My site never makes people learn a new way to interact, and these are hard on a phone.”my feedback

The rule

A story, not a new widget

  • The experiments page is just a hero and groups of cards. The coconut carries the story, not the layout.
  • So the brief became: same layout, new story.
The experiments page hero: “Every coconut’s a keeper.” next to a heap of coconut mascots.
Thenga’s yard: plain cards, and a coconut doing the talking.

Round 03 · Same page, four stories

Written down, so it lasts

  • All four said one thing: a skill is what I know, written down, so an agent can do it my way.
  • Palm leaves said it best. Olai chuvadi is how Tamil knowledge was written down and tied into bundles, so the next person could carry on.
  • Palm leavespicked
  • Recipe bookturned down
  • Tiffin carrierturned down
  • Songbookturned down

Open the round 03 board, all four stories

Round 04 · The drawing

Closer to the real thing

  • I shared photos of real bundles. The redraw got thin stacked leaves, a red cord with a tassel, a lamp and marigolds.
  • Then I asked for the agent, holding the ezhuthani, the iron stylus. The top leaf carries Thirukkural 391: learn it well, then live by it.
Round 03 · a sketch
Round 04 · closer to real

Open the round 04 board

Misses & lessons

What I’d keep

  • MissI asked for something innovative, and got new ways to interact.

    LessonSay what must stay the same, not just what should be new.

  • MissIdeas described in chat were hard to picture.

    LessonPut the options side by side on one board, at real counts.

  • LessonKeep every round. The ones I turned down became this story.

The metaphor tells the story. The page stays familiar.

See the skills