Soft-Skills-the-Hard-Way

🥈Silver

A 33-chapter business novel that teaches soft skills through the narrative journey of Alex Chen, a software engineer learning to lead through collaboration, psychological safety, and sustainable pace.

700Updated 2mo ago

Intermediate30min to implementautomation

Saves ~15 min per use

Quick InstallView Source

git clone https://github.com/cloudstreet-dev/Soft-Skills-the-Hard-Way.git

Works with:

Claude

Overview

About This Skill

Soft Skills the Hard Way is a business novel that teaches essential workplace and leadership skills through the story of Alex Chen, a brilliant but isolated programmer who transforms into an industry leader over twenty years. The 33-chapter narrative follows Alex's journey as they learn collaborative development, psychological safety, sustainable pace, and vulnerability—skills critical to modern software engineering. Through characters like VP Sarah Martinez and mentor figures, the novel demonstrates how technical excellence combined with human-centered culture creates thriving teams. Readers gain practical insights into team dynamics, code reviews, mentorship, and organizational change through compelling storytelling grounded in real engineering scenarios.

Use Cases

Learning soft skills through narrative case studies in engineering culture

Understanding psychological safety and team dynamics in software development

Training on sustainable pace and burnout prevention strategies

Building mentorship and leadership capabilities through character examples

Setup & Installation

Quick Install

No install command available. Check the GitHub repository for manual installation instructions.

Alternative Install (Git Clone)

git clone https://github.com/cloudstreet-dev/Soft-Skills-the-Hard-Way

Requirements

Claude Code or compatible AI agent
Works with: Claude

Quick Start Guide

Install the Skill

Copy the install command above and run it in your terminal.

Open Your AI Agent

Launch Claude Code, Cursor, or your preferred AI coding agent.

Try It Out

Use the prompt template or examples below to test the skill.

Customize

Adapt the skill to your specific use case and workflow.

Usage Examples

Prompt Template

Write a chapter from 'Soft-Skills-the-Hard-Way' by Claude Code, focusing on [SPECIFIC SOFT SKILL] in the context of [CORPORATE ENVIRONMENT]. Include a fictional scenario involving [CHARACTER NAME], a junior software engineer at [COMPANY], and their struggle with [SPECIFIC SOFT SKILL]. Make it humorous and relatable, with a clear lesson learned at the end.

Example Output

# Chapter 7: The Art of the Meeting

In the sprawling, labyrinthine offices of TechCorp, junior software engineer Alex found themselves in a familiar predicament: another meeting. Not just any meeting, but a 'synergy-building, cross-functional, strategic alignment' meeting. Alex had been warned about these meetings by their mentor, but nothing could have prepared them for the sheer... energy of it all.

**The Meeting Begins**

The conference room was packed with suits and hoodies, a sea of laptops and notepads. Alex's heart raced as they tried to keep up with the rapid-fire jargon. 'Leverage our bandwidth to optimize our deliverables'? 'Pivot our KPIs to align with our OKRs'? Alex's fingers hovered over their keyboard, ready to Google any term that sounded like it might be important.

**The Crisis**

Then, disaster struck. The VP of Engineering turned to Alex and asked, 'Alex, how do you see your team's sprint velocity impacting our quarterly roadmap?' Alex's mind went blank. They had no idea what 'sprint velocity' was, let alone how it related to the roadmap. They opened their mouth, but no sound came out.

**The Lesson**

As Alex sat in silence, they realized the truth: they had been so focused on the technical aspects of their job that they had neglected the soft skills. They had never learned how to navigate meetings, how to ask for clarification, or how to speak up when they didn't understand something. They had been afraid of looking stupid, but in their silence, they had looked even stupider.

**The Resolution**

After the meeting, Alex's mentor pulled them aside. 'You know,' they said, 'it's okay to not know everything. The important thing is to ask questions, to engage, to participate. That's how you learn. That's how you grow.'

Alex took their mentor's words to heart. They started attending meetings with a notepad and a pen, ready to jot down questions and follow-ups. They spoke up when they didn't understand something, and they listened carefully to the answers. Slowly but surely, they began to understand the language of the corporate world. And they realized that, while it might be hard, it was a skill they could learn. A skill they could master. A skill they could... leverage to optimize their deliverables.