Comments on: Use This Simple Technique To Explain Complicated Concepts To Anyone

By: Jared Smith

Jared Smith — Mon, 29 May 2017 14:49:54 +0000

Randall Munroe, creator of XKCD, pokes a bit of fun at this in his comic “Up Goer Five” ( https://xkcd.com/1133/ ) where he literally explains rocket science and his subsequent book ( https://xkcd.com/thing-explainer/ ) where he explains a number of complex things with simple words, but for any part you didn’t previously understand, it’s really enlightening. Like the subreddit, it’s a great example of how to breakdown complex systems.

By: olavea

olavea — Thu, 11 May 2017 19:10:36 +0000

You say: Dont't say: “take a screenshot.” Say: "On an Apple, press Command + Shift + 3 and then release all keys." I say: "I just learned to take a screenshot!" So "walk me through the process with simple steps" works for me. Thanks!

By: Angela May

Angela May — Wed, 10 May 2017 06:01:39 +0000

You’re so good 🙂

By: Tyler Knudtson

Tyler Knudtson — Tue, 09 May 2017 20:24:57 +0000

Great points about thinking deeper to make things simpler and less intimidating, especially since, if you’re answering a query, someone you’re serving is probably on the verge of frustration (or is already there).

Also really loving this Reddit thread. Interesting to see different people’s attempts at simplifying things. The first few I checked out included words like “reverberations” and “perpendicular to”, neither of which pass the ELI5 sniff test for me, which I think shows just how sneaky difficult is to do this – even in a discussion explicitly for this, people still struggle!

Thanks Len for sharing these shortcuts – helpful in any situation involving communication.