Teach What You Know to a Child
Explaining a concept to a child or another beginner can expose gaps hidden by familiar terminology. Build a simple lesson, anticipate questions, and return to the parts you cannot explain clearly.
THE IDEA
Step 2: Teach What You Know to a Child
Explaining a concept to someone with no background in it tests whether you can go beyond familiar terminology. Experts who already “know” may fill in gaps that a beginner would notice. When you cannot explain a step, move it from “I know” to “I need to find out.” Then study that part again.
If a child is not available, write a lesson for an imagined beginner. Anticipate questions and work through each step you would need to teach. Be on the lookout for big, cumbersome jargon and unclear language—remember that your standard should be to explain a certain term without referring to that term itself. Constantly seek to simplify and be as direct, concise, and “clean” in your language as possible.
A few things to remember:
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Children don’t understand jargon, nor will they be impressed with fancy-sounding “ten-dollar words.” Look beneath your technical jargon and see if you are able to convey the concept within them, without becoming distracted by the words or else fooled into thinking you understand the concept just because you know the word.
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Be brief. This is a little like making an “elevator pitch” for the concept. You don’t have to dumb things down, but being forced to get to the point quickly will help you identify what is central to the idea and what is just fluff.
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Anticipate questions or even objections. Imagine the stubbornest child you can and that they are asking “Why?” about the trickiest part of what you’re trying to explain.
When to use it
When studying a new topic, write a lesson plan for a child as a way to identify gaps in your understanding.
Before a presentation to a non-expert audience, practice explaining your key points in simple language as if to a child.
When debugging a complex problem, articulate the issue and solution in child-like terms to clarify your thinking.
In a team discussion, ask a colleague to explain their idea as if to a fifth-grader to ensure mutual understanding.
FROM THEORY TO EVERYDAY LIFE
In practice
Explaining Supply and Demand to a Child
Imagine you have a lemonade stand. On a hot day, many people want lemonade (high demand) but you only have a few cups (low supply), so you can charge more. On a cold day, few people want lemonade (low demand) and you have plenty (high supply), so you might charge less or give it away. This simple scenario captures the core concept without jargon.
Teaching the Concept of Gravity
You might say: 'When you drop a ball, it falls to the ground because the Earth pulls it down. That pull is called gravity. It's like a magnet, but everything with mass pulls on everything else. The bigger the thing, the stronger the pull. That's why we stay on the ground and don't float away.' Avoid terms like 'force', 'acceleration', or 'universal law'.
A MOMENT TO REFLECT
Put it to work.
Pick a concept you think you understand well. Try to explain it to an imaginary 8-year-old. Where do you stumble or use jargon?
What assumptions are you making about the child's prior knowledge? How does that affect your explanation?
After simplifying your explanation, what core insight remains? Have you eliminated any unnecessary details?
CONTINUE THE CONVERSATION
Source texts
- Richard Feynmans Mental Models by Peter Hollins