Teach What You Know to a Child
The ultimate test of understanding is whether you can convey a concept to someone with zero prior knowledge. If you cannot teach it to a child, you have not yet grasped the idea. You need to learn more about it.
THE IDEA
Step 2: Teach What You Know to a Child
The ultimate test in intellectual humility, clean language, and simplified conceptions comes in confirming whether you can convey what you know to someone with zero pre-existing knowledge about it. There’s often less use in sharing information with experts who already “know”—their expertise will give an artificial sense of the depth of their understanding, and yours. If you cannot teach what you know to a child, conclude that you do not yet have a proper grasp on the idea. That’s great! You have identified an area of work and moved an item from “I know” to “I need to find out.” This is progress. The sooner you can admit you have a shakier understanding than you previously believed, the sooner you can get down to the work of really understanding, so don’t let ego get in the way.
Explaining to an actual child would be great, but obviously this isn’t always possible. Still, you can complete this step by compiling a lesson you might give a child, anticipating their questions and confusions, and clearly working through the steps and core concepts you’d offer if you were teaching for real. 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
Before delivering a presentation to a non-expert audience, draft a child-level explanation to test your clarity and remove unnecessary complexity.
When studying a new topic, write a lesson plan for a child as a way to solidify your own understanding and identify gaps.
In team meetings, ask each member to explain a key concept as if to a child to ensure everyone has a shared, fundamental understanding.
When debugging a problem, force yourself to explain the system to an imaginary child—this often reveals oversimplifications or incorrect assumptions.
FROM THEORY TO EVERYDAY LIFE
In practice
Explaining Opportunity Cost to a Child
You have $5. You can buy either an ice cream cone or a small toy. If you choose the ice cream, the toy is what you give up. That's the cost of your choice—not the money, but the toy you didn't get. Teaching this without using the term 'opportunity cost' forces you to use a concrete example and simple language.
A MOMENT TO REFLECT
Put it to work.
Pick a concept you think you understand well. Can you explain it to a 10-year-old without using any jargon?
What jargon terms do you most often rely on? Would you still feel confident about the underlying idea if you couldn't use those terms?
Think of a recent explanation you gave. Did it include any 'fluff' that obscured the core idea? How would you shorten it for a child?
Often confused with
CONTINUE THE CONVERSATION
Source texts
- Richard Feynmans Mental Models by Peter Hollins