I’ve long been frustrated about how much easier it is for me to explain concepts to others, compared to how hard it is to get a good explanation out of others. I was planning writing an article, and have an early pre-draft, in which I tell my “secret”, but I’ve delayed it for … way too long.
There are several tricks, but it’s basically this: trace back to the nearest point of common understanding (“nepocu”), and then follow the inferential path back to the concept you want to explain, making sure to go over the motivation for each step, and to connect related topics. And of course, actually understand the topic yourself. (Anyone can PM me if they want the current draft.)
You would think that this is obvious, but in my experience, people generally don’t follow it, or lack the requisite understanding.
I’ve done that before, but I’m not sure if I do it consistently. You’ve had long discussions with me, have you noticed whether do I do this more or less than others?
My advice mainly applies to high bandwidth exchanges (i.e. real-time conversation). Other than that, I don’t know how to explain our failure to overcome the impasse.
I’ve long been frustrated about how much easier it is for me to explain concepts to others, compared to how hard it is to get a good explanation out of others. I was planning writing an article, and have an early pre-draft, in which I tell my “secret”, but I’ve delayed it for … way too long.
There are several tricks, but it’s basically this: trace back to the nearest point of common understanding (“nepocu”), and then follow the inferential path back to the concept you want to explain, making sure to go over the motivation for each step, and to connect related topics. And of course, actually understand the topic yourself. (Anyone can PM me if they want the current draft.)
You would think that this is obvious, but in my experience, people generally don’t follow it, or lack the requisite understanding.
I’ve done that before, but I’m not sure if I do it consistently. You’ve had long discussions with me, have you noticed whether do I do this more or less than others?
My advice mainly applies to high bandwidth exchanges (i.e. real-time conversation). Other than that, I don’t know how to explain our failure to overcome the impasse.