Learning & explaining21 categories
What is the one idea that unlocks this?
A subject where you have learned the parts but it still hasn't clicked.
For the topic below, identify the single idea that makes everything else follow. 1. State it in one sentence. 2. Explain why it is the load-bearing idea and not just an important one. 3. Take three things that seem like separate facts or rules in this topic and show how each one is a consequence of that idea. 4. Tell me what people typically believe instead, before they get it, and why that alternative feels reasonable. 5. Give me one question I should be able to answer correctly if I have grasped it, and one I would get wrong if I have not. Pick one idea. Do not give me a list of three candidates. Topic:
Making it yours
- Paste your own material where the prompt asks for it. Everything above that line is instruction, not content.
- Delete any rule that does not apply to you. A shorter prompt that fits beats a thorough one that does not.
- If the answer comes back vague, add a line saying what you do not want. Constraints work better than encouragement.
Explaining a concept. Getting an idea across at the depth you need, with analogies, origins and first principles.
Related prompts
Explain this at three levels of depthFirst contact with a concept, when you don't yet know how deep you need to go.Give me an analogy, then tell me where it breaksWhen you want an intuition for something abstract without picking up a wrong model.Why does this exist at all?A tool, standard or convention whose design looks arbitrary until you know the history.Rebuild this concept from first principlesSomething you use by rote and want to be able to derive rather than memorise.Explain in one paragraphFirst contact with a topic, when you only have a few minutes.The one ideaA subject where you know the parts but it hasn't clicked.
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