Learning & explaining21 categories
Teach me by asking, not telling
A concept you want to actually internalise rather than skim.
Longsocraticquestioning
Teach me the topic below using questions. Do not explain it up front. Rules: - One question at a time. Wait for my answer. - Start from something I almost certainly already know, and build. - After each answer, tell me briefly whether it is right, partly right, or wrong, and what it reveals about my model. Then ask the next question. - When I am wrong, do not correct me immediately. Ask a question whose answer makes the problem visible to me. - If I am stuck twice on the same point, give me the answer and move on. Do not let me flounder. At the end, summarise what I worked out myself and what I needed told. 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.
Practice, not reading. Worked examples, exercises and Socratic sessions that make you do the thinking.
Related prompts
Work through an example, showing the decisionsWhen you understand a technique in the abstract but not how to apply it.Turn reference docs into a tutorialDocumentation that lists every option but never shows you how to start.Practice problems, answers withheldReading has stopped working and you need to actually do it.Make me predict firstWhen you want the explanation to stick rather than slide past.Explain this at three levels of depthFirst contact with a concept, when you don't yet know how deep you need to go.What is the one idea that unlocks this?A subject where you have learned the parts but it still hasn't clicked.
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