Explain It Like They're Twelve

Richard Feynman, Nobel laureate in physics, was famous for explaining anything in plain, everyday words. It wasn't a gift: it was his study method. When he wanted to master a topic, he would write it out as if telling it to a brand-new student, with no borrowed formulas and no technical vocabulary that merely sounded good.

The test works because jargon is a hiding place. Saying "the algorithm does it" or "that's inflation for you" lets you walk past without checking whether you could actually open that box. Translated into simple words, the sentence breaks exactly where your understanding breaks.

The full method fits in four steps: pick the topic; explain it in writing to an imaginary twelve-year-old; mark the spots where you hesitated or turned technical; and go back to the source only for those. Repeat until the explanation flows whole.

You don't need an audience. The twelve-year-old is you, a little while before understanding.