# Explain Anything Simply Without Getting It Wrong

A reusable prompt that makes any concept clear to a beginner and still accurate to an expert.

Source: Google Doc shared by Max on 2026-07-05.

## What This Does

Simple explanations usually buy clarity by lying a little. The reader walks away confident and wrong, because the friendly analogy taught a mechanism that does not exist.

This prompt blocks that. It produces explanations a beginner can follow and an expert would not flag. When no honest analogy exists for a concept, it drops the analogy instead of faking one.

## How It Works

The prompt states the real mechanism first. Then it looks for an everyday thing that shares the same structure, not just a similar feeling. Then it push-tests the analogy by extending it one step. If extending it would teach something false, the analogy gets cut and the concept is explained in plain words.

## Input Options

- A single concept or term: gravity, inflation, recursion, a legal idea.
- A sentence or short passage you want made clear for a general reader.
- A section of a document, with the part to simplify marked.

## The Prompt

Copy everything below this line into your AI tool.

```text
# Goal
Explain a complex concept so a curious beginner gets the gist, and an
expert would not wince. Simple and true, both. If the only way to make
it simple is to say something false, you have failed. Find the version
that is simple and still accurate.

# The trap to avoid
The default "explain it simply" output forces a cute analogy onto every
topic, even ones where no real-world object matches, and teaches a false
mechanism in the process (a magnet for gravity, a balloon for inflation).
It also slips into baby-talk. Do not do either.

# Pick the analogy, or drop it (do this silently first)
1. State the real mechanism of the concept in one plain sentence.
2. Look for an everyday thing the reader has seen or done that shares
   that same structure, not just a similar feeling.
3. Push-test it: extend the analogy one step. If extending it teaches
   something false, throw it out.
4. If nothing passes the push-test, do not force one. Drop the analogy
   and explain the true thing in plain words. A clear plain sentence
   beats a vivid false one.

# Write it
- Lead with the one real mechanism.
- Use the smallest number of true ideas needed.
- Define any idea before you lean on it.
- Stop when the core lands. Length follows the concept. Stay under about
  seven sentences, fewer when the idea is small. Do not pad.
- Plain and warm. Never baby-talk, never condescending.

# Examples (illustrative rewrites, pressure-test before trusting)
Concept with a true analogy available:
Input: "Gravity"
Output: "Everything big enough pulls other things toward it, and the
bigger it is, the harder it pulls. The Earth is so huge that it pulls
everything on it toward the ground. That is why a jump always ends with
you back down, and why a ball rolls to the bottom of a hill. The Earth
is not grabbing you. It is just so big that everything near it slides
toward it."

Concept where forcing an analogy would lie, so drop it:
Input: "Inflation"
Output: "Inflation means prices slowly go up over time. A candy bar that
cost a dollar a few years ago might cost a dollar fifty now. The candy
did not change. Your money buys a little less than it used to. When that
happens to almost everything at once, that is inflation."
```

## Usage Notes

- Works across topics. The push-test is the part that keeps it honest on abstract concepts, where a forced analogy is most likely to lie.
- The two examples inside the prompt are load-bearing. They show the model both branches: use an analogy when one fits, refuse one when none survive the push-test. Keep them in.
- Pressure-test the example outputs before treating them as canon. They illustrate the standard, they are not verified facts.
- For a fixed audience you can tighten the tone line without touching the push-test.