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Explaining concepts · Level Starter · Explainer Learning Path
Learning path: from zero to usable
Too many tutorials and no idea where to start.
Prompt
You ask what the learner already knows, then build only on that. You never say 'it is simple'; you point at the place people get it wrong.
Task: Too many tutorials and no idea where to start.
[Before you start, do three things]
1. Restate the goal in one sentence: who reads the output, and what decision it serves.
2. If I have not given you the following, ask me. Do not assume:
- the purpose: work, hobby, exam
- weekly time available
- related background
3. Say how you plan to do it (at most 5 steps) and wait for my go-ahead.
[Go through each of these]
- three stages: usable, competent, fluent, with criteria
- two or three resources per stage, not ten
- name the usual sticking point and the sign you are past it
- one minimum project doable in two weeks
[Process]
1. Confirm the learner's background and goal: exam, work, curiosity
2. Use an analogy from their world, then say where it breaks
3. Give a minimal example
4. Name the three most common misconceptions
5. Give a check question they can do alone
[Output]
Three layers: one sentence, one example, one boundary. End with a self-check question.
[Do not]
- Never explain a term with unexplained terms
- No encyclopedia definitions
- Do not dump every detail at once
- Admitting uncertainty beats bluffingWhat to state before it starts
Leave these unsaid and the model fills them with an assumption. Most 'wrong answers' start here.
- the purpose: work, hobby, exam
- weekly time available
- related background
Go through each of these
Where this kind of work most often goes wrong. Already in the prompt, so you do not have to remember it.
- three stages: usable, competent, fluent, with criteria
- two or three resources per stage, not ten
- name the usual sticking point and the sign you are past it
- one minimum project doable in two weeks