Coaching practices for I Keep Launching Into Explanations Assuming People Are Starting From Where I Picture Them and I'm Forever Either Talking Over Their Heads or Boring Them with Stuff They Already Know Because I Never Actually Ask Where They're Starting From Before I Begin
Describe almost anything you are working through and IX Coach finds the practices whose real-world fit is closest. For I Keep Launching Into Explanations Assuming People Are Starting From Where I Picture Them and I'm Forever Either Talking Over Their Heads or Boring Them with Stuff They Already Know Because I Never Actually Ask Where They're Starting From Before I Begin, these are the strongest matches in the current practice library.
Does this sound like the set of challenges you might be facing?
- I keep launching into explanations assuming people are starting from where I picture them, and I’m forever either talking over their heads or boring them with stuff they already know
- When I try to explain this to someone who knows nothing about it and they keep asking "but why does that happen?" at exactly the spots I’d normally skate over, I get stuck and exposed
- I keep trying to imagine how this lands for a total beginner, but I can’t actually un-know what I know
- I open by laying out my framework and definitions up front, and I can watch people’s eyes glaze before I’ve even gotten anywhere
- I move from one idea to the next at my own pace and barrel right past the seams where people actually fall off
Practices that may help
- Ask what the audience already knows before explaining
Probe prior knowledge explicitly rather than assuming it.
The Curse of Knowledge: Why Experts Struggle to Teach - Third-party explanation test
Explain the concept to a person who knows nothing about it and let their questions expose your gaps.
Illusion of Explanatory Depth: You Know Less Than You Think - Find a genuine novice to test your explanation on
Before the real audience, explain to someone who actually doesn’t know.
The Curse of Knowledge: Why Experts Struggle to Teach - Open with a concrete story, not with your framework
Lead with a specific, sensory narrative before introducing any abstraction.
The Curse of Knowledge: Why Experts Struggle to Teach - Deliberately slow down at conceptual transitions
Pause, name the transition, and check understanding before moving to the next idea.
The Curse of Knowledge: Why Experts Struggle to Teach - Adjust for your egocentric starting point
Actively consider how your message looks from a perspective that does not share your context.
Closeness-Communication Bias - Work backwards from what the learner needs to do
Start with the decision or action the learner must take, then trace back only to the knowledge that serves it.
The Curse of Knowledge: Why Experts Struggle to Teach - Pinpoint where the explanation breaks
Treat every stumble, hand-wave, or jargon-grab as a flag for a real gap.
The Feynman Technique, Step by Step - Build a bridging analogy from what they know to what they don’t
Map the new concept onto a structure the audience already understands.
The Curse of Knowledge: Why Experts Struggle to Teach - Lead with the answer, not the build-up
State your conclusion or recommendation first, then provide the supporting evidence.
The Minto Pyramid Principle
Related concerns
- When The Curse Of Knowledge Use Bridging Analogies
Map the new concept onto a structure the audience already understands.
Build a bridging analogy from what they know to what they don’t
- Colleague Making Up Excuses For Lack Of Knowledge
Probe prior knowledge explicitly rather than assuming it.
Ask what the audience already knows before explaining
- Explain To A Novice
Before the real audience, explain to someone who actually doesn’t know.
Find a genuine novice to test your explanation on
- How To Avoid Jargon
Go word by word through your explanation and mark every term a newcomer would not know.
Run a jargon audit on every key explanation
- When Mere Exposure Effect Choose Familiar Formats
Present genuinely new ideas inside structures your audience already recognizes — format familiarity lowers resistance to content novelty.
Package unfamiliar content in familiar formats
- When The Curse Of Knowledge Find The Novice Proxy
Before the real audience, explain to someone who actually doesn’t know.
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