Prompts · Learning

Explain it at the level I'm actually at

Not the textbook version. The one that starts from what you already know.

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Explain how a mortgage interest rate is actually set to me.

Where I'm starting from: I know rates go up and down with the Bank of England, and I know fixed and variable are different. I don't understand why my bank's fix went up months before the Bank did anything.
Why I need it: my fix ends in June and I have to choose what to do next

How to explain it:
- Begin with the one idea I have to get before anything else makes sense. Spend the most time there.
- Build from what I already know. Don't restart from the beginning of the subject.
- Use one comparison and stay with it. Don't switch to a different metaphor halfway through.
- Then tell me where that comparison breaks down, because that's usually where I'd go wrong later.
- Any jargon you use, define it in the same sentence you first use it.

Under a page. If it won't fit, tell me what you left out rather than compressing everything into fog.

Finish with two questions that would show whether I've actually understood it. Don't answer them.

Open in ChatGPT Open in Claude

What you get: A short explanation built on one comparison, plus where that comparison stops being true.

One comparison, and where it breaks

Left alone, a model explains something with an analogy, drops it, picks up a second one two paragraphs later, and you end up holding two half-pictures that don't fit together. Asking it to commit to one and stay there is most of the improvement.

Asking where the comparison breaks down is the other half. Every analogy is wrong somewhere, and that's the spot where you'll confidently make a mistake in six months.

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