How To Explain Ideas So People Want To Listen To You
Explain complex ideas by inducing curiosity and making analogies
The human mind is full of ideas. We generate tens of ideas every day. Most of them are absurd and impractical but a very tiny fraction of ideas are good and life-changing. Humans have evolved and maintained their dominance through great ideas.
Although generating great ideas is one part, spreading that idea to other people is completely different. You need to explain the ideas to others in the simplest possible way. If you can’t explain to others, you fail to make an impact. Therefore, everybody should learn how to convey ideas to others.
Here are some of the ways you can explain complex ideas to people:
1. Induce curiosity so people want to listen to you
If you can make people curious about your idea, then you have won the half battle. If people are curious about your idea, then they will listen to you keenly and ask questions. You can frame a question or an interesting finding to make people curious.
For example, to explain the concept of synthesized happiness, Dan Gilbert stated an interesting finding — “Two groups of people were selected. One group won the lottery and the other group became paraplegic. After a year, both groups were equally happy.” How is it possible? This finding instigated curiosity, and Dan was able to explain the concept of synthesized happiness.
I highly recommend watching this Ted Talk. You can learn a lot about how to explain complex ideas by breaking them into smaller chunks.
2. Use a metaphor to explain the complicated jargon
You should always know about your audience. Don’t assume that audience will be familiar with the complicated terms used in your study. It may be obvious to you, but not to others. Many people fall into this trap. Once the audience gets caught up in the jargon, they lose interest in the topic and find it boring.
One way to combat this issue is to give examples or use metaphors to explain the main chunks of the ideas. For example, Dan Gilbert used metaphors like flight simulator and psychological immune system to explain the concept of prefrontal cortex and cognitive processes, respectively.
3. Use real life examples
Once you are done explaining your idea, you have to make sure to finish it well. For that, you need to back up your idea with real-life examples. People only believe your idea only if they see it’s real or not.
For example, when Gilbert talked about his idea of synthesized happiness, people found it fascinated, but no one would have believed had not Gilbert showed them real-life examples. He gave the following examples to back up the idea of synthesized happiness:
(i) One prison inmate described his 37 years of jail as a wonderful time.
(ii) After getting rejected from the Beatles, Pete Best said, “I am happier than I would have been with the Beatles.”
Recap
Remember, these 3 key concepts while explaining complex ideas:
- Generate curiosity by using historical evidence or interesting finding
- Use metaphors to explain the complex ideas
- Provide real-life examples
