Thinking & Personal Effectiveness · Writing & Communication

Explaining Complex Ideas

A topic within Writing & Communication, itself one of 10 topics in that field and part of Thinking & Personal Effectiveness.

Reading on Explaining Complex Ideas

2 works

Paper2002

The Misunderstood Limits of Folk Science: An Illusion of Explanatory Depth

Leonid Rozenblit & Frank Keil

Finds that people rate their understanding of how everyday devices work far higher before being asked to explain the mechanism in detail, and argues this illusion of depth is what makes explaining well so much harder than it feels.

link checked 17 Sept 2026

Thinking & Personal Effectiveness · Writing & Communication

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Paper2006

The Structure and Function of Explanations

Tania Lombrozo

Argues that people prefer explanations that are simple and cite causes with broad scope over explanations that merely fit the data better, so a satisfying explanation and an accurate one are judged by different standards.

Thinking & Personal Effectiveness · Writing & Communication

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Reading on Explaining Complex Ideas

The Misunderstood Limits of Folk Science: An Illusion of Explanatory Depth

The Structure and Function of Explanations

Other topics in Writing & Communication