What’s ELI5
Explain Like I'm 5 (ELI5) is self explanatory but might be more difficult than you think. It can be achieved by :
- Comparing technical concepts with simple daily life examples.
- Excluding unnecessary details to the overall understanding of a concept.
- Identifying the core content of a topic to put emphasis on it.
ELI5 explained with ELI5
“Making anything very easy to understand for everyone”.
Use it for yourself
I took interest in incorporating this method since I started publishing my personal notes. Other than giving a simple and understandable approach to anyone, I’m convinced it has multiple benefits for anyone writing about a topic.
The idea here is pretty similar to the way teachers prepare their courses. Most of them realize their understanding of a subject isn’t as clear as they thought the moment they try to explain it, especially if you have to vulgarize it. By fact checking your own understanding of a topic or rephrasing it, it forces you to think of it in different ways you might have not assessed yet. The best test remains having your content be interrogated by as many people as possible to give you different perspectives.
Doing so by vulgarizing as if anyone could understand a concept helps you grasp the core mechanisms and principles you’re explaining. And to do so, you must understand with certainty the underlying technical aspects. Otherwise, the moment someone asks a question to delve into more details, a blurry understanding will result in a blurry explanation.
Get people curious
ELI5 is not only an explanation tools, it is also a good introductory one. By using this method, it is more likely people will end up digging on the topic and gradually get more technical instead of facing a discouraging steep learning curve. If you think of it, most of the groundwork was done when you were around 5, as you were taught various that ended increasing in complexity with time. Nowadays, your brain now is engraved with knowledge from life experience but the principle remains the same for totally new concepts.
As someone really passionate about learning and sharing knowledge, this allowed to discuss many different topics (e.g : European laws on internet privacy, encryption etc…) with non-technical people. Hell, trying to explain something on the fly using ELI5 can even sometimes make you realize you’re not actually that comfortable with the topic and push you to get back to it.
Bridge the language barrier
Since this method involves using simple words and metaphors, lexical requirements are easier to satisfy, and interacting with someone over a common language doesn’t require each people to be highly fluent in the latter. I had the opportunity to apply this in Italy by speaking in English and it proved to be pretty effective, as-well as leading to diverse other conversations.
Final words (?)
While I’m not preaching this method as a perfect way of teaching nor learning, I think it’s a pretty interesting way of working. I intend to implement it in the future to see how this works out on the long term. As such, this note will inevitably be continued with a detailed feedback on the observed advantages and failures regarding ELI5.