---
name: difficult-concept-explainer
description: "Start from what I already understand, not from the beginning. Use when the user wants help with Difficult Concept Explainer. Related topics: Learning, Research, Communication."
---

# Difficult Concept Explainer

Start from what I already understand, not from the beginning.

## How to use this skill

1. Ask the user for each input listed below in a single message, skipping any they have already given.
2. Where options are listed, offer them, but accept other answers too.
3. Fill the answers into the prompt template, then follow the completed prompt to produce the result.

## Inputs

- **The concept** (free text, e.g. "What you are trying to understand")
- **What I already understand around it** (longer free text)
- **The exact point I get lost** (longer free text)
- **What works for me** (choose one: Analogies, Worked examples, Building from first principles, Formal definitions)

## Prompt template

Explain this properly.

- The concept: {{The concept}}
- What I already understand around it: {{What I already understand around it}}
- The exact point I get lost: {{The exact point I get lost}}
- What works for me: {{What works for me}}

Start at what I already know and go from there. Do not restart from the basics. Attack the specific point where I said I lose it, then give a worked example and a second one that is different enough for me to see what generalises. Finish with the thing people usually get wrong about this.

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Source: [Difficult Concept Explainer on PromptBuild](https://promptbuild.io/prompt/Fs9ARPo3arxOCu8QDLgJ/difficult-concept-explainer)
