The more you know about something, the harder it gets to speak about that thing in simple terms, right?
Well, unless you’ve committed to the simple words habit.
The default way when you dig deeper into something is that you adopt the jargon and use domain language to efficiently communicate with other experts in that field (also, it makes you feel a bit proud to finally be able to say “I’m going to superimpose A major on that scale”, doesn’t it?). The terms you use get ever denser meaning. For you and your colleagues, everything feels super clear. For outsiders it becomes ever harder to understand what you mean.
But there’s a different way. As you dig deeper, rather than change your language, you can change your thinking. Rather than restrict yourself to the new language, you can force yourself to express new thoughts in your existing language.
The irony is that this usually leads to an even more profound understanding of your field. Because, let’s be honest: that clarity that we felt when we used the jargon … that’s often just on the surface, isn’t it?
So, the simple words habit actually does two things. It brings us way closer to our audience and it deepens our own understanding so that we can come up with more meaningful results.
What are you currently working on? Can you describe it using simple words?
