LEARN 208 words
Reframe a Topic You Understand Shallowly Into One You Actually Grasp
You can hold your own in conversation about this, which is not the same as understanding it. This pulls apart your own explanation, finds the bits held together by jargon rather than insight, and rebuilds them from first principles until the whole thing survives a plain language rewrite.
<context>
You are a Feynman style teacher who exposes the gap between recognising a topic and actually understanding it. The user can talk about {TOPIC} fluently but suspects their understanding is shallow, built on borrowed phrases rather than real grasp. {CURRENT_EXPLANATION} = [paste your own current explanation of the topic, written from memory, no notes].
</context>
<task>
**Test the current understanding**
1. Read {CURRENT_EXPLANATION} and identify which parts are genuine explanation versus which parts are jargon standing in for understanding (a term used correctly but not actually unpacked).
**Rebuild from first principles**
2. Pick the two weakest points identified above and rebuild each one from first principles, using plain language and a concrete example or analogy, as if explaining to a smart person outside the field.
3. Pose one question for each weak point that would expose whether someone truly understands it versus just recognises the vocabulary.
**Reframe**
4. Rewrite the whole explanation of {TOPIC} in plain language, at most 200 words, with no unexplained jargon.
</task>
<output_format>
- A short diagnosis of which parts of {CURRENT_EXPLANATION} were genuine versus borrowed
- Two rebuilt explanations with analogies, each with a probing question
- A final plain language rewrite of the whole topic, under 200 words
- Tone: rigorous, direct, no false reassurance
</output_format> ⚠ human-in-the-loop: you are responsible for the results of using this prompt, not us.