Finally understand the thing you nod along to.
Pick something that keeps coming up in meetings, articles, or conversations that you couldn’t confidently explain to someone else. Use AI to work through it at your own pace.
Try it now
Copy the prompt into your AI tool of choice, then answer its questions as they come.
Paste it into any AI chat to start. For most people, this is all you need.
Everything on this page in one paste: the prompt plus the full plan, every step and what to check. Use it for longer moves, to plan ahead, to share with a colleague, or if your AI can't open links.
How it goes
What the AI will do
- Explain a topic through concrete examples from your work or life, a little at a time.
- Check reliable sources when the subject needs research and distinguish established knowledge from unresolved questions.
- Assess your explanation and attempts at new examples, then reteach the parts that remain unclear.
What to have ready
- A topic you keep encountering but cannot confidently explain, and where it comes up in your work or life.
Where you come in
- Point out exactly where an explanation loses you and answer one question at a time.
- Explain the idea in your own words without looking back, then try new examples yourself. Work through gaps and try again with the AI’s help.
What you'll get
The aim is to explain the basic idea in your own words and apply it to a new example; the AI will keep teaching and checking until you can, or make a remaining blocker explicit.
You're done when
You can explain the basic idea in your own words and use it to make sense of a new example.
These are general instructions, not a description of this user's particular AI system, tools, access, or circumstances. Adapt the method to the user's goal and the capabilities you can actually use, while preserving the activity's essential sequence, review points, and intended result. ### Start with the activity and the user's context Read the complete activity and guide the user through it. Use the activity prompt yourself; the user does not need to paste it again. Keep the responsibilities of the user, the AI, and any colleague clear. Begin with what the user has already supplied. Establish the intended result and resolve missing context through focused questions when needed. Work within the activity's stated scope, permissions, required confirmations, and stopping points, including any deliberate order for introducing information. Make progress with the available information and reasonable, clearly identified assumptions where the activity allows them. ### Check the capabilities needed for this work Inspect relevant available tools, connectors, and data. Use small, relevant, non-destructive checks to establish whether necessary access or a capability actually works. Naming a product does not establish access to it. Let this activity determine what needs checking; do not impose a universal preliminary questionnaire or a full system audit. When useful access is missing: - Explain what you cannot reach and how that material would help. - Investigate practical setup, connection, export, or other access alternatives before asking the user to gather material or troubleshoot. - If progress depends on access, request only the specific user action or permission needed to enable it or provide the material another way. Continue useful independent work while awaiting the response. - Offer to walk the user through an export or upload. Welcome files, links, copied text, rough notes, or an interview as supported by your system and the activity, and use the best available route. If the missing access is optional, continue with what is available. ### Ask focused questions and respect the answers Ask questions only when necessary to complete the work well or satisfy the activity's required review points. Build on answers already supplied. Ask one question at a time, or a small group of closely related questions. Wait on work that depends on the answer, and continue useful work that does not. Explain unfamiliar language with examples where helpful. Confirm answers or decisions you supply on the user's behalf before treating them as the user's final answers or decisions. This does not require separate approval of every sourced finding; follow the activity's specific review requirements. ### Keep evidence and independent contributions distinct Distinguish evidence, inference, and missing information. Check your work against the source material. Use independent agents when your system actually supports delegation and independent investigation or review would improve the work: - Give each agent a bounded brief and the context appropriate to its role. - Keep discovery independent until synthesis where the activity requires it. Preserve any requirement for the user or colleagues to contribute before seeing other explanations. - Follow the activity's stated fallback and any required confirmation when independent agents or fresh contexts are unavailable. Preserve reviewer isolation where required; describe shared-context or sequential passes accurately. ### Produce, check, and revise the result Do the substantive investigation and production. Carry the activity through to the most complete, usable result within its scope, rather than ending with a plan or handing the main work back to the user. When missing information does not prevent useful work, proceed with clearly identified assumptions where the activity permits them. Check the result against the activity's completion criteria. At each substantive delivery, state what is complete and any material unfinished work, assumptions, helpful missing information, and remaining uncertainty. Explain how these affect what the user can use, and help the user revise the result. Preserve the activity's stopping point. Do not turn a rehearsal, investigation, or test-design activity into execution that the user has not authorized. Help me understand [TOPIC]. I’m a bright person without a background in this subject, and I want to be able to follow a conversation about it and ask useful questions. ### 1. Establish the topic and context Use the topic and work or life context I have already supplied. If [TOPIC] is unfilled or unclear, establish it first. Ask where it comes up in my work or life only if that context is missing, and wait for my answer before teaching. ### 2. Check what needs research Once the topic and context are clear, decide whether a useful explanation needs research because the topic is specialized, changing, or disputed. Briefly explain your judgment. If research is needed, look up reliable sources before teaching me, favoring original research and authoritative documentation. Check that the sources support the explanation and are current enough for my question. Distinguish established knowledge from unresolved questions or competing views, and include a few links I can explore. If you cannot browse, say so and make clear which parts you cannot verify. Keep the research summary brief so we can get to the explanation. ### 3. Build the explanation together Then give me a short explanation using a concrete example from that context. Explain any specialist terms as you introduce them. Build the explanation a little at a time, asking one question at a time and waiting for my response. ### 4. Use teach-back and new examples to check understanding Once we’ve worked through the basics, ask me to explain the idea back to you in my own words. Tell me specifically what I’ve understood and what I’ve missed. Help me work through the gaps, then give me a different example to see whether I can apply what I’ve learned. Wait for my own answer to the new example; do not answer it for me. - Assess my reasoning and tell me specifically what I applied correctly and where a gap remains. - If I am wrong or stuck, explain that part with a focused example, then give me another new example and wait for another attempt. - Revisit my explanation of the basic idea if that is where the gap lies. Continue this teach-back and application loop until I can explain the basic idea in my own words and use it to make sense of a new example. Ask me to explain it without looking back at the chat. Do not count an answer you supplied as evidence that I understand. If a real blocker prevents us from reaching that point, say what remains unresolved and why; do not claim I have completed the activity. These instructions were written in September 2026 using the frontier models available at the time. You may now have better tools or models, or restrictions that make some tasks harder. Your AI should adapt to the tools and access you actually have and find the best available way to help. Everything here is a starting suggestion for you and your AI, not a proven best practice for every setup. Feel free to rewrite any of it to better meet your needs.
View full AI instructions
Finally understand the thing you nod along to.
What the AI will do
- Explain a topic through concrete examples from your work or life, a little at a time.
- Check reliable sources when the subject needs research and distinguish established knowledge from unresolved questions.
- Assess your explanation and attempts at new examples, then reteach the parts that remain unclear.
What you can provide
- A topic you keep encountering but cannot confidently explain, and where it comes up in your work or life.
Where you'll take part
- Point out exactly where an explanation loses you and answer one question at a time.
- Explain the idea in your own words without looking back, then try new examples yourself. Work through gaps and try again with the AI’s help.
What you'll get
The aim is to explain the basic idea in your own words and apply it to a new example; the AI will keep teaching and checking until you can, or make a remaining blocker explicit.
Activity context
Pick something that keeps coming up in meetings, articles, or conversations that you couldn’t confidently explain to someone else. Use AI to work through it at your own pace.
For the user
Open a new conversation in your usual AI chat. Copy the prompt below, replace [TOPIC] with the thing you want to understand, and send it.
The AI will ask questions and build the explanation with you. When something doesn’t make sense, point to the exact part: “You lost me at…” or “Why does that follow?” Stay with it until the explanation makes sense to you. You’ll explain the idea in your own words without looking back at the chat, then try a new example. If you get stuck, the AI will help you work through that part and give you another attempt.
Guidance for the AI
These are general instructions, not a description of this user's particular AI system, tools, access, or circumstances. Adapt the method to the user's goal and the capabilities you can actually use, while preserving the activity's essential sequence, review points, and intended result.
Start with the activity and the user's context
Read the complete activity and guide the user through it. Use the activity prompt yourself; the user does not need to paste it again. Keep the responsibilities of the user, the AI, and any colleague clear.
Begin with what the user has already supplied. Establish the intended result and resolve missing context through focused questions when needed. Work within the activity's stated scope, permissions, required confirmations, and stopping points, including any deliberate order for introducing information. Make progress with the available information and reasonable, clearly identified assumptions where the activity allows them.
Check the capabilities needed for this work
Inspect relevant available tools, connectors, and data. Use small, relevant, non-destructive checks to establish whether necessary access or a capability actually works. Naming a product does not establish access to it. Let this activity determine what needs checking; do not impose a universal preliminary questionnaire or a full system audit.
When useful access is missing:
- Explain what you cannot reach and how that material would help.
- Investigate practical setup, connection, export, or other access alternatives before asking the user to gather material or troubleshoot.
- If progress depends on access, request only the specific user action or permission needed to enable it or provide the material another way. Continue useful independent work while awaiting the response.
- Offer to walk the user through an export or upload. Welcome files, links, copied text, rough notes, or an interview as supported by your system and the activity, and use the best available route. If the missing access is optional, continue with what is available.
Ask focused questions and respect the answers
Ask questions only when necessary to complete the work well or satisfy the activity's required review points. Build on answers already supplied. Ask one question at a time, or a small group of closely related questions. Wait on work that depends on the answer, and continue useful work that does not. Explain unfamiliar language with examples where helpful.
Confirm answers or decisions you supply on the user's behalf before treating them as the user's final answers or decisions. This does not require separate approval of every sourced finding; follow the activity's specific review requirements.
Keep evidence and independent contributions distinct
Distinguish evidence, inference, and missing information. Check your work against the source material.
Use independent agents when your system actually supports delegation and independent investigation or review would improve the work:
- Give each agent a bounded brief and the context appropriate to its role.
- Keep discovery independent until synthesis where the activity requires it. Preserve any requirement for the user or colleagues to contribute before seeing other explanations.
- Follow the activity's stated fallback and any required confirmation when independent agents or fresh contexts are unavailable. Preserve reviewer isolation where required; describe shared-context or sequential passes accurately.
Produce, check, and revise the result
Do the substantive investigation and production. Carry the activity through to the most complete, usable result within its scope, rather than ending with a plan or handing the main work back to the user. When missing information does not prevent useful work, proceed with clearly identified assumptions where the activity permits them.
Check the result against the activity's completion criteria. At each substantive delivery, state what is complete and any material unfinished work, assumptions, helpful missing information, and remaining uncertainty. Explain how these affect what the user can use, and help the user revise the result.
Preserve the activity's stopping point. Do not turn a rehearsal, investigation, or test-design activity into execution that the user has not authorized.
Your AI prompt
Help me understand [TOPIC]. I’m a bright person without a background in this subject, and I want to be able to follow a conversation about it and ask useful questions.
1. Establish the topic and context
Use the topic and work or life context I have already supplied. If [TOPIC] is unfilled or unclear, establish it first. Ask where it comes up in my work or life only if that context is missing, and wait for my answer before teaching.
2. Check what needs research
Once the topic and context are clear, decide whether a useful explanation needs research because the topic is specialized, changing, or disputed. Briefly explain your judgment. If research is needed, look up reliable sources before teaching me, favoring original research and authoritative documentation. Check that the sources support the explanation and are current enough for my question. Distinguish established knowledge from unresolved questions or competing views, and include a few links I can explore. If you cannot browse, say so and make clear which parts you cannot verify. Keep the research summary brief so we can get to the explanation.
3. Build the explanation together
Then give me a short explanation using a concrete example from that context. Explain any specialist terms as you introduce them. Build the explanation a little at a time, asking one question at a time and waiting for my response.
4. Use teach-back and new examples to check understanding
Once we’ve worked through the basics, ask me to explain the idea back to you in my own words. Tell me specifically what I’ve understood and what I’ve missed. Help me work through the gaps, then give me a different example to see whether I can apply what I’ve learned.
Wait for my own answer to the new example; do not answer it for me.
-
Assess my reasoning and tell me specifically what I applied correctly and where a gap remains.
-
If I am wrong or stuck, explain that part with a focused example, then give me another new example and wait for another attempt.
-
Revisit my explanation of the basic idea if that is where the gap lies.
Continue this teach-back and application loop until I can explain the basic idea in my own words and use it to make sense of a new example.
Ask me to explain it without looking back at the chat. Do not count an answer you supplied as evidence that I understand.
If a real blocker prevents us from reaching that point, say what remains unresolved and why; do not claim I have completed the activity.
Done when
You can explain the basic idea in your own words and use it to make sense of a new example.
These instructions were written in September 2026 using the frontier models available at the time. You may now have better tools or models, or restrictions that make some tasks harder. Your AI should adapt to the tools and access you actually have and find the best available way to help. Everything here is a starting suggestion for you and your AI, not a proven best practice for every setup. Feel free to rewrite any of it to better meet your needs.
These instructions were written in September 2026 using the frontier models available at the time. You may now have better tools or models, or restrictions that make some tasks harder. Your AI should adapt to the tools and access you actually have and find the best available way to help. Everything here is a starting suggestion for you and your AI, not a proven best practice for every setup. Feel free to rewrite any of it to better meet your needs.