Recognizing New Ideas

A little over a year ago I watched this ancient youtube video about teaching science. In the video the author explains about his PhD research on the fact that when you teach new things, explaining them clearly is probably valuable. But if you are teaching a topic that is not new to the person, you better be teaching them the same thing they already know. Otherwise, they will take all that clear explanation, tune out, and hear exactly what they thought was true before listening to you.

A lot of what I write about is problem solving. Something where people definitely already have exposure and ideas about how it does / can / should work. Now, my audience who signed up to read this blog might be a bit different than an average student taking a class. But I think some of the lessons hold. In fact, I think I have a presentation style where I intuitively take my listener through a journey of confusion ending in the clarity I am trying to share with them.

Over the past couple of weeks I have been assessing if I should change my style. Setting out to confuse your audience on purpose seems like a great way to “make enemies and alienate people.” It works fine if people hang in with you until they get to the clarity at the end, but maybe I should just say the thing I’m trying to say directly? I can save everyone a lot of time if I just state my point, state the implications, and move on.

And here we are, 250+ words into an article about why it does not work to just say things plainly, and I have stuck with my style. I pulled together some references and examples, talked about my challenges trying to understand the situation, but not my conclusions. This whole article could maybe have just been a couple sentences:

To effectively have someone see something in a new way, you have to first get them to recognize the way they currently see it. Then you have to confuse or surprise them to help them see that what you are saying is not what they already believe.

But if I just wrote that, would anyone reading have changed their view of the world? For one, you would have to believe me. I could maybe add a couple sentences about my authority to speak on the topic… But even if I did that, best case scenario is probably just nodding along without much understanding of how it impacts YOU. It is the contrast between what I thought before and what I now think that really helps (me at least) see where this new knowledge would apply.

And herein is the key reason I gravitate to problem solving scenarios my readers will have experience with. All of us have solved problems and gotten answers. Most people though do not really break down the steps they took from problem to answer. You could though! If I set the scene and provide a relatable situation where you have solved that problem, and highlight what went wrong, it might resonate. If I offer an elixir to fix that very mistake, it’s intriguing. If you came along with me on the journey through the confusion and into clarity, maybe it will even stick.

I encourage you to watch the video and share your thoughts. If a tree falls in the forest and spells out the answer to everything where no one is looking, did it change anything?