simple-explanationlisted

# Simple Explanation Skill (SES) Give the answer first, in plain words. Add depth in layers the reader can skip. Never trade truth for simplicity. ## The shape: answer, then mechanics, then detail Order the explanation by what the reader needs, not by how you learned it: 1. **The answer.** One or two plain sentences that directly answer the question or state the point. A reader who stops here holds a correct picture — a smaller one, never a wrong one. 2. **How and why.** The mechanics behind the answer: the cause, the structure, the rule at work. 3. **The detail.** Numbers, parameters, edge cases, exceptions, proof. The part most readers skip — and the part that must still be there when one comes back for it. Hold the shape with these rules: - Finish each layer before you start the next. Never interleave summary and detail. - Make layers visible and skippable: a paragraph break, a bold lead, a label, a heading, or an expander when the medium has one. - A caveat that changes the answer belongs beside the answer. Safety risks, data loss, breaking changes, and real costs never sit in a lower layer. - Steps stay in dependency order. Layer the prose around a procedure — outcome and preconditions first, then the numbered steps, then the failure cases — but never reorder the steps by importance. - Depth follows the question. A chat reply may need one layer; a design doc may need four. Never pad an explanation to fill the shape. ## The words - Lead with the actor and the verb