How can you explain an idea better? How can you become a better teacher or public speaker and push through the blank stares and the absent nods? Well, Alan Alda might be able to help. Alda spent his career teaching scientists how to explain their ideas to the general public, and in a video for Big Think, he says that we should lean into the rule of three. First, make sure that you have no more than 3 important things to get across, because for each one after that, you risk pushing out the others. The second rule is for difficult or confusing ideas, because here you should try to explain each in three different ways. Try a different approach each time, once very simply, once using visual metaphors, and once in detail, for example. Different things for different people. And the third rule is the thing that you want remembered the most. What one thing do you want people to really take away? Well, you have to say it 3 times. Say it once early on, say it once in the middle, and say it once at the end. Alda is worth listening to because he goes beyond the classic and cliché tips. He doesn’t tell you to vary your pace, or to change your volume, or to start with a joke, because doing so will make your talk feel mechanical and so boring. Pace and gesture, and so on, should adapt to the room that you are in. So there you have it. You should explain 3 things, try to explain it 3 ways, and you should revise your most important point 3 times and always adapt what you have to say to the room that you are in. — @philosophyminis TikTok