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Explaining Technical Concepts Simply
A key skill for senior developers and team leads is the ability to explain complex technical topics to non-technical stakeholders (like managers, clients, or designers). This requires empathy and the use of analogy.
**The Feynman Technique:**
1. Choose a concept you want to understand.
2. Pretend you are teaching it to a student in grade 6.
3. Identify gaps in your explanation. Go back to the source material to understand it better.
4. Simplify and use analogies.
**Example: Explaining an API**
* **Too Technical:** "We're using a RESTful API that returns JSON objects over HTTP."
* **A Better Analogy:** "Think of an API like a waiter in a restaurant. Your application (the customer) tells the waiter (the API) what it wants. The waiter goes to the kitchen (the server), gets the food (the data), and brings it back to you. You don't need to know how the kitchen works, you just need to know how to ask the waiter."
Practicing this skill will make you a more effective communicator and a more valuable team member.
**The Feynman Technique:**
1. Choose a concept you want to understand.
2. Pretend you are teaching it to a student in grade 6.
3. Identify gaps in your explanation. Go back to the source material to understand it better.
4. Simplify and use analogies.
**Example: Explaining an API**
* **Too Technical:** "We're using a RESTful API that returns JSON objects over HTTP."
* **A Better Analogy:** "Think of an API like a waiter in a restaurant. Your application (the customer) tells the waiter (the API) what it wants. The waiter goes to the kitchen (the server), gets the food (the data), and brings it back to you. You don't need to know how the kitchen works, you just need to know how to ask the waiter."
Practicing this skill will make you a more effective communicator and a more valuable team member.