A good explanation is an art form, if a slightly mysterious one.
一个好的解释是一种艺术形式，如果这是一种略带神秘的艺术形式。
We can all recognize a great explanation, yet picking apart the intricacies of how it is done remains elusive. I don’t pretend to have all the answers, but I’ll try and come at the topic from a few angles and see if we can’t sniff out some of the key ingredients.
我们都可以认识到一个很好的解释，但要拆开如何完成的复杂性仍然难以捉摸。 我不会假装拥有所有的答案，但我会尝试从几个角度来讨论这个话题，看看我们是否可以嗅出一些关键成分。
If I’ve made you think of the kitchen already, we’re on the right track; often a good explanation will translate the language of something mystifying into day-to-day parlance, like thinking of a well-made explanation as a simple recipe to follow. But sometimes, with the best intentions, we lose our would-be chefs along the way; what on earth is “parlance”? And why can’t I find it next to the knives, chopping boards and mixing bowls? Jargon tends to slip into our explanations, especially if we want to appear clever. The wrong ingredient can completely derail a dish or crash an explanation.
如果我已经让你想到了厨房，我们正走上了正确的道路；通常，一个好的解释会把一些神秘的东西的语言翻译成日常的用语，比如把一个制作精良的解释想象成一个简单的食谱。 但有时，出于最好的意图，我们一路上失去了我们成为厨师的人；到底什么是“说法”？ 为什么我在刀子、砧板和搅拌碗旁边找不到它？ 行话往往会滑入我们的解释中，特别是如果我们想显得聪明。 错误的成分可能会完全破坏一道菜或破坏解释。
On top of that, as anyone who has tried to explain something to a child will know, there is a limited time window to hold and keep someone’s attention, especially in our over-stimulated world. Increasingly, it also seems we have less and less spare time to listen.
除此之外，任何试图向孩子解释过事情的人都会知道，吸引和保持某人注意力的时间有限，特别是在我们过度刺激的世界里。 越来越，我们倾听的空闲时间似乎也越来越少了。
Even more troublingly, what if you don’t know enough about what it is you’re trying to explain? What if you scrabble around, making things up and muddying the soup?
更令人不安的是，如果你对你想解释的是什么不够了解呢？ 如果你四处乱跑，编造东西，把汤弄得浑浊呢？
Leaving the cooking metaphors to the side for the time being, good explanations do not have to be perplexing. Any time we set out to deliver a good explanation, we should have one goal in mind. As Chris Anderson, curator of TED puts it, “Your number-one mission as a speaker is to take something that matters deeply to you and to rebuild it inside the minds of your listeners.”
暂时把烹饪比喻放在一边，好的解释不必令人困惑。 每当我们开始提供一个好的解释时，我们都应该牢记一个目标。 正如TED的策展人Chris Anderson所说，“作为演讲者，你的首要任务是把一些对你很重要的东西，并在听众的脑海中重建。”
We have another, related metaphor: construction. Structures are built with a plan, on top of firm foundations, and a solid explanation should do the same thing.
我们还有另一个相关的隐喻：建设。 结构是按照计划建造的，建立在坚实的基础之上，一个坚实的解释应该做同样的事情。
This is well recognised by great thinkers, and the phrase, “Standing on the shoulders of giants” has been knocking around for centuries. In one of its most quoted forms, it is attributed to Sir Isaac Newton, and has even found its way on to the rim of the British £2 coin. He preceded it with, “If I have seen further”; it is only through the help of others and with a solid base that we are able to see, understand and learn.
这被伟大的思想家们所认可，几个世纪以来，“站在巨人的肩膀上”这句话一直在敲响。 在被引用最多的形式之一中，它归因于艾萨克·牛顿爵士，甚至找到了英国2英镑硬币的边缘。 他在前面说：“如果我看得更远的话”；只有通过他人的帮助和坚实的基础，我们才能看到、理解和学习。
Back to explanations. A good explainer seems a natural, they are confident and sure of what they are saying. This cuts to the heart of the mystery; where does this confidence come from?
回到解释。 一个好的解释者似乎是天生的，他们对自己所说的内容充满信心和肯定。 这切入了谜团的核心；这种信心从何而来？
But the confidence is only one part of the whole; good explainers use a number of strategies to communicate their message. They present with confidence, yes, but they also interact. We are inherently social creatures and when it feels like we are involved in constructing the explanation it will be that much more effective. Additionally, good explainers use concrete, simple-to-grasp examples to make it illustrate the idea at hand and make it relevant to their audience.
但信心只是整体的一部分；好的解释者使用许多策略来传达他们的信息。 是的，他们自信地呈现，但他们也互动。 我们本质上是社会生物，当感觉我们参与构建解释时，会更有效。 此外，优秀的解释者使用具体、易于理解的例子来说明手头的想法，并使其与受众相关。
I found myself, one humid lesson after lunch, trying to convince a group of tired students to a short story about an encounter with a lion on the plains of the savannah. We were practising using short sentences to up the pace of the piece (no comments on my own occasionally rambling sentence length, please) and I was building, or rebuilding if you will, my own passion for a punchy action scene. But first we had to get some building blocks for the meat of the story. We looked up facts about lions. One stood out. An adult male lion’s roar can be heard from 5.5 miles away. That sounded impressive to me, but I could see from the drooping eyelids and pens of the class that I would have to sell this fact more convincingly.
我發現自己，午餐後上了一堂潮溼的課，試圖說服一群疲憊的學生寫一個關於在大草原平原上遇到獅子的短篇故事。 我们正在练习使用短句来加快作品的节奏（请不要评论我自己偶尔漫无边际的句子长度），我正在建立，或者如果你愿意的话，重建我自己对有力的动作场景的热情。 但首先，我们必须为故事的实质获得一些基石。 我们查了关于狮子的事实。 一个脱颖而出。 在5.5英里外就能听到成年雄狮的咆哮声。 这对我来说听起来令人印象深刻，但我可以从班上下垂的眼皮和笔中看出，我必须更令人信服地推销这一事实。
Internet to the rescue again, I checked the distance to Confucius Temple. It was 7 miles, but desperate times called for desperate measures, so I told the students to imagine being stood on the playground and hearing, somewhere in the distance, the woofing thump of the 250kg king of the jungle. Then I made them visualise (auralise?) that noise coming from almost as far away as Confucius Temple.
互联网再次救援，我查看了到孔庙的距离。 那是7英里，但绝望的时刻需要采取绝望的措施，所以我告诉学生们想象一下，站在操场上，在远处的某个地方，听到250公斤重的丛林之王的砰砰声。 然后我让他们可视化（听觉？） 那噪音几乎来自离孔子庙很远的地方。
It certainly helped. Discussions started about how far that was, how loud the lion must be, how impressive it was and even whether they still felt safe or not. We discussed the ear-splitting effect of hearing it close up. Playing a live recording of a lion’s roar sealed the deal. Students were off and writing!
它肯定有帮助。 开始讨论那有多远，狮子一定有多吵，它有多令人印象深刻，甚至他们是否仍然感到安全。 我们讨论了近距离听到它的震耳光的影响。 播放狮子咆哮的现场录音敲定了交易。 学生们在写作！
While this was by no means the perfect explanation, it helped to make real something abstract.
虽然这绝不是完美的解释，但它有助于使真实的东西变得抽象。
It gave my audience an ‘in’ and put it in to their day-to-day experience. They were then able to build the knowledge with me, and act on my explanation with tangible results (and some great short stories of coming face-to-face with big cats!). Or perhaps they were just taking pity on me sweating at the front of the room, attempting to drum up some engagement on a steamy June afternoon.
它給了我的聽眾一個「進入」，並把它投入到他們的日常體驗中。 然后，他们能够和我一起积累知识，并根据我的解释采取行动，取得切实的成果（以及一些与大猫面对面的精彩短篇故事！）。 或者也许他们只是可怜我在房间前面汗流浃背，试图在一个闷热的六月下午鼓起一些订婚。
At any rate, I hope we’ve sussed out some key elements of good explanations. Knowing what it is you’re explaining well enough to break it down, having credibility and authority, being clear and concise and giving examples are part of it. Translating the explanation into something your audience can grasp through metaphor helps. Storytelling, an art as old as humanity itself, sells the explanation on an emotional level. And failing all that, grabbing attention with a lion’s roar is sure at least to be memorable!
无论如何，我希望我们已经提出了一些良好解释的关键要素。 知道你在解釋什麼，足以分解它，具有可信度和權威性，清晰簡潔，並舉例說明是其中的一部分。 将解释转化为受众可以通过隐喻掌握的东西是有帮助的。 讲故事是一门与人类本身一样古老的艺术，在情感层面上推销解释。 如果做不到这一切，用狮子的咆哮来吸引注意力至少肯定会令人难忘！