You run thisWritten for ChatGPT or Claude
Understand something well enough to present it tomorrow
Founder, Automation Squad
Summaries make you feel informed and leave you unable to survive the first follow-up question, which is the only part of presenting that's actually hard. Sections 5 and 6 are the ones worth the prompt — knowing in advance which question will expose you, and which confident sentence will be wrong, is what separates prepared from rehearsed.
The prompt
I have to explain [THE THING] to [WHO — your board, your team, a client, your kid] on [WHEN]. I half understand it. Half is not enough to stand in front of people with. Don't give me a summary. Teach me to the point where I could handle a question I didn't prepare for. 1. THE ONE-SENTENCE VERSION. What this actually is, with no jargon and no analogy yet. 2. THE ANALOGY, and where it breaks. Every analogy is a loan against accuracy — tell me what I'm giving up by using it, so I don't get caught extending it too far. 3. WHY IT EXISTS. What was broken or missing before this. Nothing makes sense until I know what problem it was answering. 4. THE THREE QUESTIONS I'LL GET. Specifically from [WHO], given what they care about. Answer each in the words I'd actually say out loud, not in written prose. 5. THE QUESTION I CAN'T ANSWER. There'll be at least one. Tell me what it is and give me the honest response — the one that says what I don't know without making me look unprepared. 6. THE THING I'LL GET WRONG. Based on how people usually misunderstand this, what am I most likely to say confidently and incorrectly? Then test me: ask me to explain it back in three sentences, and correct what I get wrong. One more thing: use anything you already know about me from our past chats and anything you're connected to. If you can find it yourself, don't make me look it up.
Copy it, paste it, run it. Nothing here is gated.
More for the same job
Written for ChatGPT or Claude as of August 2026. Models change — if this stops working the way it should, that is worth telling us about.
