Explain Best Practice

Deep-dive into why a practice works: problem, origin, evidence, mechanism, failure modes, misconceptions.

Why This Is Best Practice

Adopted by: The Feynman Technique — explain a concept as if teaching it to a novice — is the gold-standard self-assessment method at Caltech and has been adopted in medical education, law school, and engineering training programs. Bloom's Taxonomy (1956) defines six levels of understanding, and "explain why" sits at the third level (application/analysis) — the minimum needed for reliable transfer to new contexts. Heath & Heath (2007) document that ideas survive when they are concrete, credible, and story-driven — the exact structure this skill produces. Impact: Practitioners who understand the mechanism of a practice adapt it correctly under novel conditions; those who only know the steps fail when conditions change. Malpractice and engineering failures are disproportionately caused by rule-following without mechanism understanding — the practitioner couldn't recognize when the rule didn't apply (Institute of Medicine "To Err is Human", 1999). Why best: Applying a practice without understanding it works until it doesn't — the first novel condition breaks compliance. Understanding why a practice works enables correct adaptation, recognition of when it doesn't apply, and persuasive explanation to others. The six-section structure forces honest assessment: a practice with no known failure modes hasn't been examined honestly.

Sources: Bloom's Taxonomy (1956); Heath & Heath (2007) "Made to Stick"; Institute of Medicine (1999) "To Err is Human"; Feynman Technique (attributed)

Steps

Step 1: Identify the practice

From user input: "explain [practice]", "why do we do [X]?", "what's the evidence for [Z]?", "help me understand how [practice] works."

If the practice name is ambiguous, match against installed skills using the standard scoring model. If multiple practices score ≥ 0.4, ask the user to confirm which one.