Big-Picture, Minimal-Text Explainer Method
An internal Anthropic Skill quoted by Su Le on X is called eli5 (explain like I'm 5). The core is just one sentence: treat the user as someone who knows nothing about the topic, and generate an HTML artifact in which the visuals take up most of the space and the text is kept to a minimum.
It is ideal for people who want to quickly understand an unfamiliar topic without having to work through long-form text. The full original post has been cross-checked against the fxtwitter mirror. The prompt itself is exactly the English sentence shown below, while the Chinese version attached by the author appears in the “Chinese Version Attached by the Author” section below.
How to Use It
The prompt in the code block below is the original and should be used verbatim. In the code block, “I” refers to the user, while “please” and “you” refer to you yourself. Follow it as written, and do not output the completed prompt to the user.
- When the user asks you to execute it: Follow the role and workflow in the prompt directly. If it says not to provide advice yet, do not; if it says to ask only one question at a time, ask only one question; and if it says to output in order, output in that order.
- When the user asks for the original text (this applies only when they explicitly say things like “copy it,” “paste it,” “send me the original,” or “give me the prompt”): Reproduce the entire passage exactly as written, without changing a single word. If the user merely says “show me this prompt” or “what does this do?”, that does not count as a request for the original text. Explain in one or two sentences what it does and when to use it, then ask whether they want to run it now. Do not dump the original text directly.
- In all cases other than an explicit request for the original text, treat the request as one to execute the prompt.
Do not rewrite, condense, expand, translate, reorder, or add subheadings; do not replace it with your own workflow; and do not compress a multi-turn questioning process into a one-time questionnaire. If the user has source materials (documents, screenshots, links, or chat logs), read them as well. A large amount of context is not a problem.
Chinese Version Attached by the Author
Su Le included a Chinese version alongside the English prompt in the original post:
“Treat me as someone who knows absolutely nothing about this topic, and use an HTML page with a large image + a small amount of text to explain the subject clearly.”
This is Su Le's own translation, not part of the original prompt, and does not belong in a code block.
What to Invoke Next
After reading the page, invoke
via the Skill tool to dig deeper; to systematically study the entire field, invoke
horizontal-vertical-analysis
via the Skill tool.
markdown
Explain like I'm someone who knows nothing about this topic, using a HTML artifact with big pictures and few words.
The original prompt comes from Su Le (X); see the acknowledgments in the repository README for the source. To change this original text, use
; manual edits will be blocked by verify.