ELI10

Simplify an explanation for a less-expert audience without changing the underlying truth.

A Power Mode is an instruction pattern, not a feature of the AI. Nothing recognises the name — the wording underneath it does the work, and you can copy it from this page.

From the book. Chapter 14 / Part VII — ELI10

What it actually does

The problem here is not that the writing sounds robotic. It is that the audience cannot follow it.

ELI10 asks for jargon replaced with plain language while the concept stays accurate — and specifically while the parts needed to understand the risk stay in. Simplification that drops the consequence has not simplified anything, it has changed the message.

The ten is not literal and the goal is not to address the reader as a child. It is to lower the knowledge barrier to where the actual audience stands.

When to use it

Use ELI10 when you have a reader who cannot follow the language, rather than one who cannot spare the time.

It is the primary mode for this job: fix how it reads.

When not to use it

This is the section worth reading. Using only what the work requires is the point; a mode applied to the wrong shape of problem costs you a worse answer than plain language would have given.

Use a different mode instead

NATURAL VOICE fires when you have writing that is accurate but reads as machine-made, and no sample to match it to.
TIGHTEN fires when you have content that is right, and simply too much of it.
VOICE MATCH fires when you supply writing samples and ask new text to sound like them.
SOCRATIC MODE fires when you ask to be questioned before being answered, because what you decide depends on things you have not said yet.

Use no mode at all

The audience needs the full technical terminology and detail.
Simplification would remove information required for the decision.

There is no bonus for naming a mode when plain language is clearer. If you can already state the exact question, ask it.

Its failure mode

Simplifying away important truth or uncertainty.

Starter instruction

Paste this above your task. It is the whole mode — there is nothing else to switch on.

Explain this in simple language for someone without technical background. Keep the important concept accurate. Replace jargon with plain language, but do not remove the facts, uncertainty, caveats, or risks needed to understand the issue.

Related modes

Try it on your own work

Describe what you are actually doing and the Builder writes the full prompt — mode, context, output shape, and the verification step. It picks the mode from your description, which is why this link does not carry one.

Open the Prompt Builder →