abstraction-ladder

good explanations move between ladders of abstraction:

• higher up -> principles or patterns
• lower -> concrete observations, models or relationships

a good abstraction is not only simplified, but should hide details while still revealing concrete details about the system.

we can think in terms of: a. observations b. patterns c. principles

when we start an explanation, it can be useful to introduce: a. a concrete example b. a pattern that raises out of it c. the principle that governs that patterns d. another examples, different edge case