Familiarity helps explain stuff

One of the most difficult things about creative work is convincing other people that your idea is a good one.

We, too often, fall into the trap of assuming that everybody sees the breadth and depth of our “ingenious” idea exactly as we do. After all, we know our idea inside and out.

However, selling an abstract idea is difficult. Selling a novel solution you’ve come up with is even more difficult.

The solution is familiarity. Connect your solution to commonly known items, processes, and ideas to quickly explain (and generate a level of comfort about) your idea.

Find commonalities in books, history, technology, behavior, sports, etc… and explain your ideas and solutions that way to help bridge the gap from an abstract idea to something concrete in the mind of the person listening to your idea.