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Simple Analogy Building

what is this like?

When something new won't sink in, borrow a thing you already understand. Electricity is hard to picture; water in pipes isn't. The trick is to match what the parts do, not what they look like, and then to say plainly where the match stops. That last line keeps the analogy from teaching you something false.

  • Easy to start
  • Medium impact
  • Learn it in 1 week
  • Ten minutes an analogy
a circuit, read as water
An analogy drawn as a bridge: water in pipes on the left, an electric circuit on the right, their parts paired by the job each one does Two small drawings: a loop of pipe with a pump and a narrow section, and a loop of wire with a battery and a resistor. Below them, four pairs joined by lines, each labelled with the job both parts do: the pump and the battery, does the pushing; pressure and voltage, how hard it pushes; flow of water and current, how much moves; a narrow pipe and a resistor, holds the flow back; A check that one relation holds on both sides: squeeze the pipe and less water flows; add resistance and less current flows. Last, where it breaks: cut a pipe and water pours out, but cut a wire and nothing spills; the current just stops. you know this water in pipes you're learning this an electric circuit paired by the job they do the pump the battery does the pushing pressure voltage how hard it pushes flow of water current how much moves a narrow pipe a resistor holds the flow back check one relation squeeze the pipe, less water flows add resistance, less current flows ✓ holds on both sides where it breaks cut the pipe: water pours out cut the wire: nothing spills, it just stops the match ends

Four parts, each matched on what it does. One relation tested on both sides, and one place it fails, said out loud.

The next thing that won't click

Try it now.

Pick something you're learning, or one you have to explain to someone else. A blank page split into two columns is all it takes.

  1. Name the new thing

    Write it at the top of the right-hand column, with the part that confuses you.

  2. Ask what works the same way

    Not what it looks like: what does the same kind of job. Something you know well, and your listener does too.

  3. Pair the parts by their job

    For each part of the new thing, find the part of the familiar thing that does that job. Write the job on the line between them.

    If you can't name the job, it's a look-alike, not a match.

  4. Test one relation

    Change something on the familiar side. Does the same change on the new side do the same thing?

  5. Say where it breaks

    Every analogy stops matching somewhere. Write that line too, before it misleads you.

Explaining it to someone? Give them the break as well as the match. "It's like water in pipes, except a cut wire doesn't leak" teaches more than the comparison alone.

Build one now

What is it like?

Something you're learning on one side, something you know on the other. Pair at least three parts, each with the job both of them do. The page flags any pair matched on looks, and it waits for the line saying where the analogy breaks.

The pairsA part of each, and the job they both do.

    Your analogy

    The new thing is like something you know.

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      Why ask the question

      Knowing the right story isn't enough. You have to ask.

      Mary Gick and Keith Holyoak gave people a puzzle. A doctor has to destroy a tumour with a ray. At full strength the ray kills the healthy tissue on its way in; any weaker, it does nothing to the tumour. The answer is to send several weak rays from different sides that meet at the tumour.

      Some people first read a story about a general who can't march his whole army down one road to a fortress, so he splits it up and the groups arrive together from every side. With that story and a nudge that it might help, about three in four found the answer. With no story, under one in ten did.

      The surprise was the middle group. They had read the story minutes earlier, but nobody pointed them to it, and only about three in ten found the answer. Most of them had the analogy and never thought to use it. Asking "what is this like?" gives you the nudge they didn't get.

      The honest limit: this is one puzzle, solved in a lab, and the figures are the researchers' own round summary of several experiments.

      • No story beforehand under 1 in 10 found the answer
      • Read the story, no hint about 3 in 10
      • Read the story, then told it might help about 3 in 4
      Who solved the tumour puzzle, by what they had before it. Gick & Holyoak (1983), summarising their 1980 experiments in round figures. The first bar is hatched because they report it only as "less than 10%".

      The idea

      Why it works.

      You already know how the familiar thing behaves: squeeze a hose and less comes out. A good analogy lends you all of that at once, so you can guess how the new thing behaves before you've studied it.

      The psychologist Dedre Gentner's account of analogy, called structure-mapping, puts it this way: a useful analogy carries over relations, what pushes what and what holds back what, and leaves the looks behind. That's why the pairs are matched on their job. A look-alike match feels clever but tells you nothing about how anything works.

      Keep it honest

      Habits that help.

      • Jobs, not looks. A heart looks nothing like a pump, and it is one.
      • Pick what your listener knows. An analogy to something they've never seen is two new things.
      • Always name the break. It's the line that stops the analogy teaching something false.
      • Swap it when you outgrow it. A first analogy gets you started; a better one comes once you know more.

      Go deeper

      Keep going.

      Keep this going in the app.

      HourLife turns these ideas into a daily system — goals, habits, focus, and reflection in one private place.

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