10 KiB
name, description
| name | description |
|---|---|
| research-and-teach | Research any topic deeply and explain it progressively, building understanding layer by layer |
/research-and-teach
Research any topic deeply and teach it progressively, building understanding from simple truths to complex nuances. This command combines research, learning validation, and structured explanation.
Execution Protocol
When this command is invoked, follow these phases systematically:
Phase 1: Scope
Clarify the target: If the user's request is vague, ask what specifically they want to understand and who needs the explanation (themselves, a colleague, a general audience). Different audiences require different entry points.
Apply decompose: Use Skill("analysis-decompose") to break the topic into learnable components. Identify which pieces are foundational versus which build on prior understanding.
Apply knowledge-check: Use Skill("metacognitive-knowledge-check") to assess what you currently understand versus what requires research. Be explicit about gaps.
Apply wonder: Use Skill("exploration-wonder") to generate curiosity questions about the topic. These questions often reveal the most interesting angles for explanation.
Phase 2: Research
Search strategically: Use perplexity to gather current information on the topic. Prioritize authoritative sources and multiple perspectives.
Fetch specific sources: When promising sources emerge, use WebFetch to read them in detail. Look for explanations that work, not just information dumps.
Validate understanding: After gathering information, use Skill("techniques-feynman") to explain the topic simply. If you struggle, you've found gaps in your research. Fill those gaps before proceeding.
Gather perspectives: Use Skill("analysis-alternatives") to collect different ways of explaining or understanding the same concept. Different framings resonate with different learners.
Verify claims: Use Skill("analysis-evidence-check") to confirm that key claims are well-supported. Teaching requires epistemic integrity about what's established versus what's speculative.
Phase 3: Structure
Determine layers: Use Skill("dialogue-progressive-reveal") to identify natural layer boundaries. Start with the simplest true version, then plan how complexity builds.
Plan the progression: Map the path from simple to complex. What's the minimal useful version? What complications matter most? What can wait until later?
Find resonance: Consider what analogies or examples would connect to the learner's existing knowledge. The best explanations anchor new concepts in familiar territory.
Phase 4: Teach
Establish collaboration: Use Skill("dialogue-thinking-together") to frame this as collaborative discovery rather than lecture. Learning works better as dialogue.
Present Layer 1: Start with the simplest true version. Make it concrete, immediately useful, and genuinely understandable. Resist the urge to qualify it immediately.
Check understanding: Before adding complexity, confirm the foundation makes sense. Watch for questions or confusion that signal the need to revisit the layer.
Progress through layers: Add complexity one layer at a time. Mark transitions clearly. Connect each new layer explicitly to what came before. Show why each complication matters.
Adapt dynamically: If the learner demonstrates they're ahead, accelerate. If they're confused, slow down or find different angles. Follow their curiosity into specifics when it serves understanding.
Use examples: Draw from domains the learner knows when possible. Concrete examples make abstract concepts tangible.
Phase 5: Persist (Optional)
Offer to save: After the explanation, offer to use Skill("introspect-keep-notes") to persist the structured explanation for future reference.
Generate artifacts: Consider creating study notes, a summary document, or reference material the learner can return to.
What This Command Does
This command transforms you into a research-backed teacher who builds understanding systematically. It combines information gathering, learning validation, and progressive explanation into a coherent teaching session.
How It Works
When you use /research-and-teach [topic], Claude will research the topic thoroughly, validate understanding through the Feynman technique, structure the explanation in progressive layers, and teach it adaptively based on your responses.
The command ensures explanations are well-researched, genuinely understood by the teacher, structured for learning, and delivered progressively rather than as information dumps.
When to Use This Command
Use /research-and-teach when you want to understand something deeply through structured explanation. This works for learning new concepts, preparing to teach others, exploring unfamiliar domains, or building genuine understanding of topics you've only encountered superficially.
The command works for any topic, not just technical ones. History, philosophy, science, current events, and practical skills all benefit from research-backed progressive explanation.
Example Usage
User: /research-and-teach What is the relationship between inflation and interest rates?
Claude: Starting a research and teaching session on the relationship between inflation and interest rates.
SCOPE: Understanding what we're exploring
Using decompose to identify the components:
- What inflation is and how it's measured
- What interest rates are and who sets them
- The mechanisms connecting them
- Real-world examples of the relationship
Using knowledge-check: I understand the basic definitions but need to research the specific mechanisms that connect them, particularly the role of central banks and how interest rate changes actually affect inflation in practice.
Using wonder to generate questions:
- Why do central banks raise rates when inflation rises?
- How quickly do rate changes affect inflation?
- Can you have high inflation with low rates, or vice versa?
- What happens when the relationship breaks down?
These questions will guide the research and structure the explanation.
RESEARCH: Building understanding
Searching for current information on monetary policy mechanisms...
After gathering sources from recent Federal Reserve communications and economic research, let me validate my understanding using the Feynman technique.
Simple explanation attempt: Central banks raise interest rates to slow inflation because higher rates make borrowing more expensive, which means people and businesses spend less, and less spending reduces demand, and lower demand means prices stop rising as fast.
Gap identified: This explains the transmission mechanism but not why it works or what can go wrong. Need to research the time lags, secondary effects, and historical cases where it failed.
Gathering alternative perspectives: Some economists emphasize the demand channel (less borrowing means less spending), others the expectations channel (rate hikes signal inflation control, changing behavior), others the supply side (high rates can reduce business investment, limiting supply).
Using evidence-check to verify key claims: The relationship is well-established in modern monetary policy but the strength and timing vary significantly across contexts.
STRUCTURE: Planning the explanation
Using progressive-reveal to determine layers:
- Layer 1: The core trade-off (basic relationship)
- Layer 2: The mechanism (how rate changes affect inflation)
- Layer 3: Complications (time lags, expectations, side effects)
- Layer 4: Real-world messiness (when the relationship breaks)
TEACH: Building understanding progressively
Using thinking-together to frame this as exploration rather than lecture.
Layer 1: The Core Trade-Off
Central banks adjust interest rates to influence inflation. Higher rates tend to reduce inflation. Lower rates tend to increase it. This is the primary tool modern central banks use to keep prices stable.
Think of it as a thermostat for the economy. Too hot (inflation rising), turn it down (raise rates). Too cold (recession risk), turn it up (lower rates).
Does this core relationship make sense before we explore how it actually works?
Layer 2: The Mechanism
When central banks raise interest rates, borrowing becomes more expensive. This affects both you and businesses. You might delay buying a house or car because the monthly payments are higher. Businesses might postpone expanding because financing the expansion costs more.
Less borrowing means less spending. Less spending means businesses can't raise prices as easily. If they try, customers buy less. So price growth slows. That's inflation coming down.
The opposite happens with rate cuts. Cheaper borrowing encourages spending, demand rises, prices can increase more easily.
Layer 3: Complications
The catch is timing. When the central bank raises rates today, the full effect on inflation might take 12-18 months. It's like steering a ship - turn the wheel now, the ship changes course later.
There's also an expectations element. If businesses and workers believe inflation will stay high, they'll keep raising prices and demanding wage increases regardless of interest rates. The central bank's credibility matters as much as the mechanical effects.
Side effects matter too. Higher rates slow inflation but can also slow growth and employment. The central bank is trying to reduce inflation without triggering a recession. That's the "soft landing" you hear about.
Layer 4: When It Breaks
This relationship can break down. In the 1970s, inflation stayed high despite rate increases because expectations were unanchored - everyone expected high inflation so they behaved accordingly. Rates had to go very high (near 20 percent in the US) to finally break the cycle.
Sometimes inflation comes from supply shocks (oil price spikes, pandemic supply chain disruptions) where demand isn't the problem. Raising rates doesn't fix a supply shortage, it just slows the economy while prices stay high.
And in deflationary environments (Japan in the 1990s-2000s), cutting rates near zero wasn't enough to generate inflation. You can't cut below zero effectively, so the tool stops working.
The relationship holds broadly but context determines how strong it is and how quickly it operates.
PERSIST: Saving for reference
Would you like me to use keep-notes to save this structured explanation for future reference? I can create a document you can return to when this topic comes up again.