For years I've been "quoting" Einstein, "If you can't explain it to a 5-year old, you don't know what it is." I was about to send this quote to a consultant who won't explain a statistical calculation bc it's "proprietary." Now, maybe it's normal for calculations to be proprietary, but I have never heard of such a thing, and I don't think you can expect clients (and the public) to believe findings without explanation. Supposedly, we live in a democratic society.
But before I emailed the quote from memory, I did an internet search on it. Turns out the quote is "If you can't explain it to a six year old, you don't understand it yourself." Alternately, "You do not really understand something unless you can explain it to your grandmother." However, the source is Kurt Vonnegut, not Albert Einstein. That's just not as good, is it?
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I love that quote and I use it also. Can you tell me what Vonnegut book (page number if you know it) that quote was from? In my high school and college days I gobbled up Vonnegut and read most everything he wrote. I even have some (old, crumbling) Vonnegut paperbacks lying around! I'd love to read again the context within which he wrote about it.
Thanks!
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