The Clarity Premium
Why the world pays more for people who can make complicated things simple
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When someone explains something in a complicated way, you assume they’re demonstrating expertise. They know so much that the explanation has to be dense. The jargon, the caveats, the layers of nuance. These must be the marks of mastery.
They’re not. They’re the opposite.
Complexity is where confused people hide.
The Confession
Every unnecessary complication in your explanation is a confession.
It says: I stopped too early. I learned the terminology but never reached the understanding underneath it. I know the words people use to describe this thing. I never reached the thing itself.
The person who speaks simply isn’t dumbing anything down. They’ve gone further than everyone else. They pushed through the complexity until they reached the simplicity on the other side.
Most experts never make this journey. They stop at complexity and build a home there. They master the jargon, memorize the frameworks, collect the credentials. And they mistake this for understanding.
Then someone asks them to explain it simply and they can’t.
Not because the topic is too complex. Because they never actually understood it. The complexity was the hiding place. And they never left.
The Direction Is Wrong
There’s a phrase people use when they simplify: “dumbing it down.”
This gets the direction completely wrong.
Simplicity isn’t down. Simplicity is up.
You’re not descending to the level of your audience. You’re ascending to a level of understanding most experts never reach. You’re compressing until only the essential remains. That compression is the hardest intellectual work there is.
Anyone can make simple things complicated. Read any academic paper. Watch any corporate presentation. Listen to any consultant explain their methodology. Complexity requires no skill. It’s the default. It’s what happens when you don’t do the work.
Making complicated things simple requires you to understand them so completely that you can identify what’s load-bearing and what’s decoration. You have to see the structure underneath all the words.
This is rare. And the world pays a premium for it.
The Clarity Premium
The salesperson who explains clearly closes the deal. The one who confuses loses to a competitor who made it simple. Same product. Different clarity. Different outcome.
The leader who communicates clearly gets their strategy executed. The one who buries the message in complexity watches their team do something else entirely.
The doctor who explains clearly gets patients who follow treatment. The one who hides behind terminology gets patients who nod, walk out, and do nothing.
In every case, clarity commands a premium. Not because it’s easier to produce. Because it’s harder. And because the market can feel the difference between someone who understands and someone performing understanding.
The Real Reason to Simplify
Here’s what I didn’t understand for years.
You don’t simplify for them. You simplify for yourself.
Every time you try to explain something simply and fail, you’ve discovered a hole in your own understanding. The failure isn’t a communication problem. It’s a comprehension problem. Yours.
The explanation is a diagnostic tool. It reveals what you actually know versus what you think you know.
This is why teaching is the best way to learn. Why writing clarifies thinking. Why explaining to someone else shows you exactly where your understanding falls apart.
When you can’t simplify something, you’re not facing a complex topic. You’re facing your own confusion. The complexity isn’t out there. It’s in you.
The Simplicity Test
There’s something you explain regularly that you’ve never truly simplified.
Maybe it’s what your company does. Maybe it’s your role. Maybe it’s a concept you reference constantly, dressed up in terminology that signals expertise but obscures meaning.
You’ve gotten away with it because everyone uses the same jargon. Because the density feels appropriate. Because nobody has stopped you and said “I don’t understand what you’re actually saying.”
Here’s the test.
Right now, take that concept. Explain it out loud to an empty chair in three sentences. No jargon. No caveats. Three sentences a twelve-year-old would understand.
If you stumble, the complexity wasn’t protecting your expertise.
It was hiding that you don’t have it yet.
Thank you for reading,
Scott
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