The ordinary example often does more work than the grand comparison beside it.

Big comparisons impress and then slide off. A small familiar case gives the listener something they already know how to hold, and understanding happens where the example touches their own experience. Grandeur asks to be admired. The plain instance asks to be used. Explanations usually fail at the size of the illustration rather than at the argument.

When you next explain something, keep the modest example and cut the sweeping one. Watch the other person’s face for the moment it lands, and notice which sentence did it.