Explaining Mistakes Clearly
Break down errors with precision, remove defensiveness, and communicate exactly what went wrong. Learn how to isolate misunderstandings and guide people toward confident, lasting fixes.
Like Duolingo, but for Explaining Mistakes Clearly. Tomo turns the whole topic into a game you play five minutes a day, until it actually sticks.
A short one: 11 levels across 2 sections, about 22 minutes end to end, roughly 4 days at five minutes a day. It moves through Framing What Went Wrong and Diagnosing and Guiding the Fix. It starts from scratch.
Free forever · No credit card · iPhone & Android
Key ideas in Explaining Mistakes Clearly
- Vague complaints like 'the button is broken' force the other person to guess what was supposed to happen
- Stating 'expected: user dashboard loads; actual: screen stays blank' leaves no room for confusion
- Juxtaposing expectation and reality makes the gap self-evident
- Problems start at a specific step in a workflow, not across the whole task
- Isolating the first failing step prevents discarding earlier steps that worked fine
- Identifying the turning point makes diagnosis much faster
- Observable outcomes record physical or visible facts like 'the text overlapped the border' or 'error code 404 appeared'
- Subjective interpretations rely on feelings or value judgments like 'the design looks ugly' or 'it felt slow'
- Verifiable facts can be confirmed by anyone looking at the same screen
- An error is only measurable when compared against an explicit rule or constraint
- Citing the specific standard establishes an objective, neutral baseline for why something must be fixed
- Without referencing the constraint, correction sounds like an arbitrary personal preference
- Focusing on what the system or workflow did prevents the listener from shutting down
- A mechanical sequence narrates the steps taken rather than questioning the person's traits
- Evaluative labels like 'careless' trigger defensiveness and obscure what actually happened
- Neutral phrasing specifies the exact omitted action or mismatched value
You've tried the other tabs
Thirty open tabs. Four facts you actually kept.
You watched. You nodded. By Sunday it was gone.
One answer, then back to scrolling.
Eight weeks. You meant to finish. You didn't.
Tomo gives Explaining Mistakes Clearly the Duolingo treatment: levels, streaks, and quick quizzes that test what you just learned. That game loop is what the tabs above never had, so it's the one you actually finish.
Here's what playing it feels like
A real question from this course. Take your best guess.
You report a login problem. Which statement leaves no room for confusion?
Get it right to open this lesson and 10 more in the app.
Where Explaining Mistakes Clearly takes you
- 1
Framing What Went Wrong
- Describing the Gap
- Explaining the Breakdown Neutrally
- 2
Diagnosing and Guiding the Fix
- Uncovering the Root Misconception
- Directing the Resolution
2 sections · 4 units · 11 levels. Built to play, not to enroll.
Tomo is in ChatGPT
Tomo is also a ChatGPT plugin: the same playable courses, built and played inside your chat.
Add Tomo to ChatGPT- What to ask
- “Make me a Tomo course on black holes.” “Turn this chat into a Tomo course.”
- What you get
- Quick questions with instant feedback, hearts and stars, ready to play in about a minute.
- Where it goes
- No sign-up to start. Connect your Tomo account and your streak carries on in the app.
You pick the voice
Explaining Mistakes Clearly is taught in the Bestie style: your friend who just gets it. Want a different feel? In the app you can spin up the same topic in any of Tomo's teaching styles. Same facts, totally different vibe.
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Start Explaining Mistakes Clearly today.
Download Tomo, search Explaining Mistakes Clearly, and play your first lesson in under a minute.