How to Tell You're the Naked Emperor

2025-12-08

  1. Your idea requires a long time to explain.
  2. Your idea requires a specific kind of presentation to prove its point.
  3. Your idea requires advanced vocabulary and concepts to explain.
  4. Certain people can’t ever understand your idea, because of their disposition.
  5. Other people intrinsically “get it,” and don’t require much of an explanation at all.
  6. Sometimes after explaining your idea, you wonder if you’ve really done a good job explaining the entirety of what makes it special.
  7. You sometimes feel anxious after explaining yourself to others, wondering if they really understood your idea or not.
  8. You worry about what others will say and do when you are not around, in case it turns out to harm your idea.
  9. You spend more time communicating your idea than developing it.
  10. You worry more about how others will receive your idea than whether or not the idea is correct.