[marymkearney]

OK I have a use case for this that's just spot-on. I just signed up, thank you so much for making this, it's the perfect tool I didn't know I needed.

I help tech people with immigration filings. One of the most important components of a successful filing, is describing your highly technical industry, job, and accomplishments, in a way that's relatable to the immigration examiner.

The examiners are laypersons, not tech workers or attorneys. They may or may not have the comprehension level of your grandma or your middle schooler. They're under time pressure, and they're not necessarily on your side.

So the more concise and compelling your story is, the more likely you are to elicit from the examiner, that aha moment of "oh, I get what this applicant does, it sounds really cool!" And that's the moment you win your case.

This is a really hard thing to do well. It requires lots of metaphors, analogies, and simple homely examples. But when it IS done well, it's the clincher.

I really like the different ways you explain it. I also like the contrast with the Wikipedia article, which honestly made my eyes glaze over by the second line.

Thanks most kindly, I'm looking forward to reading it. One suggestion: provide your actual cash buyers with a little reward tidbit, like a sample, or like last week's newsletter? I threw down on a Monday, so my actual product doesn't arrive till Thursday, and it would be exciting to have a bit of immediate gratification.

Anyway nice job, I hope this use case is helpful.

[cristianMD7]

Thank you so much for your support and for signing up for the newsletter.

I like the idea of offering an immediate reward after signing up. Unfortunately, I don't have it set up just yet, but it's now in my to-do list.

By the way, as a tech worker who went through the immigration process a few years ago, I completely understand. It wasn't exactly a joyride, although I consider myself lucky because my examiner didn't mind not fully understanding what I do at my job.

Once again, a big thank you for your support! Get ready for some fantastic content coming your way in the upcoming newsletters!

[marymkearney]

You're most welcome, and I'm glad you had a successful visa process. It's not easy. A few more data points on the need this fills:

Basically as the attorney, I've been serving as the translator. My job is to take things like iPaaS, or TLS certificate management, or ring algorithms in distributed databases, and explain to the examiner what that means, in very simple stories. Like, this resets your password when your computer locks you out. Or, this makes your Netflix run faster. Really at that level, or below.

This is honestly my hardest problem. It can take weeks of iteration. I'm familiar with the industry, but I'm not an engineer or a programmer. I do write my own HTML-CSS, but beyond that, just, no. :)

There isn't much out there, that does what your product does. I've used things like the Sideways Dictionary, and various hashtags like #badlyexplainyourjob and #postitnotescience, and searches for articles like "explain your job to your parents." They don't quite get the job done.

ELI5 is way too general, and the quality of the Q and the A isn't helpful. The AI queries are promising, but right now they're kind of weird. Like the magic castle one was cool, but it wouldn't help my examiners much.

It's even harder for the applicants to translate it to this level too. James Cash elegantly called this "the problem of trying to teach something, when you don’t remember what it’s like to not understand it at all." *

And yet, the payoff of solving it is so huge. If all the other pieces are in place, a good narrative is the grand-slam home run of the EB-1A process.

Anyway, this is a super niche application for your thing, but it's going to help a lot of people (and I'm first in line). Thank you.

* https://occasionallycogent.com/programming_isnt_coding/index...

Edited to add: I checked out the Technically substack, and it's useful and engaging for sure, but it's still a bit too complex for my audience.