The article title, which is quoting the writer's favorite teacher, is a lie, which is to say a didactic oversimplification. When you're trying to explain somet

The article title, which is quoting the writer's favorite teacher, is a lie, which is to say a didactic oversimplification. When you're trying to explain something, you can be too simple, you can get way too complex, you can qualify your simplification to the point where the explanation is lost, or you can simplify just enough and not spend time discussing the limits of your simplification until you've made your point. That last item is the "when to lie" bit.