Having been terrible at communication (and continuing to be so), metaphors and analogies really are excellent tools. The caveats first: Like with all communica

Having been terrible at communication (and continuing to be so), metaphors and analogies really are excellent tools. The caveats first: Like with all communication, they should be understood by the audience, not offensive, not distracting. A good analogy is like being able to share a scaled model with someone. It invites them to play with concepts and deduce things you haven’t conveyed yet. That said, that level of fidelity is usually the result of thinking about a subject for a while, and handling the fall out of bad analogies for a while. I try and remember the moments my mental image changes. Describing the inciting event, or the change that happened in your mental image, should lead to figuring out a good analogy. At the very least, you will have a story to share, which is what human brains are very good at grasping, and using as models.