Does anyone know if there's a mental model or term to describe this? Would like to broadly read about more examples of this.
The danger is that you won't know enough of the landscape in order to know what piece you need to learn to unblock what you're trying to do...
Anchor your explanation in something with actual practical use.
It's why so many mathematicians are so shit at explaining maths to laypeople. They don't understand that regular people don't give a shit about numbers. They're just a means to an end.
Explaining how to turn numbers into more numbers doesn't land with people who dgaf about numbers.
You need to show how something is useful.