Lower the Angle
Make an unfamiliar claim easier to grasp by removing imagined steps.
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Time to result
- ~days to results
- Steps
- 4
- Confidence
- 94%
Danny Goler describes David Carter's communication method for making the laser-DMT claim easier to discuss. Telling someone about an unknown researcher, an unusual laser setup, a prohibited substance, and a reported visual effect forces the listener to imagine several things at once. Carter removed two of those demands by physically showing people the laser and its projection before describing the reported effect. The mechanism is cognitive compression: inventory the inferential steps in an explanation, replace as many as possible with direct demonstrations, and ask the audience to consider only the unresolved remainder. This does not prove the claim. It creates a lower-friction bridge that lets people understand exactly what is being proposed before deciding what they believe.
Origin
Goler credits his partner David Carter with demonstrating the method at technology conferences before they built Code of Reality together.
Core principles
- 01Every imagined step increases resistance
- 02A concrete demonstration is easier to process than a chain of claims
- 03Collapse unnecessary inferential steps before asking for belief
- 04Make the idea easier to inspect without overstating the evidence
How to run it
- 1
Map the inference chain
Write down each person, object, mechanism, or event the audience must imagine before the main idea makes sense.
Pro tip Treat every unfamiliar noun as a possible extra step.
- 2
Choose demonstrable steps
Find the parts of the chain that can be put directly in front of the audience as an object, image, prototype, or observation.
Pro tip Prefer a demonstration that requires no special background knowledge.
Watch out Do not remove uncertainty by pretending a disputed step is settled.
- 3
Collapse the chain
Demonstrate those parts first so the audience no longer has to imagine them.
Pro tip Let people inspect the concrete element before adding interpretation.
- 4
State the remaining claim
Explain the one unresolved transition that the audience still needs to consider and label its evidentiary status honestly.
Watch out A clearer claim is not automatically a truer claim.
In the wild
Instead of asking conference attendees to imagine Goler, the apparatus, the projected light, and the reported DMT effect, Carter brought a laser and projected it on a wall. He then told them what he reported seeing after taking DMT, leaving fewer unseen elements in the explanation.
→ The claim became easier to understand and discuss without requiring the audience to accept the full story first.
Common mistakes
Asking for too many leaps
Stacking unfamiliar premises makes listeners reject the whole chain before they understand the central claim.
Confusing clarity with proof
Removing explanatory steps improves comprehension but does not establish that the remaining claim is true.
Is it for you?
Best for
Researchers, founders, and educators introducing an idea that requires an audience to accept several unfamiliar premises at once.
Not ideal for
Claims whose removed steps contain material uncertainty that the audience still needs to evaluate.
From the transcript
“Make people make it easier for people. Collapse some steps for them.”
“If I just take a laser and just put on a wall, I remove two of those.”
From the episode
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Danny Goler