Recognition before explanation

Recognition appears to come before persuasion, not after it. A person who recognizes themselves in something leans in, and only then does explanation have anywhere to land. Aim persuasion at someone who has not yet recognized anything and you tend to produce resistance, because you are asking them to accept a conclusion they have not reached on their own.

The likely reason is that recognition is self-authored. When you recognize a truth, you supply it yourself, and people defend what they concluded far longer than what they were sold.

Explanation can satisfy curiosity. It rarely seems to create it.

Held with less certainty

This one is offered under test rather than as a law.¹ It has held across the homepage, the Vitae and the work, but the mechanism is not settled and there are surely cases it does not cover. It is published as an observation because naming it early is more useful than pretending to be sure.