Well I don't do it any more but at the time I tried lots of different approaches, some people just don't seem to have the mental capability to handle the abstractions.

That's amusing actually. Average HN reader just cannot imagine an average people cannot handle abstractions at all.

If an average human couldn't handle abstractions at all, their brain would explode somewhere around being 2 years old. Everyone, even the biggest luddite, deals with shit ton of abstractions every day. The brain can handle it. The ego, quite often, cannot - and herein lies the role of a good teacher.