The Feynman Technique.

How to learn quickly and easily.

Richard Feynman was an award-winning physicist who had a method he used to learn and study better than anyone else, this method is known as the Feynman Technique. There are four steps to the Feynman Learning Technique:

1. Choose a concept you want to learn about

2. Pretend you are teaching it to a student in grade six.

3. Identify gaps in your explanation; Go back to the source material, to better understand it.

4. Review and simplify (seriously, do this.)

If you are not learning, you are standing still. Then how does one get feedback when they learn and how do we go about learning new subjects and identifying gaps in our existing knowledge?

The reason behind Feynman’s’ success was his understanding of the two types of knowledge, the first being that we know the name of something, and the second being we know something. The first type of knowledge deals with knowing what the name of a particular topic and the second type of knowledge deals with understanding the subject.

Step 1: Teach it to a Child.

Start by taking a blank sheet of paper, and write down everything you know about the topic you want to learn and explain. Keep in mind that you are writing to explain this knowledge to a sixth-grader, who has a short attention span and limited vocabulary.

We confuse ourselves by using complicated vocabulary, by keeping the words simple we avoid confusion.

When you write an idea in simple language, you force yourself to dive deeper into the topic and to simplify the relationships and connections between ideas.

Some of this will be easy because you have expert knowledge and other parts will be hard since these are the points where you have some gaps in your understanding.

Step 2: Review.

Only when you encounter gaps, when you are unable to explain something, when you forget something important or you have trouble connecting the dots, can you start learning.

I have a phrase I use, the smartest thing a person can say is I don’t know.

Now that you have identified where you are stuck, go back and relearn that topic until you can describe it in simple terms. When you can expand on your knowledge in simple terms, only then can you call yourself competent.

Identifying the places where you are weak helps you find the limits of your understanding, this limits the number of mistakes you are going to make and increases your chances of success.

Step 3: Organise and Simplify.

Review your set of notes and make sure there are not any complicated words, once you have done that, organise these notes into a narrative that you can describe easily, a good way to find to do this is to read it out loud. If the explanation sounds confusing, then you need to sharpen your knowledge on the subject.

If you use this approach multiple times, you will have notebooks full of knowledge, who knows, you could publish a few books based on those notes!

Step 4: Communicate.

If you want to test your understanding, rerun it past someone, go find that twelve year- old again!

The idea behind the Technique.

Richard Feynman was known to be “The Great Explainer.” He could take complex topics and explain them in simple, intuitive ways. The idea behind this technique is to learn and review a complex topic by explaining it in simple language.

In addition to finding the chinks in your armour, this technique gives you a quick and efficient method to understand ideas using targeted learning. It is a simple technique, but it will help you absorb knowledge quicker and better once you start using it.

Why you should teach a twelve-year-old.

If you have ever explained something to a twelve-year-old, you will realise that apart from asking to watch T.V every five minutes, they also ask why a lot. You see, adults are accustomed to understanding things at face value, adults lack the curiosity which children have in abundance. Kids are naturally curious, they will be quick to stick their hands up and raise their confusion.

Explaining a simple topic such as the basic three types of triangles (equilateral, scalene and isosceles) or even expanding onto right-angled and obtuse-angled triangles is easy. Considering that you may be studying something more complicated, you may have to rely on assumptions, heuristics and other theories, it is wise to create a flashcard which has your knowledge on the topic written down clearly and concisely.

My use of the Technique: an example.

Recently my cousin who is in the third grade was talking to me about how difficult triangles are, he calls them pointy, stupid things. Here’s how I taught him about triangles:

Using the Feynman Technique to explain the types of triangles.

Equilateral triangle: In this triangle, all three sides are equal and all three angles are equal. Everything is equal, it’s democracy if it was a triangle. Sadly, my cousin doesn’t know about democracy, didn’t resonate with him.

Isosceles Triangle: This triangle has two sides of equal length therefore the two angles of the triangle are equal as well. Kind of like a football game between Barcelona and Real Madrid, the only unequal thing is VAR. My cousin doesn’t know much about football either, bummer.

Scalene Triangle: All three sides of this triangle are of different lengths, all three angles of this triangle are of different degrees too.

Right-angled Triangle: This triangle has a right angle.

Obtuse- angled triangle: This has one angle which is bigger than 90 degrees hence the name and two acute angles, which are smaller than 90 degrees. An acute angle is cute, small puppies are cute, therefore acute=small.

To conclude, not only is The Feynman Technique an exceptionally quick way to learn things, but it is also a way of thought that allows you to tear apart your knowledge of the topic and build it from the ground up.

When you find it difficult to understand something, ask the person to explain it to you like you were twelve.

Not only will you learn quicker, but they will also learn quickly too. Importantly, understanding this knowledge helps you understand if the person knows his topics thoroughly or not. This helps you find out if the person is a fraud, which could save you.

The beauty of Feynman’s technique is it highlights the fact that knowledge is a process which takes time.