The Feynman Technique
“If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough” – Albert Einstein
Hey Friends
Today, we're diving into a game-changing learning strategy that's guaranteed to revolutionize the way you absorb and retain information: the Feynman Technique. 🧠
Named after the legendary physicist Richard Feynman, this technique is a powerful tool for mastering complex subjects and deepening your understanding of virtually any topic.
So, what exactly is the Feynman Technique, and how can you use it to supercharge your learning?
Let's break it down!
🤓 The Feynman Technique
The Feynman technique is based around the idea that one of the most effective techniques to enhance our understanding is to imagine that we’re teaching the material to someone who has absolutely no idea about the topic. Like a small child.
Through the 4-steps of the Feynman technique I’ve outlined below, we’re encouraged to identify our knowledge gaps, reorganize our thoughts, and ultimately improve our long-term retention of that knowledge.
Identify the topic
Teach it to a child
Identify knowledge gaps
Simplify
We’ll look at each of these steps in turn.
1. Identify the Topic
The first step in mastering the Feynman Technique is selecting a topic you want to learn or understand better.
Whether it's a new language, a scientific concept, or a historical event, pick something that piques your curiosity and sparks your interest.
What are the learning benefits of identifying the topic?
It makes learning specific – our focus is on one topic area, rather than an entire subject. So we know exactly what we have to know/learn.
It keeps things simple – learning a smaller, more specific, topic makes it far quicker to complete the 4 steps of the Feynman technique. So we’re less likely to get bored or give up while learning/revising.
We face our weaknesses – when we memorise it’s easy for us to skip over things we don’t enjoy. But by identifying our topic we’re facing our weaknesses and forced to confront what we don’t know.
2. Teach it to a Child
Now comes the fun part!
Imagine you're explaining the topic to a young child who has no prior knowledge of the subject.
Break down complex ideas into simple, easy-to-understand terms, and use analogies and everyday examples to illustrate your points.
“The first principle is that you must not fool yourself and you are the easiest person to fool” – Richard Feynman
This step not only helps solidify your own understanding but also highlights areas where you might need to delve deeper.
3. Identify Knowledge Gaps
In step three, we need to pinpoint the areas we found difficult to explain or had to return to our notes/textbooks to refresh our understanding.
If we had to use any technical term in our explanation, we should challenge ourselves to break those terms into simpler components.
What are the learning benefits of identifying knowledge gaps?
It is an active way to learn – by identifying where we’re struggling, we become more intentional about our learning.
Instead of covering the stuff we already know (like we do when we reread, highlight, and summarize), we automatically focus our attention on the topics that need the most work.
Learning is iterative – it’s impossible to remember a topic if we only look at it once.
The Feynman technique, however, rewards repetition. By teaching a topic and filling in knowledge gaps multiple times, we’re more likely to encode this knowledge into our long-term memory.
4. Simplify
The final step of the Feynman technique is to rewrite our explanation of a topic in simpler terms.
This often involves re-organizing our thoughts so the explanation flows more naturally, finishing incomplete thoughts, and finding simpler examples to break down complex ideas.
This may take some time (or may have to be done multiple times) to get right.
What are the learning benefits of simplifying?
Understanding starts with simplicity – we don’t understand something unless we can explain it simply.
Using technical language or assuming our listener has an existing baseline of knowledge means we’re probably relying on memorization, rather than understanding.
We build confidence – if we’re able to teach someone a topic we previously found confusing, it boosts our confidence and encourages us to learn even more.
Why does the Feynman Technique work? 🚀
By teaching complex ideas in simple terms, you confront your own understanding and identify areas where you may be lacking.
This process strengthens your grasp of the material and enhances your ability to communicate it effectively.
So, what are you waiting for? Start unleashing your learning potential today with the Feynman Technique and watch as your understanding and confidence soar to new heights! 💡
Happy learning!
Monish xx