The Feynman technique — using simplicity to learn anything

In 1965, Richard Feynman won the Nobel Prize in physics for his breakthroughs on quantum electrodynamics. Undoubtedly, he was one of the smartest people of the 20th century — but that’s not was he was known for.

Feynman was famous for his ability to explain complex concepts with simple language. If you truly understod something, he believed, you could explain it by simple terms to anyone. And he lived what he preached. Feynman famously asked other physicist and mathematicians to explain their concepts in everyday language to test their understanding.

The Feynman technique can be used to:

• Learning something new
• Deepening knowledge of something you already know
• Preparing yourself for an exam

Feynman’s technique consists of 4 steps:

1) Decide what you want to learn and start brainstorming. Optimally, something you’re interested in.

2) Explain what you’ve learned by writing it down. Imagine you’re trying to explain it to a child, jargon forbidden. For better results, speak out loudly what you’re writing. For even better results, find a real child to explain it to (and get instant, brutally honest, feedback).

3) Review what you’ve written, and scan for knowledge gaps. Assess what you need to learn to fill it, and start learning again.

4) Repeat this process until you can explain the topic you wanted to learn in simple language. If you want to dig even deeper, re-start the process and explain the topic in the simplest language you can.

What are you going to learn next?

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