Learning Methods - The Feynman Technique

Feynman technique is a learning method which is insipired by Richard Feynman, a renowned physicist and also one of the greatest lectuerer at all times. This method is used by Mr Feynman himeself to ensure a thorough understanding of a topic he wishes to study.

This technique resonates with Albert Einstein's quote:

"If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough."

So, let's dive right into the steps of the Feynman Technique and explore how we can learn faster with it.

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# What is the Feynman Technique?

Learning something is all about connecting the dots of new knowledge and internalizing what you have learnt. There will always be a certain extent of learning curve we have to overcome in order to truly understand the concept. Many times, we assume to know a concept as it looks familiar to us. However, it is often not the case or at least we have not learned the topic comprehensively. This is where the Feynman Technique comes in handy as it forces us to explicitly overlay and convey the knowledge to someone or some kind of depository in order to test our understanding. It provides us an overview of what we have learnt which then allows us to fill in the gaps that we are lacking. It is a method of finding what we don't know, revising the gaps and repeating the process.

# Step One

Select a topic or a concept to study.

# Step Two

Explain the topic chosen as simple as possible on a piece of paper. Imagine that you are teaching this topic to someone who has zero knowledge with the topic at their level of understanding using simple language.

# Step Three

Review the information you conveyed. Identify and fill in the knowledge gaps by referring to study materials to understand better.

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By breaking down a concept in a layman's terms allows us to realize if we truly have a grasp of it. If at any point in time, there are difficulties in delivering the information to an external party, it would suggest that we are still not certain about the topic.