Skip to main content

The Feynman Technique Model to learn better

The Feynman Technique is a Mental Model named after Richard Feynman, a Nobel Prize Winning Physicist. It is designed as a technique to help you learn pretty much learn anything - so understand concepts you don't really get, remember stuff you have already learnt, or study more efficiently.
The Feynman Technique was actually a big inspiration for this blog - I try and apply this to a lot of the concepts and Mental Models that I write about.
The technique can be broken down into four easy steps, but first a quick video from Scott Young that sums it up very simply.

Learn Faster with the Feynman Technique 

So now for a recap of the steps:

Step 1

Write the name of the concept at the top of a blank piece of paper.

Step 2

Write down an explanation of the concept on the page. Use plain English. Pretend you are teaching it to someone else (e.g a new student). This should highlight what you understand, but more importantly pinpoint what you don't quite know.

Step 3

Review what you have pinpointed you don't know. Go back to the source material, re-read, and re-learn it. Repeat Step 2.

Step 4

If you are using overly wordy or confusing language (or simply paraphrasing the source material) try again so you filter the content. Simplify your language, and where possible use simple analogy.

Conclusion

That's it. A simple and powerful technique to ensure you can rapidly learn and retain new concepts and information. 

Labels

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

How to Read the Right Way: A Complete Guide

The nature of books has evolved. Society and technology have changed. Forcibly, our approach to reading has taken on new forms to accommodate a different way of life. The question is: For better or worse? Although books give us new ideas, spark discussions, and explore topics in detail, the same information can be delivered in a variety of formats. When it comes to exactly  how  we should absorbing books, the debate rages on. Let’s take a look. The Effectiveness of Speed Reading Since the 1950s, speed reading has been touted as an effective way to get through reading material quickly. Scientists, psychologists, and teachers have come up with methods to increase reading speed, whether through manual tools or visual movements. At the World Championship Speed Reading Competition, top contestants can reach 1,000 to 2,000 words per minute. Six-time champion Anne Jones reached 4,200 words per minute at one point. Those rates seem phenomenal compared to the  ...
Post a Comment
Read more

I'm 25 years old and I want to become a millionaire by 35. How do I do this?

A bit of simple advice that works for any age. Copy what millionaires do. I’ve studied over 40 millionaires and finally found out their secret to wealth. It took me a long time to piece together the puzzle, but I’ve finally figured it out. Here’s the golden question: What do Elon Musk, Warren Buffet, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Mark Cuban, and Tonny Robbins have in common? Besides the mulah...they all  read . Yep - reading. Don’t believe me? Let one of the most successful and admired entrepreneurs tell you... Musk built four multibillion-dollar companies by his mid-40s -- in four separate fields (energy, software, transportation and aerospace). How is that possible?  Because he reads. SpaceX co-founder, Jim Cantrell, mentions Elon Musk’s passion for reading, He'd been borrowing all my college textbooks on rocketry and propulsion. You know, whenever anybody asks Elon how he learned to build rockets, he says, 'I read books.' Well, it's true. [...
Post a Comment
Read more

There Are Two Ways to Read — One Is Useless

Reading is telepathy, and a book is the most powerful technology invented. Homer, Shakespeare, Voltaire, Flaubert, Tolstoy, Woolf, Hemingway — these are names without a living body. We can’t talk to them, nor touch them, but their thoughts are immortalized through the written word. Aristotle’s logic, Kepler’s astronomy, Newton’s physics, Darwin’s biology, Wittgenstein's philosophy — these are memes without living originators. They no longer champion their ideas, and yet, we still talk about them. Without books, humans would never have escaped the boundaries of space and time. Each new generation would have had to learn the realities of life for themselves rather having the luxury to build on the past; knowledge accumulation would have quickly dimmed towards an asymptote. Everything that we value in the modern world has its root in invention of writing. Everything that we have accomplished has come from reading. Even on an individual level, one of the most effective way...
1 comment
Read more