I first discovered Richard Feynman years ago when I read his book “Surely, You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman” for a college class. I then went on to read his other book, “What Do You Care What Other People Think?” and almost anything I could find by or about him. His physics quickly left my basic science abilities in the dust, but he was an amazing and quirky person who’s interests ranged from lock picking to drumming to the nature of the universe.
Richard Feynman was a physicist who received a nobel prize for his work in quantum electrodynamics. He was notorious for asking his mathematicians to explain concepts in simple language to test their understanding.
Here his unique technique to learn new materials:
Step 1. Choose a topic you want to understand and start studying it. Once you know what it is about, take a piece of paper and write the topic at the top of the page.
Step 2. Pretend you’re teaching the idea to someone else. Write out an explanation on the paper while you describe them out loud. Like this you get an idea of what you understand and where you still have gaps. Whenever you get stuck, go back and study. Repeat that process until you can explain it.
Step 3. Finally do it again, but now simplify your language or use an analogy to make the point. If your explanation ends up wordy and confusing, that’s an indication that you do not understand the idea well enough. If that happens go back until you have mastered it.
It is the process of thinking about an idea while teaching it that make the method so effective. Once you can explain an idea with simple language and create graphic analogies, you have deeply understood it and will remember it for a long time.
Learn more about Richard Feynman with these books from Amazon
More books by and about Richard Feynman
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