The Feynman Technique
Where I explore how to learn anything using the Feynman Technique
If you can't explain something to a first year student, then you haven't really understood Richard P. Feynman
I just realized today that it is the 35th anniversary of the Space Shuttle Challenger Accident. I distinctly remember where I was when I heard the news about the midair explosion of the Challenger Space Shuttle. I had just returned from school in the evening and as usual my Dad was listening to the news, when it got announced that the Shuttle had exploded 73 seconds in to its flight. It was the first time I had seen a explosion of actual space shuttle and the impact was dramatic. Remember, this was before the advent of 24X7 news channels so obviously the news was not in real time. The only think we discussed in class over the next few days was the Challenger accident.
Investigation into the explosion and the exact reason why the shuttle exploded was published in a few months in what is called the Rogers Commission Report. One of the members of that report was scientist Richard Feynman. One of the key reasons identified by the report were the O-rings which couldn't withstand the cold temperatures during launch and ultimately resulted in hot gases leaking outside after launch resulting in the explosion.
The reason I bring this incident to this post is the way Feynman explained to the general public on how the faulty O-ring led to the shuttle explosion.
During a televised hearing on February 11, Feynman demonstrated the loss of rubber's elasticity in cold temperatures using a glass of cold water and a piece of rubber, for which he received media attention.
This was classic Feynman. Explaining a complex topic to a layman in a language they can understand.
Now Richard Feynman doesn’t need any introduction. He was a pioneer in the field of quantum computing, a major figure in the field of particle physics, introduced the world to the concept of nanotechnology, and won the Nobel Prize in Physics, among other things.
Richard Feynman was a polymath of epic proportions. His greatest characteristics was his ability to transmit the knowledge he had to others in a way they could grasp. In fact, Richard Feynman was nicknamed “the great explainer,” and for the rest of the world outside of science, his simple learning method, the Feynman Technique, may be his greatest contribution to society.
So what is the Feynman Technique?
It is a simple learning method and 4-step process for understanding any topic or concept quickly and effectively. A lot of people have called it a method for how to learn anything fast, and it really is one of the best learning techniques out there. This is ELI5 ( Explain Like I am 5) in a nutshell.
The steps in the Feynman learning technique can be summarized as follows:
Choose a topic that you want to understand completely. It can be used for any topic that you want to master.
Once you think you have grasped it completely, explain it to someone as if there were a student in the 6th grade.
Identify if there are any gaps in your explanation or if you used complicated terms, go back to the source material to better understand it in detail.
Review what you have learned and then try teaching again as if explaining to a 6th grader. The key takeaway is that the topic must be understood by a person with no prior base knowledge on the topic.
Here is a good pictorial representation of the 4 step Process :
So the main crux of the Feynman technique is to able to teach any topic to anyone with a indirect impact of you having mastered the topic better.
Primarily, In order for you to really understand a topic or subject something well, you must be able to explain or teach it to a child.
What are the benefits of the Feynman Technique and what makes it so effective:
The Feynman Technique is often more effective because of its emphasis on active engagement. Active engagement is where you consistently review your chosen topic and iterate using multiple resources till your comprehension is satisfactory enough to teach someone with no knowledge on the topic. It will also help you develop detailed knowledge of the topic and also public speaking skills if practiced with another person. Using the technique can help learners rethink their thoughts on how they approach difficult subjects such as programming concepts or mathematics or currently NFT’s and crypto :-) .
There are a ton of useful resources available on the internet if you want to deep dive on this technique. My objective in this post was to distill this technique in to a simple process to master new topics faster. I plan to use this technique to learn new topics and I will try to measure the success by figuring out how I can explain these topics to different people better. To be a better teacher is to able to reinvent and adapt by using more novel and established learning methodologies. Hoping the Feynman technique will accelerate my learning too.