The Feynman Technique is named after physicist Richard Feynman, who won the Nobel Prize
in 1965 for his work in quantum electrodynamics. Feynman was able to boil down incredibly
complex concepts and put them in simple language that other people could understand, and the
technique can be used to improve your understanding of a concept in basically an area, as well
as for multiple different purposes. The first step of the Feynman Technique is to simply get out a
piece of paper and write down the name of the technique. Step two is to explain the concept
and to do it in simple, plain English or French. Step three is to identify any areas that you're
shaky on after your explanation, and then challenge yourself to break down those terms and
explain them in simplified words. Remember the key here is simplicity, and the act of explaining
a topic as if you were teaching it to someone else is the ultimate test of your own knowledge in
that subject. A kid would ask you why does the Pythagorean theorem hold as a rule for all right
triangles? Maybe you could bust out the proof by rearrangement but maybe you can't. Maybe
you have always looked at the formula and taken it at face value, in which case you have some
more learning to do. Maybe that was a bit too simple of an example for you and you'd like to see
this technique applied to something more complex or something that has nothing to do with
math at all.
in 1965 for his work in quantum electrodynamics. Feynman was able to boil down incredibly
complex concepts and put them in simple language that other people could understand, and the
technique can be used to improve your understanding of a concept in basically an area, as well
as for multiple different purposes. The first step of the Feynman Technique is to simply get out a
piece of paper and write down the name of the technique. Step two is to explain the concept
and to do it in simple, plain English or French. Step three is to identify any areas that you're
shaky on after your explanation, and then challenge yourself to break down those terms and
explain them in simplified words. Remember the key here is simplicity, and the act of explaining
a topic as if you were teaching it to someone else is the ultimate test of your own knowledge in
that subject. A kid would ask you why does the Pythagorean theorem hold as a rule for all right
triangles? Maybe you could bust out the proof by rearrangement but maybe you can't. Maybe
you have always looked at the formula and taken it at face value, in which case you have some
more learning to do. Maybe that was a bit too simple of an example for you and you'd like to see
this technique applied to something more complex or something that has nothing to do with
math at all.
