We begin learning the moment we’re born. As infants, we rely entirely on our senses to understand the world around us and make sense of our place in it. We often think of learning as going to school, reading from a textbook, or listening to a podcast – all physical actions that lead to mental growth. While many forms of learning do occur that way, the act of learning is far more complex.
Learning is a fundamental aspect of our existence – it’s the key to personal growth, adaptability, and success in the modern world. As a species, we constantly seek to acquire new knowledge and understand complex concepts to better engage with the world. Learning holds immense value in our society, and its significance grows as the world becomes more dynamic.
In our quest for knowledge, various techniques and strategies have been developed to support the learning process. One of these methods is the Feynman Technique, created by the Nobel-prize winning physicist Richard Feynman. Let’s dive into what the Feynman Technique is, why it works, and how you can put it into practice.
What Is The Feynman Technique?
Richard Feynman was known for the systematic way that he identified concepts he didn’t know about and then threw himself into understanding them inside and out. In his words:
“Nobody ever figures out what life is all about, and it doesn’t matter.
Explore the world. Nearly everything is really interesting if you go into it deeply enough.”
Feynman possessed a unique talent for explaining difficult scientific concepts in the simplest terms, making him an exceptional scientist and educator. As a professor, he sought better ways to teach students than relying on jargon and complex equations.
His approach to teaching was rooted in the belief that true understanding comes from the ability to explain a concept in plain language.
If you’ve grown up in any educational system, you’ve likely heard that if you can’t explain a concept to others then you don’t understand it well enough. And it's true; if you want to understand something well, you should be able to explain it to others.
Why does this methodology work? Explaining a concept improves your own understanding of that concept. So, by explaining it to others, you’re able to identify where your understanding excels and where it lacks. If you have to resort to using complex terms, you probably don’t fully understand what you’re explaining.
Principles Of The Feynman Technique
The Feynman Technique is based on a set of core principles that underscore its effectiveness: simplicity and clarity, pretending to teach, identifying knowledge gaps, and engaging in iterative learning. Whether studying with a friend or in your own time, implementing these four steps will help you learn just about anything:
1. Pick A Single Concept To Learn About
Choose something you’re interested in learning about and write it down in your notebook. Be intentional about selecting something you don’t know much about already, something narrow enough to fit on just a few pages.
Why is this step effective? It forces you to face what you don’t know, even if it’s a teeny tiny concept compared to the entire body of knowledge that exists in the world. You’re starting somewhere, and you’re starting small.
2. Teach It To Yourself Or Someone Else
More often than not, we read a chapter in a textbook and run through a few examples, then conclude that our learning is complete. In reality, though, it’s not enough to just read about something to fully comprehend the concept. True understanding rests in actively engaging with the material: write a summary in your own words, recite the information to yourself with your textbook closed, or pair off with a classmate. Do anything that puts the concept into practice.
Teaching others is a critical component because it creates a feedback loop that exposes you to questions and critiques. This step is also where many suggest you try phrasing the concept as if you were teaching it to a child. Children are notorious for asking “why,” and this one word will challenge your assumptions of what you’ve learned. Children also have a limited vocabulary, which doesn’t include jargon. This forces you to use plain language that can be easily understood by anyone.
Why is this step effective? When you have to explain something out loud, it’s easier to find the flaws in your reasoning and the gaps in your knowledge. When you truly understand the concept, you’ll be able to explain it inside and out, and you’ll have the confidence to do so. Think of writing and teaching as ways to obtain knowledge, not something you do only once you have knowledge.
3. Pinpoint Where You Get Stuck
The Feynman Technique is not only about what you know – it’s also about what you don’t know. Learning is an ongoing process, and learning something new or complex often requires several attempts. The Feynman Technique promotes an iterative approach to comprehension and encourages you to revisit learning material to solidify your knowledge. Used in conjunction with teaching, identifying where you get stuck and refining your explanations will only deepen your understanding.
Why is this step effective? Rather than conceptualizing your learning as a one-time thing, you are encouraged to go back through the material and refresh your understanding. This ties back to the need to be actively engaged throughout the learning process: when you form your own summaries and reasoning based on source material, you’re better able to commit new information to long-term memory. You’re also better able to recall that information at a later time.
4. Simplify Your Understanding
Don’t confuse knowing jargon with understanding concepts. If your explanation of a new concept includes technical terms or complex language, challenge yourself to simplify them. Repeating big words might make you sound smart, but it isn’t doing any favors for your own understanding – or for those you’re trying to teach. Practice reading your written summaries aloud, paying close attention to any areas where you fumble over the language. Then, distill larger terms and concepts into their most basic form.
Why is this step effective? Memorizing does not equate to understanding. However, relying on analogies has proved to be a useful technique for simplifying big ideas into bite-sized pieces. Making mnemonics, drawing pictures, or creating rhymes – any method that helps you synthesize new information is worth using. Not only does this allow you to make fun and nuanced connections in your mind, but it also creates a mental shortcut for quicker recall later on.
Looking Forward
Sometimes we don’t realize we lack an understanding of something until it’s too late. In Feynman’s words:
“The first principle is that you must not fool yourself –
and you are the easiest person to fool.”
The Feynman Technique won’t let you fool yourself into thinking you’ve mastered a concept when you really haven’t, because each step of the process forces you to confront what you don’t know and clarify your understanding. Feynman believed in a multi-disciplinary approach to learning and often turned to creative outlets to help draw connections in his work. I urge you to do the same as you study for course exams and take on new hobbies.
The key takeaway here is this: The ultimate way to ensure you fully understand something internally is to explain it externally, whether that’s to yourself or to someone else. So, the next time you find yourself in front of a blank page, consider it an opportunity to continue your lifelong pursuit of knowledge.
Editor: Ashley Barnett Reviewed by: Chris Muller
Allison is a policy- and budget-analyst turned personal finance writer with a strong interdisciplinary background in science, government policy and quantitative research.
Based in the Pacific Northwest (by way of being a self-acknowledged transplant), she writes about finance, education, student debt and public policy issues. She uses her analytical foundation to ask the big questions behind personal finance trends, tax rules and student aid policy — and brings actionable insights to readers.
Outside her policy and finance work, Allison also writes about fitness, wellness and curiosity-driven topics that spark discussion.