
The Feynman Technique: The Best Way to Learn Anything - chamoda
https://www.fs.blog/2012/04/learn-anything-faster-with-the-feynman-technique/
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TipVFL
They frame it as a learning technique, but it's also a great problem-solving
technique.

When I was a kid I made money by helping my dad with his programming. When he
got stuck on problems he'd come out and find me, and offer me $20 to solve it.
Then he'd explain what he was trying to do in the simplest way that he could,
and explain what he'd already tried. About half the time he'd figure it out
before he finished explaining it (and I'd get nothing).

~~~
eesmith
What you describe is most often called something like "Rubber duck debugging",
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubber_duck_debugging](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubber_duck_debugging)
. I learned it as "talking to the wall" debugging.

~~~
TipVFL
This is similar, but I meant figuring out how you're going to solve a problem
using code, not figuring out how you're going to fix your code.

One example I can remember is my dad coming out and holding up a pen, and
asking me how I would view all sides of the pen without moving my head. I
said, "I'd spin the pen around," and my dad yelled, "of course!", threw a
twenty at me and ran back to his office.

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debt
I still full immersion is the best.

Basically, pick any subject and consume every form of media - podcasts, books,
articles, videos, talk to people, Quora questions - and you’ll eventually get
it on a very fundamental level.

Constantly ask questions and seek answers and rinse and repeat.

No tests too.

~~~
eesmith
I think you left out "practice".

What you describe is hard to apply to, say, tango dancing, which requires a
kinesthetic learning essentially impossible to get from anything other than
practice.

There are also fields where that immersion approach doesn't work well. Think
about the topic of "how to lose weight" or "how to raise a child."

There is a huge amount of media on the topic, and everyone has an opinion, but
I don't think the immersion will result in understanding those topics on a
very fundamental level.

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xt00
4 step technique:

1) study some topic and write down everything you know / learned about it

2) pretend to teach to somebody or explain to somebody or write down in simple
terms

3) when you are explaining use that process to expose the gaps that you don’t
think you fully understand if you struggle to explain simply

4) simplify the topic further and keep iterating on your explanation and
filling gaps you don’t understand until you can explain the topic in a concise
way or simpler language

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mkagenius
I am sorry but you cannot teach everything to a toddler. It needs years of
learning to understand something. Feynman knew this, he knew science was hard,
he would never say those things.

~~~
eesmith
And he didn't. The closest I know is the account described at
[https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Talk:Richard_Feynman](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Talk:Richard_Feynman)
:

> Feynman was a truly great teacher. He prided himself on being able to devise
> ways to explain even the most profound ideas to beginning students. Once, I
> said to him, "Dick, explain to me, so that I can understand it, why spin
> one-half particles obey Fermi-Dirac statistics." Sizing up his audience
> perfectly, Feynman said, "I'll prepare a freshman lecture on it." But he
> came back a few days later to say, "I couldn't do it. I couldn't reduce it
> to the freshman level. That means we don't really understand it."

"Beginning students" here means beginning college students. Not toddler.

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user68858788
I do this, it's useful. It helps during meetings as well. I figured on what's
being said and can retain the key ideas long enough to jot down afterwards.

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cheschire
But where am I going to find a toddler at this hour? Perhaps I could fill the
void by training a neural network instead.

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abecedarius
> In fact, he created a formula for learning

Citation needed. It's a good technique for your toolbox, but people like to
stick Feynman's name on their own things: quotes, the "Feynman algorithm", a
book titled _The Feynman Processor_...

~~~
Oatseller
> Citation needed.

There aren't any, I searched the last time the "Feynman Technique" was posted
on HN and found that the term originated on Youtube [0] in 2011.

When challenged by a commenter for a source the Youtuber stated:

> The technique is inspired by Feynman, not used directly by him.

> I was inspired by the story I shared in the beginning to formulate

> his more informal approach into a method. You can see him talk

> about understanding the math ideas in his book "Surely You Must Be

> Joking, Mr. Feynman"

From there it appears that "inspired by" has transformed into "created by"

[0]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FrNqSLPaZLc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FrNqSLPaZLc)

~~~
abecedarius
Thanks, that's what I thought. The article could be clearer about this.

