Feynman learning method can be simplified into four words: Concept, Teach, Review and Simplify. The specific methods are as follows.
step one: teach it to a child.
Take out a blank sheet of paper and write down the topic you want to learn on it. Think about what you would say and write it down if you were to teach it to a child. Your teaching object here is not your own smart adult friends, but an 8-year-old child whose vocabulary and attention are just enough to understand basic concepts and relationships.
Many people tend to use complicated words and jargon to cover up what they don't understand. The problem is that we are only fooling ourselves, because we don't know and we don't understand. In addition, using jargon will hide the misunderstanding of people around us.
when you write an idea in a simple language that children can understand from beginning to end (hint: only use the most common words), then you force yourself to understand the concept at a deeper level and simplify the relationship and connection between viewpoints. If you work hard, you will know clearly where you are and what you don't understand. This tension is good-it indicates the opportunity to learn.
step two: review.
in the first step, you will inevitably get stuck, forget important points, and cannot explain or relate important concepts.
this feedback is valuable because you have found the edge of your knowledge. Knowing the boundaries of your own abilities is also an ability, and you have just identified one.
this is where learning begins. Now that you know where you are stuck, go back to the original materials and learn again until you can explain the concept in basic terms. Identifying the boundaries of your knowledge will limit the mistakes you may make and increase the chances of success when applying this knowledge.
Step 3: Organize and simplify the language.
now that you have a set of handwritten notes, check to make sure you haven't borrowed any jargon from the raw materials. Organize these notes into a smooth story in simple language.
Read the story out loud. If these explanations are not simple enough or sound confusing, good, which means you need to do some work to understand the field.
fourth and fourth steps (optional): teaching.
if you really want to make sure that there is nothing wrong with your understanding, teach it to another person (ideally, this person should know little about this topic, or just find an 8-year-old child). The ultimate way to test knowledge is that you have the ability to spread it to another person.
This is not only a wonderful way to learn, but also a window to spy out different ways of thinking, which allows you to tear your ideas apart and reassemble them from scratch. This learning method will give you a deeper understanding of ideas and concepts. The important thing is that by solving the problem in this way, you can understand the problem without others knowing what they are talking about.