Richard Feynman The Great Explainer

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Richard Feynman was an American Nobel Laureate who made groundbreaking contributions to the field of quantum mechanics and particle physics and pioneered the concept of nanotechnology. His invention of the Feynman Diagram helped bring much-needed visual clarification to the behavior of subatomic particles. In the early 1960s, at Caltech he produced a series of lectures that later became The Feynman Lectures on Physics. These lectures were aimed at students who had no previous knowledge of particle physics. Feynman was a master of taking the mystery out of complex scientific principles. He was called the “Great Explainer.” Through his teaching style he showed the world that anyone irrespective of their IQ was capable of learning the most complicated things in a simple, systematic and elegant way. • The Feynman Technique is a four-step process for deeply learning and internalizing topics. • Step 1 – Study • The first step is simple and intuitive. All you have to do is choose a topic and start studying - make notes and understand the material. Then break it down into its most basic components and seek to understand it as a whole. • Step 2 – Teach • In the second step - it’s time to teach it to someone else. You will have to simplify your words, perhaps come up with analogies and stories, and be forced with speak plain terms. Ideally, the person you’re teaching will ask questions and probe you, trying to find holes in your knowledge base. • Step 3 – Fill the Gaps • If you got Phubbed or you failed to teach the concept to the child you will uncover some gaps in your knowledge. You will now have to go back to studying, but this time your reading is focused on filling these knowledge gaps. The aim here is to turn your knowledge gaps into areas of your strength. • If you are struggling to identify your knowledge gaps just ask yourself these 2 questions: Which parts did I struggle to explain? • Which details did I miss? • Finally Step 4 – Simplify, Organize Tell a story • Simplify the content. This step builds a cohesive understanding of the topic. To be able to cut away the fluff and explain something so clearly that even young children with limited vocabulary can easily understand and get excited about. It’s hard to do unless we have deep mastery of the topic and fully understand how all of the different things interact with each other. • Teaching in this way improves our Communication Skills which is a very different skill set. The most knowledgeable people quite commonly are not good teachers because of their inability to simplify concepts and lack the ability to get down to meet their learners at their level. The Feynman technique promotes Critical Thinking and encourages us to find simple innovative explanations for tricky ideas. When you master this technique it translates beautifully into a critical life skill we all need. • Icons from https://www.flaticon.com/ and FreePik • Doctor free icon, Open Book free icon, Rules free icon, Tactical free icon, Lecture free icon, Sharing free icon • Wikipedia • Richard Feynman, The Feynman Lectures on Physics, Quantum electrodynamics, Albert Einstein, Learning by teaching, The Obstacle is the way, James Gleick

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