Richard Feynman was not only a Nobel-prize-winning physicist, he was also called “The Great Explainer” for his ability to break down complicated ideas and communicate them to others in a simple, intuitive way.
He’s also the inventor of The Feynman Technique, a method for developing a deep understanding of complex topics that has a lot of PKM parallels for curious sensemakers.
In this post, I want to introduce you to the Feynman Technique and show you what you can learn from it to help you gain clarity on complex topics and turn your ideas into action.
What is the Feynman Technique?
There are four steps to the Feinman Technique:
- Identify Your Topic
- Teach it to a Child
- Identify Knowledge Gaps
- Simplify
The reason this technique is so effective is that it helps you go from a passive consumer of information to an active creator of knowledge.
It’s the difference between feeling overwhelmed by all the information sitting in your digital filing cabinet and being able to create consistently by never running out of ideas.
“The first principle is that you must not fool yourself and you are the easiest person to fool.” – Richard Feynman
Let’s break this down step by step.
Step 1: Identify Your Topic
The first step is to get specific about what you’re trying to learn. Start with a blank page (or a new note) and simply start writing down everything you know about the topic.
There’s a saying that “Thoughts disentangle themselves through lips and pencil tips.” I would add, "And also clicky keyboards."
Codifying your thoughts is the first step in turning information into revelation.
Step 2: Teach it to a Child
The second step is to attempt to explain the concept in plain language. Imagine you’re explaining it to a 12-year-old: how would you describe a complex topic in simple terms?
If you’ve not tried this before, you might be surprised at how difficult this can be. It’s easy to describe something in complex terms, but only someone who really understands something can make it simple.
By distilling the idea down to its essence, you further your understanding of the topic.
Step 3: Identify Your Knowledge Gaps
The third step is where you identify where your explanation is unclear. Reviewing things like this will expose areas where you don’t understand things as well as you think you do.
This will help identify any weak sections where you use unnecessarily complex language.
Step 4: Simplify
The fourth step is to distill the idea down even further. Go back and rewrite it again in even simpler language, until it can be understood by a complete novice.
“If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.” - Albert Einstein
When you realize where something could be improved, rewrite it.
How the Feynman Technique Influences My PKM System
Since I’m no longer a student, I don’t have a need to master material like when I was studying for a test. As a result, I don't follow the four steps of the Feynman Technique in order to master material very often.
But I do still implement pieces of this every day in my PKM system.
First, whenever I feel like I’m having trouble wrapping my head around a topic, I’ll open up a new note and just start writing what I think. I look for the mental squeeze point (where I start to feel stressed about a lack of clarity), then force myself to sit down and just start writing.
I pull in bits and pieces of things on my mental workbench, and I create my own “map” of the topic. I connect things and force myself to interject my own opinion notes, usually inside of colored callouts.
Here’s an example from my map on the topic of habits:
Second, I force myself to distill the information from books that I read into three-sentence summaries. It’s impossible to encapsulate everything from a 200-page book into a couple of sentences, but that’s kind of the point.
For example, here’s my summary of Atomic Habits by James Clear:
The key is to not just collect a bunch of technical information. Instead, try to wring more out of the notes and ideas you already have.
The Bottom Line: If You Want to Understand Something Well, Try to Explain it Simply.
By attempting to explain something at a 5th-grade level, you’ll quickly see where you have a good understanding of the concept and where your problem areas are. Knowing where the gaps are in your understanding makes it easy to seek new explanations and can lead to breakthroughs in understanding when attempting to solve difficult problems.
