The Feynman Technique: The Best Way to Learn Anything

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It is always good to ask ourselves, once in a while, “Have I learnt anything, lately?”

There are two types of knowledge and most of us focus on the wrong one. The first type of knowledge focuses on knowing the name of something. The second focuses on knowing something. These are not the same thing. The famous Nobel winning physicist Richard Feynman understood the difference between knowing something and knowing the name of something and it’s one of the most important reasons for his success. In fact, he created a formula for learning that ensured he understood something better than everyone else.

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Farnam Street

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Nobel-Winning Physicist Richard Feynman’s Extraordinary Letter to His Departed Wife

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Touching.

I find it hard to understand in my mind what it means to love you after you are dead — but I still want to comfort and take care of you — and I want you to love me and care for me. I want to have problems to discuss with you — I want to do little projects with you. I never thought until just now that we can do that. What should we do. We started to learn to make clothes together — or learn Chinese — or getting a movie projector. Can’t I do something now? No. I am alone without you and you were the “idea-woman” and general instigator of all our wild adventures.

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Maria Popova — Brainpickings

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The Difference Between Knowing the Name of Something and Knowing Something

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This one is another article related to Richard Feynman. There is just so much to learn from him. With the vast amount of information before us, we live in a world of generalities. I find myself specially guilty of this with my love for trivia. Today’s needull makes you ask this question to yourself – Do I really understand?

Test it this way: you say, “Without using the new word which you have just learned, try to rephrase what you have just learned in your own language.” Without using the word “energy,” tell me what you know now about the dog’s motion.” You cannot. So you learned nothing about science. That may be all right. You may not want to learn something about science right away. You have to learn definitions. But for the very first lesson, is that not possibly destructive?

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Farnam Street

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My Time with Richard Feynman

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In my mind Richard Feynman stands for something I have always aspired to achieve. The joy of pure learning, without thinking whether it will help me in my career or life. There have been some moments in my life when I have felt that joy. But of late, I have been missing that feeling since a long time.

Some scientists (myself probably included) are driven by the ambition to build grand intellectual edifices. I think Feynman — at least in the years I knew him — was much more driven by the pure pleasure of actually doing the science. He seemed to like best to spend his time figuring things out, and calculating. And he was a great calculator. All around perhaps the best human calculator there’s ever been.

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Stephen Wolfram — Backchannel

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The Best Teacher I Never Had

Good teachers love what they teach and so it comes naturally to them. All good teachers that have taught me were passionate about their subject. One would tell numerous stories and anecdotes, while the other would bring colorful chalks to make force diagrams on the blackboard.

“Surely, You’re Joking, Mr Feynman!” is a must read book if you want to rediscover the joy of learning. Today’s needull is written by Bill Gates discussing why Feynman was such an amazing teacher.

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The blog of Bill Gates

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