The Learning Phase
- Learn enough to get started.
- Playing around with the information will give context and tacit knowledge to go back and do more verbal, analytic learning.
- Learn enough to do something useful with it.
- Teach. It is the only way to know for sure that you’ve learned something and a great way to fill in the gaps in your learning.
MORE IDEAS FROM THE ARTICLE
Acquiring information is not learning.
Although textooks can help, they only work when combined with practice.
- Get the big picture. Scan articles etc. to get an idea of what the field is about.
- Determine scope. Limit the size of what you want to learn. “Physics” or “philosophy” is too wide and will take decades. “Classical mechanics”, while still wide, might be a bit easier.
- Define success. Make a clear goal for your learning.
- Find resources
- Create a learning plan from what you have learned in you previous steps.
- Filter resources. Narrow down your resource list (Step 4) to the most important essentials.
The first lesson is that learning is a loop.
It’s not a pretty loop, and it looks something like this: play → study → teach → play → study → play → study → teach … and so on.
The other big lesson? Learning is about play.
RELATED IDEAS
Feynman relied heavily on verbal communication, such as when he used cartoonish diagrams to explain highly scientific principles.
Feynman could easily tap into complex ideas using shapes, lines, and drawings. This method helped him strip away confusing language and permitted the power of storytelling to take precedence.
- Teach it to a child. Write down what you know about the subject in plain language. This forces you to understand the concept at a deeper level and simplify relationships and connections between ideas.
- Review the gaps in your knowledge that you uncovered in step 1. Identifying the boundaries of your understanding limits possible mistakes and increase chances of success.
- Organize and Simplify your new set of hand-crafted notes. A good indication that your understanding in that area still needs some work is If the explanation isn’t simple or sounds confusing.
- (optional): Transmit.The ultimate test of your knowledge is your capacity to convey it to another.