The Feynman Technique

In Greek mythology, there were the muses, who provided inspiration for creative ideas.

Now, even if we stopped believing in muses, we still think about the process of producing ideas as something magical, that we can cannot explain or control.

"Idea generation could be thought of as a search for novelty, while its process partner, idea evaluation, might be thought of as an effort to make novel thinking practical, useful or relevant."

People believe that expert performance means the performer must be endowed with talent. This is only true for some individuals.

The difference between expert performers and regular people is that experts have spent a deliberate effort to improve their performance in a specific area. They practice with the objective of mastering it.

Deliberate practice is focused, systematic, and purposeful.

• It is designed specifically to improve performance.
• It can be repeated a lot.
• Feedback on results is continuously available.
• It's highly demanding mentally.
• It's not much fun.

Our brain’s executive system is active during any goal-oriented task, where there is a level of focus required.

During a period of passivity, the large scale brain networks become the default mode networks and work in tandem. This is our period of rest, where the entire brain is in a relaxed but highly active state.

This period is when we let our brain generate spontaneous thoughts while not being focused on anything.

Our brain is oscillating between two different brain states: Focused thinking and Diffused thinking. This is the reason people have shower thoughts or sudden solutions to problems that are bothering them for long.

These two modes of thinking allow us to merge creativity with productivity.

• In any research, the validity of any concept is the first thing to check.
• One has to stress-test the rationality and see if the right thing is measured, for the right outcome to be divulged.
• Validity helps us evaluate the accuracy and appropriateness of the mental model in a particular situation.

The most important part is to check the consistency of any mental model when the same circumstances are applied repeatedly. Ideally one has to get the same result. This is usually done by:

1. Test-Retest Method: A set of diverse and repeated tests can check the reliability of a mental model.
2. The Inter-Observer Method: This method takes into account data from different observers or administrators to cross-check the validity and reliability of a mental model.

Numerous studies show that external life circumstances have a small impact on our long-term happiness.

Other research shows that happiness is very high immediately after a major positive event, but will return to the level it was in a month or two. This stable level of happiness is called your happiness set point.

Your happiness set point is not fixed. It's more a soft baseline that your happiness will hover around for the majority of your life.

Resilience research proposes that your resilience is mostly your ability to keep your happiness at the set point while going through difficult experiences.

Research found that divergent thinking is linked to playfulness and creativity.

Children who play more tend to display curiosity, persistence, nonconformity, and a willingness to take risks. These are important characteristics for innovative solutions.

• Mind mapping helps your brain work by association. Start in the centre and add notes, connecting branches together.
• Brainstorming. Generate as many ideas as possible.
• Free writing. Focus on the question and write without stopping for a specified time.
• Journaling. It helps to clarify your thinking while producing new ideas.
• Art. Doodling, painting, creating graphs and illustrations will help you think outside the box.
• Role playing. Putting yourself in the shoes of a different character is a good way to practice divergent thinking.

• Attention. To learn, we need to be able to focus on some aspects while ignoring or excluding others. For example, reading this paragraph while ignoring the noise around you.
• Memory. Knowing how memory works and how you can make learning more efficient can increase your performance. Science-based techniques include interleaving and chunking.
• Executive control. Being able to plan, to create a sequence of steps, and to retain important information for short periods. While most happens in the prefrontal cortex, lots of research is needed to understand how executive control works.
• Social behaviour. Social Neuroscience is aiming to understand how our biology affects our social behaviours.
• Neurodiversity. Conditions such as ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder), dyscalculia (difficulty with arithmetical calculations), and dyslexia impact learning. Neuroeducation aims to understand how these conditions best adapt to the learning environment.

Learning starts in childhood and continues into adulthood. Some learning happens in our spare time, and a lot in the workplace.

Many of the current applications of neuroeducation in the classroom are usable in the workplace. Since $80 billion is spent every year on corporate training in the United States, we need to ensure training interventions are effective. Neuroeducation could provide an answer, ensuring employees understand how the brain thinks, learn, and make decisions.

• Metacognitive knowledge: What you know about yourself and others in terms of thinking and learning processes.
• Metacognitive regulation: The methods you use to control your learning.
• Metacognitive experiences: The thoughts and feelings you have during your learning process.

• Declarative knowledge: the knowledge you have about your learning style and about what the factors that influence you.
• Procedural knowledge: what you know about learning in general - strategies you found or that you have already applied.
• Conditional knowledge: it refers to knowing when and why you should use declarative and procedural knowledge.