If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it.
Richard Feynman — Nobel Prize-winning physicist and legendary teacher — used a deceptively simple 4-step method to master anything. The core idea: if you can't explain a concept in plain language, your understanding has a hole in it.
The 4-step Feynman Technique
Takes 20–30 minutes per concept. Worth every second.
Pick a concept and study it
Choose something you need to understand — not just memorise. Read your notes, textbook, or watch a lecture. Get a baseline understanding before moving on.
Explain it like you're teaching a 12-year-old
Write out or say aloud a full explanation of the concept using simple language — no jargon, no formulas hidden behind acronyms. Pretend your audience has never heard of this.
Find the gaps in your explanation
Wherever you stumbled, used vague language, or skipped over something — that's a gap. Go back to your source material and fill in exactly what you couldn't explain.
Simplify and use analogies
Now refine your explanation. Use analogies. Replace technical terms with plain descriptions. The simpler and clearer you can make it, the deeper your understanding.
Jargon vs Feynman explanation
The goal is not to sound smart. The goal is to actually understand.
Jargon version
“Chlorophyll absorbs photons to drive the Calvin cycle via photophosphorylation.”
Feynman version
“Plants use sunlight as the power source to turn air (CO₂) and water into sugar — basically solar-powered food production.”
Jargon version
“Price is determined by the intersection of the supply and demand curves at equilibrium.”
Feynman version
“If everyone wants something and there isn't much of it, the price goes up. If nobody wants it, the price drops until someone does.”
Jargon version
“For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction in an inertial reference frame.”
Feynman version
“When you push against a wall, the wall pushes back just as hard. That's why jumping off a boat pushes the boat away from you.”
AI as your Feynman partner
The hardest step is identifying your own gaps. Elly helps surface them.
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