How to Study Way More Effectively: The Feynman Technique

In a 2007 graduation speech, Charlie Munger told an interesting but fictional story about two people: the great scientist Max Planck, and his chauffeur. Max was, undoubtedly, a wise scientist. The people of Germany longed to hear him speak. He toured the country with his chauffeur, giving talks about his work. Day after day, the chauffeur grew tired of hearing the same speech over and over again. Finally, he asked, “Max, can I try giving the speech this time? I’ve listened to it so many times I have it memorized.” Max agreed to let the chauffeur give the speech. He took a seat at the front and put on the chauffeur’s hat. The chauffeur pretended to be Max and played the part perfectly. The speech was a success. At the end, a small man rose and asked the chauffeur a question. His response? “That’s such a simple question, I’m surprised that you would ask it. I’ll let my chauffeur answer it.”

在2007年的一场毕业演讲中，查理芒格讲了一个有趣但是虚构的故事。故事是关于两个主人公：其中一个是伟大的科学家Max Plank，另一个则是他的司机。Max毫无疑问是一位有智慧的科学家。德国的人们都很渴望去听他的演讲。他的司机载着他在城市做着巡回演讲。一天天过去了，司机逐渐对听到的每日相同的演讲变得越发疲倦。因此他向Max问道：“Max，这一次我能不能来发表讲话呢？我听了这个演讲很多次了我已经记住它了。”Max同意了让他来发表这一次的讲话。Max坐在了前排的位置并戴上了司机的帽子。司机假装是Max而且表演的部分没有一丝破绽。演讲取得了成功。结束的时候，一个矮小的男子站了起来问了司机一个问题。司机回答他说：“这么简单的一个问题，我很惊讶你竟然问, 我就让我的司机来回答你的这个问题吧。”

Charlie Munger told the story to highlight the difference between two kinds of knowledge: the deep knowledge that Max had and the shallow knowledge that the chauffeur had. The world is overflowing with information. It’s impossible to learn deeply about everything. In fact, there are benefits to having a shallow understanding of ideas. For starters, it allows us to connect with other people in their area of expertise and have conversations with a wide variety of people. It also allows us to understand important things on the surface, which may be better than not understanding at all. In the essence of time, sometimes we have to outsource our understanding to experts, but in my opinion, it’s always best not to act on information we haven’t reviewed ourselves if possible, because even experts can be wrong or misinformed. 

查理讲这个故事的原因是为了强调两种不同知识之间的区别：Max所拥有的深度知识以及司机拥有的表层知识。这个世界泛滥着信息。想要深度地学习了解到所有的事物是不可能的。事实上，对于观点有一个浅层次的理解是有些益处的。对于初学者来说，这能够让我们与在他们领域里的专家连结起来，让我们能够跟更广泛的人谈话。这也能让我们对与重要的事情有一个浅层次的理解，这总比一无所知要强。从时间的重要性而言，有时候我们不得不把我们对与事物的理解让专家们来一手包办。但是在我看来，如果可能的话，最好不要以那些我们自身都还没检验的信息而采取行动，因为甚至是专家都可能是错误的，被误导了。

There are dangers associated with attaining shallow information as well. The biggest is that, like the chauffeur, we risk fooling ourselves into thinking we actually understand or know something when we don’t. Even worse, we risk taking action on misinformation or misunderstanding. As Richard Feynman famously said, “The first principle is that you must not fool yourself and you are the easiest person to fool.” The best way to not be a fool is to think critically and learn deeply. One of the best ways to grasp a deeper understanding of an idea is to utilize the Feynman Technique. There are four simple steps.

获得浅层性知识同样也伴随着危险。最大的危害是：就像那个司机，我们愚弄了我们自身，自以为我们了解并懂得了我们实际上并不懂的知识。甚至更严重的是：我们由于误导或者错误的理解而冒险采取行动。正如瑞查德.费曼的名言所说：第一条准则是永远也不要自我欺骗，而你自身是最容易受到自己欺骗的人。最好避免成为愚昧者的方法就是批判性思考以及深入学习。获取对一个观点的深入领会的其中一个最好的办法就是使用费曼的四个技巧。

Step one: Explain the topic out loud to a peer who is unfamiliar with the topic. Meet them at their level of understanding and use the simplest language you can. Step two: Identify any gaps in your own understanding or points where you feel that you can’t explain an idea simply. Step three: Go back to the source material and study upon your weak points until you can use simple language to explain it. And then, the final step is to repeat the three steps above until you’ve mastered the topic.

第一步：向一个对于这个话题不熟悉的同伴大声地阐释出这个话题。处于他们的理解水平与其交谈，并且尽可能地使用最简单的语言。第二步：辨别找出那些鸿沟，它们在你自身的理解里或者是在你感觉到无法用简单言语解释清楚的地方。第三步：返回到原始资料，研究你的薄弱点直到你能用简单的言语解释它。之后，最后一步就是重复以上三个步骤直到你掌握了整个主题。

There are two main goals to strive for when using the Feynman Technique: be simple and concise. See if you can explain the concept to a five-year-old. If you can, try to come up with an original analogy to help you explain the topic. Creating an analogy is a fantastic way to gain mastery over an idea and learn empathy. It forces you to meet the person at their level of understanding and teach them something new by relating it to an idea they’re already familiar with. 

当使用费曼技巧的时候有两个要做到的目标：简单以及准确。看一下自己是否能把这个概念解释给一个五岁的孩童。如果你可以，尽力提出一个原始的类比来帮助你阐明这个话题。用一种有趣的方式创建一个类比来把握一个概念以及学会移情。这迫使你处于对方的理解水平去与他们交流，通过联系他们已经熟悉的事物来教授他们新知。（ps教授是学习方式）

Here’s an example of an analogy: the basic structure of a story can be thought of as a pyramid: tension builds up to maximum and then drops. Of course, there are many different ways to write a story and not all of them can be reduced to such a simple structure. But the image of a pyramid conveys a lot of complex information to the student in a simple manner. They can relate the structure of a story to a shape they’re familiar with and have an intuitive understanding of the pyramid. It shows them that there must be tension in a good story. This is commonly referred to as the rising action. The tension must rise to a maximum point, which is called the climax. At this point, the tension must fall or be diffused – we refer to this as the falling action. Creating an analogy like this forces me to have a deep enough understanding of the topic to relate it to an idea the student is already familiar with.

有一个类比的例子：一个故事的结构可以思考成一座金字塔。紧张感的不断累积达到顶峰然后下降。诚然，这儿有许多不同的方法来写一个故事，而且并不是所有的故事都能够压缩成这样一个简单的结构。但是一个金字塔的图像就能够传递出许多复杂的信息给一个不太成熟的学生。他们能够将故事的结构与一个他们熟悉的图形联系起来，并且他们对于金字塔有一个直观的理解和认识。这表明一个好的故事肯定拥有紧张感。这普遍被认为是行动的上升。这种紧张感肯定会达到一个最大值，这被称作高潮。到达这一点的时候，这种紧张感就会下降甚至消散。我们将这称为行为的衰退。创建一个像这样的类比迫使我们对这个主题有一个足够深的理解来把它与学生们已经熟悉的观点联系起来。

“Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex and more violent. It takes a touch of genius – and a lot of courage – to move in the opposite direction.” – E. F. Schumacher

“任何一个聪明的傻瓜都能使事情变得更加庞大，更加复杂以及更加激烈。然而朝这样相反的方向前进只需要花一点点天赋以及足够大的勇气。 – E. F. Schumacher

So, when should we apply the Feynman Technique to learn more deeply？

I’d argue that the two most important places to apply it is when we’re making a life-changing decision or when we’re working on our craft. If you want to be an artist, you should apply it whenever you’re making art so that you can deliberately improve. If you’re an engineer, you might apply it when you’re studying or working on a technical project.

所以，什么时候我们应该运用费曼的技巧来获得深入的学习呢？

我认为要应用这个技巧是当我们处于做出改变人生决定或是我们努力工作的这两个最重要的时刻。如果你想要成为一名艺术家，你应该将它运用于你创造艺术的每时每刻好让自己有意识地提升。如果你是一名工程师，你可能在你学习或者解决一个技术项目时运用它。

The massive advantages of using the Feynman Technique are that it helps you develop a true understanding of whatever your learning; allows you to make informed and intelligent decisions; applying your knowledge to real-world problems becomes much easier; your teaching skills improve; and your capacity to think critically about a topic is increased. The only trade-off is time and effort, even then the time you invest upfront is more than returned later on. 

使用费曼技巧有大量的好处，它能够帮助你对任何你所学习的事物形成正确的理解；它能够使你做出充分完备智慧的决定; 也使得你运用知识来解决现实问题变得更加简单，并且你批判性思考的能力将会得到提升。仅仅需要与之交换的是时间与努力，甚至你之前投入进去的时间在之后会成为更多的回报。

This technique was named after Richard Feynman, a Nobel Prize-winning physicist. In his biography on Richard Feynman, James Gleick said that Richard would create a journal for the things he did not know. His discipline and challenging his own understanding made him a genius and a brilliant scientist. Now that you know his secret, I’m excited for you to step into your own greatness.

这种策略是以Richard Feynman命名，他是一位诺贝尔得主物理学家。在他的自传Richard Feynman里，James Gleick说Richard创建了一个他不知道之事物的日记。他的训练以及挑战他自身的理解是他成为一个天才，成为了一个杰出的科学家。既然你已经知道了他的秘密，我为你即将步入你自身的伟大而感到激动。