The Greatest Mentor I Never Met

Louis Sykes
April 27, 2022

From the Desk of Louis Sykes

As a teenager, I was deep into science.

It wasn't until the last year of high school that I made the last-minute decision to study finance at university. For the longest time, I was preparing to study mathematics, astronomy, and physics.

The universal disciplines of science I learned in this period will always stick with me as an aspiring trader.

One discipline is the Feynman Technique, a foundational mental model you can use to unlock growth in your career, startup, business, writing, and life.

One of my teenage heroes, Richard Feynman was a 20th-century American theoretical physicist.

In 1965, he won the Nobel Prize in physics for his work in quantum electrodynamics and his famous "Feynman diagrams."

Beyond his immense brilliance, he was well known for his wit and ability to convey extremely complex ideas in simple and digestible ways.

Feynman had a distaste for complicated jargon that often masked someone's knowledge on a topic.

The Feynman Technique removes unnecessary complexity while revealing fundamental ideas to gain a deeper understanding.

The Feynman Technique

Step 1: Choose a concept you want to learn about

Identify the topic you're curious about.

Once you do this, take a blank sheet of paper and write out everything you know about it.

As you learn more, add to your sheet.

If you think you understand the topic, move to Step 2.

Step 2: Teach a child

Use your sheet and everything you've learned and only use simple language.

If you understand the topic well enough, you'll be able to apply your knowledge to easy-to-follow anecdotes using basic language instead of masking your lack of knowledge with unnecessary jargon and complexity.

As Einstein famously said, “if you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough.”

Step 3: Reflect, refine, and simplify

Reflect on how well you explained the concept in simple terms.

Did you use unnecessary jargon?

Did you accidentally gloss over an important idea?

Was the explanation simple enough to follow?

If you answered yes to any of the above questions, refine your knowledge. You still have work to do in understanding this concept better.

Keep repeating until you have a simple explanation.

Step 4: Organize and review

Organize your now-elegant understanding of the idea into additional anecdotes you can use when explaining it to other people. Being able to apply your knowledge into relatable stories not only makes teaching an idea much more effective, but it's also indicative that you deeply understand the concept.

Test yourself in the real world and run it by other people.

What parts did they get confused with? What questions did they ask?

Use these questions to review and improve your understanding.

Beauty in Simplicity

The most successful people share an ability to reduce complex ideas in simple and relatable ways.

Often, complexity and jargon are merely used to mask a lack of deep understanding.

There's beauty in simplicity.

For those who want to learn more about Feynman, I highly recommend you watch the old BBC documentary.

His book "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!" is also a great glimpse into one of the brightest scientific minds in the 20th century.

“The first principle is that you must not fool yourself and you are the easiest person to fool.” -- Richard Feynman

From the Desk of Louis Sykes @haumicharts

 

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