Sahil Bloom Profile picture
Apr 2 17 tweets 5 min read Twitter logo Read on Twitter
How to learn anything.

The Feynman Technique:
The Feynman Technique is a learning method that prioritizes simplicity to build depth of understanding.

It takes its name after Richard Feynman—an American theoretical physicist who won the Nobel Prize in 1965 for his groundbreaking work in quantum electrodynamics.
Richard Feynman was certainly intelligent.

But there are a lot of intelligent people in the world.

Feynman's true genius was noted as his ability to convey complex ideas in simple, elegant ways.
He observed that complexity and jargon are often used to mask a lack of deep understanding.

Hence “The Feynman Razor” that I’ve written about:

If someone uses a lot of complexity and jargon to explain something to you, they probably don’t understand it.
The Feynman Technique is a learning framework that requires you to develop a deep understanding of a given topic.

It involves four key steps:

1. Set the Stage
2. ELI5 (Explain It To Me Like I'm 5)
3. Assess & Study
4. Organize, Convey & Review

Let's cover each step:
Step 1: Set the Stage

What’s the topic you want to learn?

Starting with a blank page, write the topic at the top and jot down everything you know about it.

Read & research the topic.

Add any new learnings or insights as you develop them.
Step 2: ELI5

Here's where it gets unique:

Attempt to explain the topic to someone without a base understanding of it (i.e. a “child”).

On a blank page, write down everything you know about your topic—but pretend you are explaining it to a child.

Use simple language!
Step 3: Assess & Study

Reflect on your performance. Form an honest assessment.

How well were you able to explain the topic to a child? Where did you get frustrated? Where did you turn to jargon?

These are the gaps in your understanding!

Read and study more to fill them.
Step 4: Organize, Convey & Review

Organize your elegant, simple language into a clear, compelling story or narrative.

Convey it to a few others, then iterate and refine accordingly.

Review your new, deep understanding of the topic.

Remember: Simple is beautiful.
The Feynman Technique is a powerful framework for learning anything.

The best entrepreneurs, investors, and thinkers have leveraged this technique—whether they know it or not!

Their common genius: the ability to abstract complexity and convey ideas in simple, digestible ways.
It's easy to overcomplicate and intimidate—we all know people who try to do this.

But don't be fooled—complexity and jargon are often used to mask a lack of deep understanding.

Be better.

Use the Feynman Technique: Find beauty in simplicity.
To summarize the Feynman Technique:

1. Set the Stage
2. ELI5 (Explain It To Me Like I'm 5)
3. Assess & Study
4. Organize, Convey & Review

Follow me @SahilBloom for more and RT the first tweet below to share it with others!
Just tried using this framework during bath time, but it turns out explaining it to a 10-month-old is significantly more difficult than explaining it to a 5-year-old.

Oh well. Onward!
In the 1960s, the National Training Laboratories Institute developed a pyramid model to represent the retention rate of information from various activities.

Takeaway: Teaching > Reading

I’ll share more in a future newsletter. Join 300,000+ others here. sahilbloom.com/newsletter
Teaching is a real life hack for learning.

When you're trying to learn something new, attempt to teach it to a friend or family member.

See what questions they ask and how those questions expose the gaps in your knowledge.

Study more to fill in those gaps.

It works.
Related: The Curse of Knowledge

Experts often make the flawed assumption that others have the same background and knowledge on a topic as they do.

It makes them unable to teach or lead in an effective manner for those still coming up the learning curve.
Richard Feynman was an example of the Paradox of Effort in action.

You have to put in more effort to make something appear effortless.

Effortless, elegant performances are often the result of a large volume of effortful, gritty practice.

Simple is not simple.

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More from @SahilBloom

Apr 1
Camp Cabo Mastermind was an incredible success.

Leaving with new energy and excitement to build.

Surround yourself with people who will push you to think big.
This place was just ridiculous.
Hard not to be inspired with these views.
Read 5 tweets
Mar 31
On the last day of every quarter, I perform a simple self check-in.

It’s a practical way to reflect on progress, assess my heading, and adjust accordingly.

Ask yourself these questions today:
There’s a concept in aviation called the 1-in-60 Rule.

It says that a 1 degree error in heading will cause a plane to miss its target by 1 mile for every 60 miles flown.

Small miss now, large miss later.

This highlights the need for real-time course correction and adjustment.
I developed a simple quarterly check-in to assess course and make necessary adjustments.

It’s grounded in questions:

• Reflect: 2 questions to reflect on prior quarter
• Assess: 3 questions to assess heading
• Adjust: 5 questions to act on adjustments

Let's walk through it:
Read 9 tweets
Mar 30
If you sit in back-to-back meetings at work, read this:
Microsoft's Human Factors Lab studied 14 participants across two days of video meetings.

Day 1: 4 back-to-back 30-min meetings.

Day 2: 4 30-min meetings with 10-min breaks in between.

Participants wore EEG caps to monitor electrical activity in their brains.

The takeaways:
Takeaway 1: Back-to-Back Meetings Promote Stress

Back-to-back meetings created an accumulating buildup of stress in the brain. Anticipation of transitions caused further spikes.

Short breaks in between meetings allowed the brain to reset and never experience the stress buildup.
Read 10 tweets
Mar 27
3 contrarian takes on productivity:

1. Driving in silence is more productive than driving with podcasts on 2x speed.

2. Resting for 15 minutes between meetings is more productive than filling the time with a work task.

3. Reading slowly is more productive than reading quickly.
Note: This comes from a former 2x speed podcast listening driver who filled every spare moment of time with email and read as fast as possible so he could tell people he read 100 books a year.

🤣🤣🤣
Elite athletes great at modulating intensity.

They know that slowing down strategically in training allows them to speed up in competition when the lights come on.

The same lesson applies to our professional lives.

We have to learn how to modulate intensity in order to thrive.
Read 4 tweets
Mar 26
Ran the Scarsdale 15K this morning and my superfan cheered me on for the finish!

Finished in 10th at 1:01:19 (6:35 pace).

Perfect day.
First time really competing at something since my baseball days.

I forgot how much fun it is when you get the adrenaline pumping.

Had never done a training run sub 7-minute pace, but when the lights turned on…
Here were the splits (for any other running nerds out there).

Plan was to start at 7:15 first mile and slowly pick up from there, but the starting gun adrenaline got the best of me and then I just tried to hunt.
Read 8 tweets
Mar 25
If you struggle with low energy in the morning, try this 2-minute morning routine:
When I was playing baseball in college, we'd have early morning practices, but after a late night of studying (that's all I was doing, Mom!), having energy to hit those early mornings was tough.

So I developed a quick movement series to wake up.

I called it my 5-5-5-30 routine:
My 5-5-5-30 morning routine:

• 5 push-ups
• 5 squats
• 5 lunges
• 30-second plank

Do it right when you get out of bed.

It gives you a beautiful natural energy boost to start the day.
Read 11 tweets

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