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Richard Feynman was known as 'The Great Explainer. ' He believed that if you couldn't explain a concept to a six-year-old, you didn't understand it yourself. This became the basis of the 'Feynman Technique': 1) Choose a concept. 2) Teach it to a child. 3) Identify gaps. 4) Review and simplify. He abhorred jargon and rote memorization, valuing deep, intuitive understanding above all else. He teaches that the name of something is not the knowledge of something.
"You should never feel bad about not knowing something."
"What I cannot create, I do not understand."
"I was born not knowing and have had only a little time to change that here and there."
"There is no harm in not knowing."
"I would rather have questions that can't be answered than answers that can't be questioned."
"The prize is the pleasure of finding the thing out, the kick in the discovery, the observation that other people use it."
"Everything is interesting if you go into it deeply enough."
"I had to learn to not care what other people thought."
"I don’t know what’s the matter with people: they don’t learn by understanding; they learn by some other way—by rote or something."
"Knowing how to solve a problem is not the same as understanding why the solution works."
"I was always very frustrated by the fact that I didn't know enough. But I've learned to live with it."
"I am always very stupid. It takes me a long time to understand things. I have to go over them again and again."
"I'm an explorer. I like to find out."
"Study hard what interests you the most in the most undisciplined, irreverent and original manner possible."
"You can know the name of a bird in all the languages of the world, but when you're finished, you'll know absolutely nothing whatever about the bird."
"I wonder why. I wonder why. I wonder why I wonder why I wonder why!"
"I’ve always been very interested in why I can’t do things. I’m always very stupid. It takes me a long time to understand things."
"To not know is not a failure. It is an opportunity."
Seeing how Richard Feynman approaches Learning helps you apply the idea with more precision.
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