[Music]
this video sponsored by brilliant org a
math and science problem-solving website
that helps you think more like a
scientist 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 date 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 show for his
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
charlie munger told a 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 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 fineman
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 Fineman technique
there are four simple steps step 1
explain the topic out loud to appear who
is unfamiliar with the topic meet them
at their level of understanding and used
the simplest language you can step 2
identify any gaps in your own
understanding or points where you feel
that you can't explain an idea simply
step 3
go back to the source material and study
up on 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 there are two main goals to strive
for when using the Fineman 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 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 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 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 EF Schumacher so when should
we apply the Fineman 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 the massive advantages of using
the Fineman technique are that it held
to 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 improved 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 this technique was named after
Richard Fineman a Nobel prize-winning
physicist in his biography on Richard
Feynman James gleich 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
like the Fineman technique brilliant org
also follows a simple yet effective
structure that helps you guys learn and
grow brilliant is a math and science
problem-solving website and it's
relevant for any person who wants to get
ahead in finance programming engineering
or someone who just wants to think more
like a scientist my favorite course
right now is physics of the everyday
which like it sounds show us how the
principles of physics are applied to
things we experience in everyday life
brilliant mirrors the structure of the
Fineman technique you start by thinking
through interesting puzzles in a guided
sequence which is one of the most
effective ways to identify the gaps in
your own understanding when you get
stuck you can look up the solution to
brush up on your weak points it's really
a fun way to learn and to better
yourself so I highly recommend checking
it out just go to brilliant org slash
freedom and thought or click the link in
the description below and you can sign
up for free as a bonus for those who
want to get ahead the first 200 people
will be hooked up with 20% off the
annual subscription as always thanks for
watching and I'll see you guys next time