you want to be more intelligent but
you're not sure how to do it you want
better grades or perhaps just want to
sound clever when hanging out with your
friends but you find like a lot of other
people that sometimes things go in one
year and come right out the other you
learn stuff and then you forget it and
when asked about various subjects you
can't always seem to articulate your
thoughts when asked to do so you're not
alone and today we're going to offer you
some help the man who will help us to
become more intelligent is now deceased
but in his lifetime this American
physicist named Richard Feinman was
quite well known for being able to
explain very difficult matters of
science to laymen like us
he kind of popularized science in his
day much like the British physicist
Brian Cox is busy doing today we should
all try to understand the world around
us but at times we pick up a book and
are just completely overwhelmed by what
we read we won't do a full biography on
this dearly departed scientist but will
tell you that in 1965 he won the Nobel
Prize he was one of the guys that worked
on the atomic bomb he spearheaded the
science of nanotechnology and was a
pioneer of quantum computing he has been
called a certified genius and one of the
greatest physicists that ever lived he
wanted regular people to know a lot more
about science and he came up with ideas
as to how they might learn more and be
able to articulate what they know to
others his method for learning stuff
became known as the Fineman technique
and while he was a scientist his
technique could work for any subject
matter let's say you wanted the wax
about Greek philosophy in the bar over a
beer or you'd like to impress someone
with your knowledge of the French
Revolution or perhaps just passed a test
in school this technique can help with
all of that first of all let's look at
something an American philosopher named
Mortimer Adler once set his wise words
were the person who says he knows what
he thinks but cannot express it usually
does not nobody thinks so you think you
know quite a lot about something say
blockchain technology or how a
television works then we say to you okay
a big brain explain what you know you
try and do this but can't seem to get it
across and so just say something like
well I know but I just can't explain it
we've all been in this situation
according to find Lin this means you
actually don't fully understand what you
profess to understand if you really
understood it you could explain it in
the simplest terms to someone else and
pass on the knowledge you see Fineman
believed that sometimes we can explain
things with a bunch of words but we
really do
know what we're talking about he said
there's a big difference between knowing
the name of something and really
actually knowing something inside and
out we might now look at something the
great Oscar Wilde said a man who is
quoted perhaps more than anyone he said
I am so clever that sometimes I don't
understand a single word of what I'm
saying we can sometimes think we know
something and are able to regurgitate a
book we read but we might not know what
we're talking about intimately for
Fineman we had to get past fussy
knowledge and know something thoroughly
Albert Einstein would have agreed
because he once said this if you can't
explain it simply you don't understand
it well enough okay so how does this
actually work first of all you have to
have a topic something you want to know
more about let's take a subject that
we've talked about on quite a few of our
shows and that's how babies are made
what happens before we're born what
happens to our body during the act
that's making babies and what happens
during pregnancy if you've seen those
shows you'll know it's all quite complex
but you certainly don't have to be
especially clever to be able to explain
this to someone else nonetheless
sometimes when you research a topic the
words seem difficult if you want to
really understand something you must be
able to read those words and then
simplify Fineman once famously said you
may know the name of a bird in all the
languages of the world but in the end
you'll know absolutely nothing about
whatever the bird is so let's look at
the bird and see what it does that's
what counts I learned early enough the
difference between knowing the name of
something and knowing something
according to Fineman we must start with
a topic then write down everything we
already know about this topic on a piece
of paper you could of course use a
computer but let's first do this on
paper and then write it up after on a
device this will also help the second
step is to take out all the jargon you
just wrote down now just tell yourself
that you're gonna explain all this to a
twelve-year-old not to your friend who's
in his 20s this means adding a lot of
explanations in your case you're
describing what happens in a woman's
body so you must explain all the body
parts you can't just say uterus without
explaining what it is and what its
function is this is a kid you're talking
to and you must take it that he doesn't
know much
according to Fineman we often just use
words we don't fully understand and by
pretending we're explaining something to
a child you'll really let us understand
if we actually know what we're talking
about you'll find that when you do it
this way there'll be gaps in what you
know you'll know some stuff well but
there will be parts of a subject you
didn't know
that well whether it's a woman's
reproductive organs or blockchain
technology so step two is to look at
where those gaps are where you could
properly relay the correct information
to your 12 year old student this is
where you have to go back to the source
material and learn again what you might
have read before do some reading and
then go back to your gap and fill it in
using that simple language your student
can understand this will maintain a
thorough understanding of the topic and
prevent what some people call the
illusion of knowledge now when you've
filled all those gaps in make sure if
one thing in that all the language is
yours you haven't just borrowed it from
a book because twelve-year-old children
wouldn't read the books you were reading
read aloud what you've written down and
if you think the student wouldn't get it
then simplify it again do this until you
are 100% sure your student will get what
you're saying
you now have taken something fairly
difficult and made it very learnable
well done
you're becoming an excellent teacher now
comes the best part you actually have to
teach that young student what you've
learned you don't have to always do this
of course but if you really want to know
you've understood your subject matter
then go out and teach someone it's one
thing having something in your head and
written it down but it's another being
able to convey that information so
someone understands if you're studying
for an exam say on American independence
then find someone younger than you and
explain to them what happened if they
get it you've succeeded a
twelve-year-old kid might not always
remember how a television works after
you've explained to him but if that kid
understands what you're saying because
you've laid it out so simply you've done
well there's a big difference from
explaining things using jargon to
explaining things in the most basic
language Fineman believes that if we
can't break something down we haven't
actually properly learned it you might
think that some matters of science can't
be broken down like this but just look
how that man we mentioned Brian Cox does
it he is brilliant at taking very
difficult subjects and making them
interesting to us laymen he has said
numerous times that Fineman is one of
his heroes like Fineman Cox doesn't want
to sound clever this is sometimes a
problem in academia and it can alienate
people from wanting to learn something
the truth is that clever people can make
difficult things sound easy Fineman was
once asked to write a lecture on why 1/2
spin particles obey Fermi triac hmm
you're thinking there's no way that he
can make that sound easy when he went
back to the guy who had asked him to
write that lecture firemen said I can't
do it he then also said I mustn't
understand it if I can't do it so if you
can't explain your subject to a
twelve-year-old maybe you just have to
do more in matters of science though it
might actually mean scientists don't yet
fully understand something maybe you are
still in school or university and maybe
you just want to know something better
now is the time to take out a piece of
paper and write down what it is you want
to know you can now start the process
we've talked about today we can assure
you that this works and by using the
Fineman technique you can pretty much
learn anything you want of course some
books might already be difficult for you
but then you have to find a teacher
that's already used the technique and
broken the subject-matter down you see
this a lot with philosophy you have
people like Conte Hegel and Nietzsche
that are very difficult to understand
but then you also have people that have
written companions to their works to
help you understand we actually found
people online who used this technique to
get through Medical School and we found
lots and lots of people who have used
this technique to get through high
school we found teachers and lecturers
on forums saying how incredibly
effective the method was and you can
find people saying things such as this
all too often we hear a lecture and can
quote back parts of it verbatim but does
not mean we understand the concepts just
that we have remembered the words the
better test is to try to explain the
concepts in your own words to someone
who isn't in your field or as some have
indicated the proverbial five-year-old
to do this we have to simplify the
language and very often use some sort of
meaningful metaphor if we struggle in
doing this then there's likely a hole in
our thinking that needs to be repaired
before moving on have you ever used the
Fineman technique will you start using
it after watching the show tell us in
the comments also be sure to check out
our other video the scientifically
proven best ways to study thanks for
watching and as always don't forget to
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