Scientific Way to Learn 15x Faster (from a Med Student)
Summary
TLDRThis video script introduces the Feynman technique, a learning method that simplifies complex subjects for efficient understanding. The speaker, a med school student, demonstrates the technique with a step-by-step guide on understanding cancer, emphasizing the importance of breaking down concepts and refining knowledge with 'why' and 'how' questions. The script also highlights the use of AI for personalized feedback and knowledge base expansion, suggesting tools like ChatGPT for enhanced learning. The video concludes with a promotion for Brilliant, an interactive learning platform, and a call to action for developing top student habits.
Takeaways
- 📚 The Feynman technique is a reliable system for understanding difficult subjects efficiently, allowing for faster learning and time for other interests.
- 🤔 The first step in the technique is to identify what you want to understand and express it simply, as if explaining to a child.
- 📝 Turn the topic into a question and start by writing down your current understanding, which can reveal gaps in knowledge.
- 🔍 Analyze your initial explanation to identify oversimplified areas and unclear definitions that need further exploration.
- 🧐 Break down your analysis into key questions to find answers, which helps in building a foundational understanding of the topic.
- 📈 The technique involves building layers of understanding by questioning and interrogating your knowledge with 'how' and 'why' questions.
- 🔬 Use the Feynman technique to delve into the details of a subject, which is applicable to any field, including physics as demonstrated by Feynman himself.
- 🧬 For example, understanding cancer involves learning about abnormal cell growth, the threat it poses due to its destructive nature, and the variety of treatments available.
- 🔄 The process of refining your understanding involves repeating the 'why' and 'how' questions until you can explain the fundamentals thoroughly.
- 👨🏫 AI can enhance the Feynman technique by providing personalized feedback and acting as a knowledge base to direct you to the right resources or explanations.
- 🎨 Visualization is crucial for easier learning; platforms like Brilliant offer interactive lessons that can complement the Feynman technique by providing hands-on exercises.
- 🔗 The script also promotes the use of Brilliant for a 30-day free trial and mentions a discount for the first 200 users, highlighting its utility for students.
Q & A
What is the Feynman technique mentioned in the script?
-The Feynman technique is a learning method used to understand complex subjects efficiently by breaking them down into simple, understandable concepts that even a child could grasp.
How does the script suggest starting the Feynman technique?
-The script suggests starting by choosing exactly what you want to understand and writing your current idea of it as simply as possible, ideally in the form of a question.
Why is it important to simplify the explanation of a topic to a level a child could understand?
-Simplifying the explanation helps to identify gaps in understanding and ensures that the fundamental concepts are clear, which is crucial for building a strong foundation of knowledge.
What is the purpose of analyzing your initial explanation in the Feynman technique?
-Analyzing your initial explanation helps to identify areas that have been oversimplified or are not specific enough, which are then targeted for further research and clarification.
How does the script propose to improve understanding of a topic?
-The script proposes improving understanding by breaking down the analysis into key questions and searching for answers to those questions, thus building a stronger web of connections around the topic.
What is the role of questioning 'how' and 'why' in the Feynman technique?
-Questioning 'how' and 'why' helps to build a deeper level of understanding that is personalized to the individual's knowledge foundation, allowing for a more detailed and nuanced comprehension of the subject.
How does the script relate the Feynman technique to the process of refining understanding?
-The script relates the technique to refining understanding by suggesting that one should keep repeating the 'why' and 'how' questions for their explanations until they can answer any question on the fundamentals of the topic.
What is the benefit of visualizing concepts in the context of the Feynman technique?
-Visualizing concepts makes learning easier as it helps to understand abstract ideas better than just thinking of words or numbers, thus enhancing the overall learning process.
How does the script suggest using AI to enhance the Feynman technique?
-The script suggests using AI for personalized feedback by asking it questions related to the topic and using it as a knowledge base to direct to the right resources or explain concepts that might be unclear.
What is the script's stance on the effectiveness of the Feynman technique for studying?
-The script posits that the Feynman technique is highly effective for studying as it helps in understanding and remembering topics for longer, making it easier to tackle difficult subjects.
How does the script relate the Feynman technique to the broader context of student life and habits?
-The script relates the technique to student life by suggesting that while understanding topics is crucial for exam performance, it is also important to develop top student habits for a productive student life, which includes effective studying and working on personal goals.
Outlines
📚 Mastering the Feynman Technique for Effective Learning
This paragraph introduces the Feynman technique as an efficient method for understanding complex subjects, particularly adapted for students. The speaker shares personal experience using this technique throughout their academic journey and offers a step-by-step guide on its application. The initial step involves identifying a topic and explaining it in simple terms as if teaching a child. The example used is 'what is cancer and why is it difficult to treat?' The speaker emphasizes the importance of refining this initial understanding by identifying gaps and seeking answers to key questions, thus building a stronger conceptual framework.
🔬 Deepening Understanding with the Feynman Technique and AI
The second paragraph delves deeper into the Feynman technique, focusing on the refinement of understanding through iterative questioning ('why' and 'how'). It illustrates how this process can be applied to the example of cancer, exploring the reasons behind different treatments and the nature of uncontrolled cell growth. The speaker introduces the concept of using AI to enhance the technique by providing personalized feedback and acting as a knowledge base, which can direct learners to relevant resources or clarify concepts. The paragraph concludes with a mention of the importance of visualization in learning and a promotion of Brilliant, an online learning platform that offers interactive lessons in various subjects.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Feynman Technique
💡Understand
💡Cancer
💡Treatments
💡Mutations
💡Receptors
💡AI (Artificial Intelligence)
💡Brilliant
💡Conceptual Understanding
💡Personalized Feedback
💡Knowledge Base
Highlights
Introduction to the Feynman technique as a reliable system for understanding difficult subjects.
Adaptation of the Feynman technique specifically for students to learn faster and more efficiently.
The importance of choosing exactly what you want to understand and expressing it simply, even for a child.
The process of turning a topic into a question as a starting point for understanding, exemplified by 'what is cancer and why is it difficult to treat?'.
Initial understanding of cancer as a deadly disease with treatments that don't always work.
Analyzing and improving understanding by focusing on oversimplified explanations and identifying key questions.
Breaking down the analysis into key questions to find answers and deepen understanding of cancer.
Learning that cancer is a collection of diseases with abnormal cell growth and its life-threatening nature.
Understanding the variety of common cancers and the different treatments available.
Building a second level of understanding by exploring details and asking 'how' and 'why' questions.
The discovery of DNA's role in controlling cell growth and the mutations leading to cancer.
Explanation of how medications attach to cancer cell receptors and the specificity of treatments.
The iterative process of refining understanding through repeated questioning until a fundamental grasp is achieved.
The use of visualization in learning to make concepts easier to understand.
Introduction of Brilliant as an online learning platform for interactive science, maths, and computer science lessons.
Personal experience with Brilliant for learning programming with Python and its hands-on approach.
Offering a free trial of Brilliant and a discount for the first 200 users through a special link.
Using AI for personalized feedback on understanding by asking specific prompts.
Utilizing AI as a knowledge base to direct to the right resources or explain concepts.
The benefit of understanding topics properly for long-term retention and easier navigation through difficult subjects.
Link to a video on developing top 1% student habits for a productive student life.
Transcripts
If you want a reliable system to make any difficult subject easy to
understand, then you're in the right place Coz throughout my undergrad and postgraduate
degrees, and now at med school, I’ve been using the Feynman technique to understand topics
efficiently, so that I can learn faster and still have time for more of the things that I care about
And i’ve adapted this technique specifically for students, so I’ll go through a step by step
example of how to use this, and I have an extra point at the end on how to use AI to understand
things even faster with this technique So to start i have a question - if you’re
struggling to understand something, what do you usually do? A lot of students rush
to research the topic in detail, hoping that it would help them understand better.
but they just end up with more unanswered questions as they randomly read new things
So the first part of this technique is choosing exactly what you want to understand,
and writing your current idea of it as simply as possible that even a child would understand
Wwhat i do, is make the topic i want to understand into a question - so for our
worked example, we’ll answer the question “what is cancer, and why is it difficult to treat?”
Feel free to pause this video and answer this question or follow along
with your own question - and to make it as realistic as possible, a non medical
friend of mine answered this worked example So, my friends answer for this first part of
the method was that, cancer is a deadly disease that can affect almost any part
of the body, and that there are some treatments but they don’t always work
So this shows us a limited understanding of the topic right now, and leads onto
the next part of the technique, which is to analyse and improve your understanding - and
there’s a specific way to do this To build your first level of
understanding, analyse your explanation by focusing on what you oversimplified
You can figure this out by seeing whether you understand the definition of words, and
seeing whether some bits aren’t specific enough Like in the example, life-threatening disease
doesn’t explain why cancer’s so bad, ‘any part of the body’ isn’t specific,
and saying ‘there are some treatments’ doesn’t explain why it’s difficult to treat
So to improve understanding, break down your analysis into key questions to find
the answers - so for this example, that’s searching for what cancer is,
why it’s life threatening, what treatments there are and why it’s difficult to treat
From this, my friend learnt that cancer is a collection
of diseases where abnormal cells grow and divide uncontrollably
And it’s life threatening because cells are the building blocks of all living
things - and cancer cells destroy normal cells, so it’s effectively destroying you
They also found that the most common cancers are breast, lung, and colorectal
And that there’s different treatments depending on the type of cancer
including surgery, and drug treatments So now you have an understanding that's
one level higher - and compared to the initial understanding,
you can see there's a stronger web of connections - which is part of the idea of this technique
But it’s still surface level, so the next part of the Feynman technique is building your second
level of understanding by exploring the details This is by breaking your new understanding
down by questioning and interrogating your knowledge - and that’s by asking how and why
And look it works for any subject - like it did for Feynman, a physicist - because these questions
give you a slightly deeper level of understanding that’s personalised to the foundations you built
from the first part of this technique So for the updated example on cancer,
that could be asking why are there different treatments for cancer,
how do they work, and why is cancer uncontrolled And from a simple search my friend found that,
normal cells have bits of DNA that stops them from growing too much, whereas
cancerous cells have mutations in the DNA resulting in uncontrolled growth
They also learnt that some medications attach onto things on the cancer cells called receptors,
and that can lead to either death of the cancer cell- and there’s specific
treatments for different cancers because they can have different receptors on them
This is just the first cycle of this technique and it’s still very simplified, but you can see the
massive difference in understanding from less than 10 minutes of systematically searching for answers
And you might notice that there are still some gaps - like what is DNA, what causes these
mutations, or why are there receptors on the cells But that leads to the final part of
the Feynman technique, which is where you refine your understanding
The good thing is, since understanding is effectively being able to answer why and how,
just keep repeating the whys and hows for your explanations until you can answer any question
on the fundamentals of the topic - and using AI which I’ll properly get to at the end helps you
get the right level of understanding but generally for difficult topics,
this takes me about 4 or 5 repetitions, which doesn’t take that long
because unlike cancer, this is a controlled way to grow your knowledge through a systematic
process so that you don’t waste time researching random and irrelevant things,
you start at the centre and work your way out So before the last point on maximising
this technique with AI, being able to visualise concepts makes learning easier,
because it’s difficult to understand by just thinking of words or numbers
And look, you can trust what i’m about to say, because I’ve been learning visually
for the past 2 months to understand complicated subjects - and the free
and easy way you can do this too is through our quick sponsor of the video, Brilliant, the best
online learning platform to learn sciences, maths, and computer science interactively
I’ve used Brilliant every day for 60 days now, and I’ve genuinely enjoyed learning how to
programme with python, because Brilliant taught me the basics of programming through a hands-on
approach so that i had my foundations built like when i was doing the programming in
python course, I had to manipulate a math problem through coding which at
first felt like something i couldn’t do, but because Brilliant built my core knowledge of
programming through an engaging process, I had a good enough understanding to pass the problem
and programming or not, there’s something for everyone - because there’s thousands of
lessons covering basic to advanced topics in maths, sciences, engineering and more,
with new lessons added every month And it’s a fun and modern way to apply
Feynmen’s technique - like the guided lessons helped me understand concepts through exercises,
with helpful hints that filled gaps in my understanding to get me back on track
And you can learn a lot in just 10 minutes a day of using it, whether that’s on your phone, laptop
or tablet, so it’s perfect for busy students So to try everything Brilliant has to
offer - free - for a full 30 days, visit brilliant.org/salimahmed or click the link
in the description. The first 200 of you will get 20% off Brilliant’s annual premium subscription
So now you know how to use the Feynman technique for studying,
but i said that you can use AI to make it even more effective, and that’s in two ways
The first way is using AI software like ChatGPT for personalised feedback
All you have to do is copy your understanding of a topic, and ask it one of the following prompts
And to make it even more personalised, make it aware of your education grade so that it knows
the level of detail you need to know, so that you don’t go down an endless spiral of the last part
Feynman’s technique, constantly asking why and how The second way is to use it as a knowledge base,
and that’s by using any of the following prompts here
this is gonna save you time by directing you to the right resources, or just directly explaining
things you might be missing out and again, make sure to personalise
it to your education grade So understanding topics properly
helps you remember for longer and makes it easier to get through difficult subjects
But understanding to perform better in exams is just one part of studying as a student,
and just one part of your student life - so in this video here, I talk about how I’ve
developed top 1% student habits to help me live a productive student life, so that I can study
effectively and work on more of my personal goals - and you can do this too, by watching the video
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