Once or twice a year, I open my most popular program, Learning on Steroids. It’s an interactive course that teaches how to learn faster and get more done.
I’m going to be reopening the program again on September 7th. Instead of pitching you on why you should join, I thought it would be more fun to give away free content.
Free One-Week Bootcamp
Starting today, I’m running a 7-day free bootcamp, through my email newsletter. If you’re subscribed, you’ll get an email each day which gives solutions for some of the most difficult and common problems students and learners face. Things like how to stay focused, better memory, reading faster and with higher retention and really understanding hard ideas.
The first video, The Feynman Technique, went up on the bootcamp website today. You can check it out here, or watch below:
If you’re interested in finding out more about Learning on Steroids, or just want to catch the bootcamp (which won’t be posted here, you’ll have to subscribe to get the full package) then you can sign up for it here for free.
Learning on Steroids will be open here, on September 7th at 10am PST. But, as always, it’s only open for 72 hours. We have a max capacity of 500 seats and have sold out in the past. If you want to know what it’s all about, I’ll be explaining everything before the 7th on the newsletter.
I'm a speed-reading, vegetarian, holistic learning, productivity hacking recent university graduate. And, for the last five years I've been experimenting to find out how to get more from life.
Have you bumped into cases where you were caught by surprise regarding the questions you’re being asked, despite learning the material once using this technique? I suppose the results depend on the level of depth you go into learning the material.
The video production is nice- simple headings and slow, steady pans of the sheets.
I signed up for LMSL last year and I thought the vids were a little too amatuer-ish. These look much nicer.
Also, nice job explaining the idea. I think having this free one week intro to the course will definitely boost your enrollment rate.
Nick,
Thanks–I’ve gotten a lot better at video editing (and investing in a better camera). The new LoS has dozens more videos like this.
Stanley,
Well there’s always the potential for surprise if you approach the topic incorrectly. The advantage of this technique is that it tends to be extremely thorough. If you walk through a concept with this approach, you will usually have it mastered to 95-100%.
I wouldn’t use this technique for every idea or concept I need to learn, but it was invaluable for the tough ones that weren’t quite sticking, or the ones that caused common problems for me in practice questions.
Wow, I just realised that this is the technique I’ve always used to explain something to myself and to remember it! It just seemed obvious that the way to explain something to yourself is to write it down in the most simple terms possible. I used a technique ‘invented’ by a genius without even realising. Awesome!!
it’s sad in my school where deeply understanding of the subject is ignored for having a like-but-not-same trashy easy “real life” example. can’t wait to study engineering next year and get real fun
scott, great video… i guess i’ve used this method inconsciently some times when “what we think should happen is not what the numbers show” :B
gabriel, 16, brazil
Amazing post, Scott H young!
I get clearly the concept through the video. I think you should make frequently video tutorial
Scott,
I’d imagine if this technique is applied properly, any potential gaps would be caught by follow-up questions during the process. There are definitely more room for missing details as the material advances further in depth.
Stanley
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This seems like a very promising way to go if you are studying something that you need to understand. (Maths, physics, philosophy etc.) My problem, however, is that I can not see how I can apply the above technique (and certain other techniques described on this website) to what I am studying at the moment; Japanese.
Where I am at with my Japanese studying (intermediate level) I do not find any concepts of the Japanese I am currently studying particularly hard (to understand), Japanese is a logical language, very structured and straight forward to learn. My problem is merely the sheer volume of things I have to learn in limited time. When we go through about 100 kanji i combination (that is about 200 different characters I need to recognize, read and write from memory), about 20 grammar points and about 100 words in a week, I am struggling with simply implementing it all in my head, and remembering it. Obviously you can use mnemonic hints to remember how to read and write kanji, and of course using the grammar points wherever applicable will make them easier to remember, so that takes the edge of things a little bit. I generally get great grades, but in my entire life I have never felt that I have had to put so much effort into something, compared to what I get back.
So, I am wondering – are there any other tips and tricks you (or anyone reading this blog) can offer? I noticed that you mentioned in your article that there will be information about how to improve memory, but I am wondering if that is more related to understanding ideas and internalizing them, and not plain input-output, which is what I need help with improving.
I would love to hear people’s thoughts about this.
N.N.,
I split all knowledge into three categories for learning: facts, concepts and skills. There is overlap, but the techniques used for each differ dramatically.
This is a conceptual technique. It makes no sense to use this when you need to remember vocabulary (facts) or play the piano (skills). Most techniques fit into such a category of only being useful to really one category of knowledge.
There are *plenty* of tactics for remembering facts and improving memory. Mnemonics is an ancient discipline, so there are incredibly sophisticated methods for improving memory of vocabulary, dates, facts and other pieces of knowledge. I cover the best ones in my Learning on Steroids program, but I tend to talk about them less in the promotion, since they are tactics you could have read about elsewhere.
I’ll touch on what I can in the bootcamp for memory techniques, but given our 7-day limit, some of it will have to wait for the full course, unfortunately.
Hi Scott
Can we use feynman technique to learn something new. Or more aptly put, at what stage of learning would you recommend to apply this technique.
Best
Himanshu
Actually, would like to put it this way that, at which step among the five steps of holistic learning would you recommend to apply this technique while learning something new.
Hey Scott!
I had never heard of Feynman. Sounds like an effective technique! I’ll keep that in mind for the next time I want to understand a complex subject.
Interesting. I do something similar when I’m writing my books. If I ever get writer’s block (or even when I don’t have it), I imagine someone interviewing me about my book, plot or characters. Just thinking about explaining everything to someone who knows nothing about it allows me to get new ideas and it helps me create greater depth and background to my characters.
I spent a lot of time researching query letters, but still couldn’t make mine work. So I spent some time helping other people with their query letters online and boom, I was able to make my query letter awesome. Sometimes answering other people’s questions is the best way to get your own answered.
[...] “synthesizing” information, and I find it extremely helpful. It’s akin to the Feynman Technique that he’s written about, except that instead of teaching just one idea by writing it down, [...]