It also helps greatly to be as smart as him.
There is no such thing as smart, only time and learning.
Study Tips from Richard Feynman
31–40 of 71 posts
Re: Study Tips from Richard Feynman
#32Earlier quoted context omitted.
his humbleness is why he's so popular. But you don't win Putnam by studying. you got to be really brilliant too.
You don't actually know this. I acknowledge it might be true but it also might not. How do you know what you're calling brilliance isn't a different kind of study, for example? Feynman suggests he got a buzz out of puzzles his whole life from a very early age and sought them out. With his local reputation among family, friends, school others brought them to him as well. He did inter-school stand-up math competitions,…
> Feynman suggests he got a buzz out of puzzles his whole life
Yes, you tend to get good at what gives you a buzz, in a compounding way. But I expect 'buzz' isn't random, either: it'd make sense for personality formation to notice when you show talent at something valued by some of the people around you, and flip some motivational switches in your developing mind. This seems like a better bet for your genes than trying to engineer your motivation and talent towards a common target separately.
Re: Study Tips from Richard Feynman
#33Re: Study Tips from Richard Feynman
#34[deleted]
Re: Study Tips from Richard Feynman
#35Earlier quoted context omitted.
My variation on that method: 1. load my brain with all the context of the problem 2. go out for a run, which bounces it all around in my brain until things fall into place 3. write the solution when I get back
A lazier step 2 that works for me is to sleep for a full night.
This is also well known in the Clojure community as Hammock-Driven Development [1].
Re: Study Tips from Richard Feynman
#36There's the famous Feynman method i.e. Study hard, Teach it to others, Identify the gaps in your own knowledge, and Simplify/Synthesize. But people often also forget that there is another method associated with Feynman aka The Feynman Algorithm (which was outlined by his colleague Murray Gell-Mann, a noble prize winning physicist himself). This method goes as follows: 1. Write down the problem. 2. Think real hard. 3.…
My variation on that method: 1. load my brain with all the context of the problem 2. go out for a run, which bounces it all around in my brain until things fall into place 3. write the solution when I get back
This diffuse mode learning (vs focused). Barbara Oakley’s book and course go into detail about leveraging the science of how we learn.
Re: Study Tips from Richard Feynman
#37There's the famous Feynman method i.e. Study hard, Teach it to others, Identify the gaps in your own knowledge, and Simplify/Synthesize. But people often also forget that there is another method associated with Feynman aka The Feynman Algorithm (which was outlined by his colleague Murray Gell-Mann, a noble prize winning physicist himself). This method goes as follows: 1. Write down the problem. 2. Think real hard. 3.…
To be fair, I think Feynman applies this in sequence. I.e Study hard, Teach it to others, Identify the gaps in your own knowledge, and Simplify/Synthesize. THEN 1. Write down the problem. 2. Think real hard. 3. Write the solution. If a problem seems intractable, return to the first process. Also, remember that Feynman also spent weeks at play with problems that interested him. Do that too. Be kind to yourself.
Nothing of importance that Feynman had to "think real hard" about in his adult life could have been studied because the methods did not exist yet.
Re: Study Tips from Richard Feynman
#38Earlier quoted context omitted.
Well if you consider him brilliant then perhaps you would believe him when he says that talent isn't nearly as important as studying.
Lots of people study really hard. Few go on to become Feynman.
Plenty of people are also brilliant and don't go on to become Feynman.
Re: Study Tips from Richard Feynman
#39There's the famous Feynman method i.e. Study hard, Teach it to others, Identify the gaps in your own knowledge, and Simplify/Synthesize. But people often also forget that there is another method associated with Feynman aka The Feynman Algorithm (which was outlined by his colleague Murray Gell-Mann, a noble prize winning physicist himself). This method goes as follows: 1. Write down the problem. 2. Think real hard. 3.…
The second "algorithm" is good in that you _can_ overlook those three things in solving a problem.
Defining the problem can be a task in itself. So write it down.
Think hard. If you aren't willing to sweat and endure mental pain, then it isn't a problem. It's an exercise.
Write it down. Here is where the biggest gap lies in the algorithm. Usually a solution in your head isn't a solution and writing will reveal that. So there is a feedback loop between thinking and writing.
All of these are good, but obviously they don't help much beyond the obvious. It probably advantaged Feynman to create a mystique around his problem solving tactics. Which is why it is probably so obvious.
Re: Study Tips from Richard Feynman
#40There's the famous Feynman method i.e. Study hard, Teach it to others, Identify the gaps in your own knowledge, and Simplify/Synthesize. But people often also forget that there is another method associated with Feynman aka The Feynman Algorithm (which was outlined by his colleague Murray Gell-Mann, a noble prize winning physicist himself). This method goes as follows: 1. Write down the problem. 2. Think real hard. 3.…
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