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Yesterday, I had surgery on my left thumb, which will, hopefully, alleviate the chronic osteoarthritic pain I’ve been in for three years.
You never know how much you rely on your thumbs until you must zip a jacket, button your pants, unscrew a jar, or break apart a dog treat.
The pain is incandescent—a searing spasm that folds me in half.
Please forgive me in advance for not responding to your texts and emails.
I hope you enjoy today’s piece. For the free subscribers, it’s a small peek behind the curtain. This is a reader-funded newsletter; I can only keep writing it with your support. So, if you’ve learned anything from my work, please consider a paid membership akin to buying me a coffee every month (much cheaper than lunch).
The How to Write Complex Emotion Masterclass is Back!
Despite my current hand limitations, I'm teaching a 4-hour masterclass on April 26 & 27, spread over two mornings. This intimate workshop is limited to only 10 people, and since it takes a lot out of me, I don’t teach it very often. Just 6 out of 10 spaces remain, so if you're interested in this not-so-frequent opportunity, please secure your spot before they're gone.
How to Learn Anything, Really.
I learned very early the difference between knowing the name of something and knowing something.
We absorb so much content during the day. We nod in recognition at the articles we read and the documentaries we watch; we underline passages and save quotes, Instagram stories, TikToks, and even memes that brilliantly break down race, patriarchy, and other concepts in ways that particularly resonate.
Then, over dinner with a friend, as we tell each other what we’re reading, watching, and thinking about, this inevitable question surfaces: “What does that mean?”
Suddenly, we’re struck dumb by our inability to articulate what we thought we’d fully absorbed and learned.
Waiter—the check!
That gap between input and understanding isn’t just frustrating; it's the difference between moving forward and remaining the same.
Richard Feynman (1918–1988) was a Nobel Prize-winning physicist renowned for his brilliance and uncanny ability to simplify complex ideas.
He wasn't just interested in knowledge for trivia's sake—he was fascinated by how people understand. Feynman believed that accurate understanding could only be measured by how well you could explain something to a beginner.
His philosophy rejected pretense, fancy jargon, and over-complicated explanations. He often said that if you couldn't explain something, you didn't understand it.
And when you don’t understand something you thought you did, you feel confused.
This core belief led him to develop a method that still transforms how people approach learning today: the Feynman Technique.
Do You Understand?
We often mistake recognition for understanding, familiarity for mastery, information for knowledge, and, worst of all, we don't even realize the gaps in our knowledge until we try to teach—which few of us ever do.
The Four-Step Technique
The glory of the Feynman Technique is that it’s simple. Just four steps can dramatically transform how you learn anything:
Step 1: Choose Your Target
Select something specific you want to understand deeply. Not "Spanish grammar" but "how Spanish verb conjugation works." Not "quantum physics" but "what quantum entanglement means."
Specificity matters—it gives your mind a clear, bounded concept to wrestle with.
This step might seem obvious, but its power comes from forcing you to define precisely what you're trying to learn. Vague targets lead to vague understanding. Precise targets create precise knowledge.
About a year ago, a friend and I realized we couldn’t remember what the Magna Carta meant, so we looked it up and then explained it to each other.
Every few months, we’d ask the other to explain it. (It’s a 13th-century legal document Barons forced King John of England to sign that stated no one, not even Monarchs, are above the law. And yes, I just cheated to look it up because I forgot the details, like: 13th Century, Barons, and King John of England. I did remember the point of the document, though!)
Here’s Feymann on the Difference Between Knowing and Understanding:
Step 2: Teach It to a Beginner
Now comes the special sauce.
Write down everything you’ve learned, and use that to explain the concept to someone who knows nothing about it.
Use plain language. Avoid jargon and technical terms. If there’s no one around, explain it to yourself.
Writing it down and speaking it aloud are both vital. Don’t favor one over the other.
This step immediately reveals what you understand versus what you think you know. The gaps in your knowledge become painfully clear.
For example, a medical student trying to explain how vaccines work without relying on medical jargon might realize they don't fully grasp the immune response when they must use simple analogies.
Step 3: Identify and Fill the Gaps
When your explanation falters or feels incomplete, you've struck gold. These stumbling blocks precisely identify what you need to learn next. There is no need to apologize or feel embarrassed; this is how learning works. We’re just not used to learning in such an experiential way.
Return to your sources, but target the gaps instead of passively re-reading everything. This transforms learning from an open-ended, passive process into an active system with clear objectives.
When you focus on addressing what you don’t understand, you don’t waste time reviewing what you do.
Step 4: Simplify and Refine
Now we polish.
Rework your explanation, incorporating what you've learned about the gaps. But don't stop at merely filling holes—challenge yourself to make the explanation more straightforward, elegant, and accessible.
The goal isn't to "dumb things down." It's about finding the simplicity at the core of complex ideas.
Stripping away complexity reveals the more profound truth behind the concept.
Why It Works: The Science Behind the Technique
The Feynman Technique works because it aligns with the fundamental principles of cognitive science and how our minds form and retain knowledge:
It creates mental connections: When we translate complex ideas into everyday language, we build neural bridges between new information and existing knowledge. This helps make both the new and the old more accessible and valuable.
It exposes illusions: We're great at fooling ourselves about what we truly understand. By forcing articulation in simple language, the technique strips away these illusions and forces us to confront what we don't know.
It makes learning active: Instead of passively consuming information, we reconstruct it in our own words. Generating new explanations is one of the most potent ways to cement understanding.
It targets exactly what you need: Rather than wasting time reviewing concepts you already understand, you're focusing on the gaps, making your learning much more efficient.
It builds true confidence: Not the false confidence of familiarity, but the earned confidence that comes from knowing you can explain something clearly to anyone.
The Deeper Truth About Understanding
Beyond its practical benefits, the Feynman Technique reveals something profound about knowledge: genuine understanding feels like unlocking your brain. After grasping a complex idea deeply, you can never look at things the same way again.
Understanding evolution through natural selection changes how you see flowers, and learning about cognitive biases shifts how you view human behavior, including your own.
This transformative quality is why Feynman, despite his success, maintained a childlike wonder about the world. True understanding doesn't breed arrogance or complacency; it breeds deeper appreciation.
You can apply his approach to everything necessary in your life—your work, relationships, and deepest curiosities. Replace shallow familiarity and cursory knowledge with the profound joy of true comprehension.
Because information isn’t knowledge. Knowledge is comprehension.
Until next week, I will remain…
Amanda
Today in psychological history: On April 16, 1959
The antidepressant drug Tofranil (imipramine; Rorer and Geigy) was approved for use by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Imipramine was the first tricyclic antidepressant. It probably enhances neurotransmission by blocking reuptake of the neurotransmitter norepinephrine. Janimine (Abbott Laboratories) is also imipramine and was approved by the FDA on April 8, 1977.
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Share Quick note: Nope, I’m not a therapist—just someone who spent 25 years with undiagnosed panic disorder and 23 years in therapy. How to Live distills what I’ve learned through lived experience, therapy, and obsessive research—so you can skip the unnecessary suffering and better understand yourself.
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