Writing about what you learn can deepen your understanding in several ways. It requires thoroughly exploring topics, articulating your thoughts clearly, and reflecting on connections. This process reveals gaps and inconsistencies in your knowledge. Regular writing also improves retention and communication skills long-term. The Feynman Technique promotes explaining concepts simply, which mirrors the benefits of writing explanations. Maintaining consistency is important for building habits, improving gradually, and achieving goals. While procrastination and burnout can hinder consistency, setting routines and celebrating progress can help overcome these challenges. Overall, writing about learning, using techniques like Feynman’s, and persevering consistently cultivates deeper understanding and drives lifelong curiosity and growth.
Yes, I absolutely recommend this! Writing about what I learned was a course requirement at college last year, and I was… extremely thorough, but it worked so well. It solidified what I’d learned, helped me identify areas of improvement, and allowed me to make connections and ask questions that wouldn’t have occurred to me if I hadn’t been writing about what I’d learned during each week. I also found that writing about things I’d researched helped me analyse them much more effectively.
My teachers were less thrilled when, for the final module, I handed in a 240 page, handwritten, annotated book containing approximately 70k words for assessment. Got the highest possible grade (A+ equivalent) though, so I guess they didn’t mind that much. 😀
No, what happens is similar to when you make a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy, and the quality rapidly degrades with each copy.
You are just learning a topic and write about it (some say you should “teach it”), and then others follow your writing while they’re learning, and so on, until the understanding of that topic has degraded tremendously because each layer understands it less than the last.
Talking or writing about your journey is one thing. Acting like you should “teach” it while you yourself are learning is ridiculous
Excellent writeup of the Feynman Technique - thank you for posting this!
Except the part where it’s not lol
I’ve been really busy at work dealing with issues with backups and migrating data and the gaps I found in our software and with AWS.
I wanted to do a presentation and update our docs about it. I was promised that I’d have the time. All of a sudden I have no projects and new requirements and I’m always stressed out.
I like the concept of writing because it’s like a weekend to your work. Gives you a chance to put the full top at the end of a sentence and helps solidify what you’ve done in your mind.
