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Jordi Enric
Jordi Enric

Posted on • Updated on

How to understand difficult concepts faster and better.

Photo by Matt Ragland on Unsplash

This works for everything. Not only programming. Also works whether you just started or have been working for 400 years. I'm using currently to learn webpack for my job and Unity for my hobbies.

So, what is it?

It's called the Feynmann Technique. Some of you probably have heard it already.

How do you do implement it?

Whenever I have to learn something new. Let's say webpack. I try to gather all the information possible at the beginning. I try to understand the concepts and practice a bit. But that's rarely enough when you are dealing with complex subjects. What do you do next?

You teach it. It doesn't matter if you don't fully understand it yet. Teaching it is the best way to find exactly where the missing pieces of your knowledge are. It's faster to find what you don't exactly understand. It's less overwhelming. It's even fun. It can make you help other people. Who do you teach it to?

You can teach it to a rubber duck, write an article on dev.to πŸ™„. Your colleagues. Here you have to find the best way for you to teach it. Only important thing is to enjoy this process.

Suddenly your mental model starts to establish and things make sense. You start to understand the why and if you don't you clearly see what's missing and can find more information.

The more you apply this technique the easier and faster you start learning.

Only thing to have in mind

Learning is a process, you're never done with it. Especially in programming. You will forget things. You will get concepts mixed up. You will learn something wrong and make mistakes. But you will learn and improve.

See learning as a something that accompanies you along the journey. Don't expect to finish 2 courses on react and suddenly "You know React" and are ready to work. You have to work and learn at the same time.

Anyway that's it, have a good day ✌

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Top comments (9)

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jmvallejo profile image
Juan Manuel Vallejo

This is actually a very good piece of advice, I hadn't thought that much about it but the times when I've had to teach something I'm not 100% comfortable with have actually helped me get much better at the subject. Thanks!

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alwinao profile image
Alwina Oyewoleturner

Thank you for this post! I've heard of the Feynmann technique and now I need to really implement it in my work to be a better developer on my team.

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jordienr profile image
Jordi Enric

Thank you for reading Alwina. You’ll probably find your way of implementing it. Remember to try to change things if it doesn’t convince you.

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alwinao profile image
Alwina Oyewoleturner

Sure thing, thank you!

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juanfrank77 profile image
Juan F Gonzalez

Yes! the Feynman technique is awesome. I used it in my late college days to cope with all the bunch of stuff I had to learn for my degree project.

I will add to add the "deconstructing a skill" part to make the topic or concept easier to grasp.

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fraymon profile image
Fraymon

I can relate to this post and more so using the rubber duck as something to teach to.βœ…

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jordienr profile image
Jordi Enric

The rubber duck thing is really popular hehe. Glad you can relate. Thank you for reading!

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Yogi Wisesa

That's true, by teaching other I know what actually I know and what I need to learn more.

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Mario Hernandez

Awesome technique, been using this for years, I even ended up teaching a couple of classes at university for two years because of it.