Notes on: A Nobel Prize Winner's 3-Step Plan to Mastering Any Subject

'A Nobel Prize Winner's 3-Step Plan to Mastering Any Subject' is an article by Jessica Stillman and was originally published on inc.com.

Physicist Richard Feynman used this process to learn everything from playing the bongos to quantum mechanics. So can you.

Richard Feynman is a Nobel Prize-winning physicist and a scientific genius, with a hunger to learn, and he did so quickly for a variety of subjects. Luckily for us, Feynman's ability wasn't just from his genes, he had a technique for learning new skills, and the good news is it can be adopted by anyone.

Here are the basics of the "Feynman Technique":

1. Teach a child. Feynman insisted that even the most difficult concepts can be put into language that anyone can understand. The idea is to explain whatever you are trying to learn to an average 8-year old. This means using the most common words and finding simpler ways to connect ideas. Writing it down helps you review after and focus on areas of improvement.

2. Go back. Inevitably, you will struggle at first to communicate some things in such simple terms, and that is OK. Go back to the source material and read it again, then put it away and try once more to write it down as if you were communicating to an 8-year old.

3. Review and simplify. Once you are feeling you are getting very close, it's a matter of reviewing your notes and simplifying them even further. It helps to read them out loud and listen for areas that sound a bit confusing, and review further.

Once you can explain something simply it means you understand it deeply.