As someone who struggles with following through on learning, identifying the gaps and filling them in, I’m trying out a different technique. It’s not mine, it’s not new, but “they” say it works… so here we are.

Trying out a new approach to building out my ideas. My previous approach was thinking it all out and learning everything I needed to learn before starting to build. I didn’t write. It didn’t work.

We learn how to build by building. We figure it out along the way. Writing about the things we figure out along the way help us ingrain the knowledge we had to find. So this is my new approach.

It’s been years since I built something. My first project is a simple, fast and scalable website. There will be a database, there will be a beatiful frontend. I don’t know what it will grow into yet, but I’ll figure it out and write about the process here.

Step 1 was finding out the toolstack I wanted to use. Who better to ask in 2023 than ChatGPT, right? My requirements: easy to learn, future-proof, good community, scalable and fast. ChatGPT recommended the MERN stack, so that’s what I’m going with.

I should tell you that I’m a slow developer. I need time to sit on it, to marinate in all the docs available and to deal with my frustrations. It will probably take a while before I build anything worth sharing. We’ll see.

The Feynman technique

I’m not going to tell you about the man other than that he was a master at mastering new topics. His technique is comprised of four simple steps:

1. Write down everything you know about the topic.
2. Explain the topic as if you were teaching it to someone else. The key here is to keep your language simple and easy to understand. Go in-depth, include examples and challenge yourself to explain the concept as best as you can. If you can’t find someone willing to listen, record yourself or write it down.
3. Identify the gaps in your knowledge. If you tried your best on step 2, you probably stumbled on certain parts when explaining. These are the exact parts you need to take note. Go back to your study material or find new material and fill in the gaps.
4. Challenge yourself to rewrite / retell in even simpler language. Really challenge yourself to deconstruct any technical terms. Include visuals if it helps, but make sure you can phrase it as well.

The questions is Why?

If you’re struggling to go more in-depth in step 3, keep asking yourself “Why?”. Just like a child wanting to know everything you don’t have the answers to, challenge yourself to ask the questions you don’t have all the answers to. Then answer them yourself!