It is named after Richard Feynman—an American theoretical physicist who won the Nobel Prize in 1965 for his groundbreaking work in quantum electrodynamics.
The Feynman Technique (how to learn anything):
It is named after Richard Feynman—an American theoretical physicist who won the Nobel Prize in 1965 for his groundbreaking work in quantum electrodynamics.
But there are a lot of intelligent people in the world.
Feynman's true genius was noted as his ability to convey complex ideas in simple, elegant ways.
Hence “The Feynman Razor” that I’ve written about:
If someone uses a lot of complexity and jargon to explain something to you, they probably don’t understand it.
It involves four key steps:
(1) Set the Stage
(2) ELI5 (Explain It To Me Like I'm 5)
(3) Assess & Study
(4) Organize, Convey & Review
Let's cover each step:
What’s the topic you want to learn?
Starting with a blank page, write the topic at the top and jot down everything you know about it.
Read & research the topic.
Add any new learnings or insights as you develop them.
Here's where it gets unique:
Attempt to explain the topic to someone without a base understanding of it (i.e. a “child”).
On a blank page, write down everything you know about your topic—but pretend you are explaining it to a child.
Use simple language!
Reflect on your performance—form an honest assessment.
How well were you able to explain the topic to a child? Where did you get frustrated? Where did you turn to jargon?
These are the gaps in your understanding!
Read and study more to fill them.
Organize your elegant, simple language into a clear, compelling story or narrative.
Convey it to a few others, then iterate and refine accordingly.
Review your new, deep understanding of the topic.
Remember: Simple is beautiful.
The best entrepreneurs, investors, and thinkers have leveraged this technique—whether they know it or not!
Their common genius: the ability to abstract complexity and convey ideas in simple, digestible ways.
But don't be fooled—complexity and jargon are often used to mask a lack of deep understanding.
Be better.
Use the Feynman Technique: Find beauty in simplicity.
Follow me @SahilBloom for more threads on learning, productivity, and decision-making.
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More from Sahil Bloom
Short Squeeze 101
If you follow financial markets (or if you watch Billions), you've heard the phrase "short squeeze" used quite frequently.
But what is a "short squeeze" and how does it work?
Here's Short Squeeze 101!
👇👇👇
1/ First, the basics.
The "short" in "short squeeze" refers to the concept of short selling.
The basics are covered in my thread below.
https://t.co/xecJYNCxMs
TL;DR - short selling is a way of betting against a stock - i.e. betting that its price will decline.
2/ "Short interest" is a measure of how heavily an asset is shorted by the market.
It is the total number of shares that have been sold short (borrowed and sold), but have not yet been covered (bought and returned).
It is usually measured as a % of the # of shares outstanding.
3/ A "short squeeze" occurs when a heavily-shorted asset experiences a rapid upward price movement.
When this happens, short sellers may be forced to close their short positions (i.e. buy the stock and return it to the broker), further accelerating the upward price movement.
4/ Let's look at a simple example to show this in action.
We will use Tesla, one of the most heavily-shorted stocks in the world.
Imagine the stock price is $1,000 per share. This seems crazy. Ricky Rational decides to short the stock at this level.
If you follow financial markets (or if you watch Billions), you've heard the phrase "short squeeze" used quite frequently.
But what is a "short squeeze" and how does it work?
Here's Short Squeeze 101!
👇👇👇
1/ First, the basics.
The "short" in "short squeeze" refers to the concept of short selling.
The basics are covered in my thread below.
https://t.co/xecJYNCxMs
TL;DR - short selling is a way of betting against a stock - i.e. betting that its price will decline.
1/ Short Selling 101
— Sahil Bloom (@SahilBloom) July 6, 2020
With the markets continuing to rally, there has been more talk of \u201cshorting\u201d or \u201cshort selling\u201d stocks.
But what does that mean and how does it work?
Here\u2019s a quick educational primer: Short Selling 101 pic.twitter.com/JTrJmuY7fI
2/ "Short interest" is a measure of how heavily an asset is shorted by the market.
It is the total number of shares that have been sold short (borrowed and sold), but have not yet been covered (bought and returned).
It is usually measured as a % of the # of shares outstanding.
3/ A "short squeeze" occurs when a heavily-shorted asset experiences a rapid upward price movement.
When this happens, short sellers may be forced to close their short positions (i.e. buy the stock and return it to the broker), further accelerating the upward price movement.
4/ Let's look at a simple example to show this in action.
We will use Tesla, one of the most heavily-shorted stocks in the world.
Imagine the stock price is $1,000 per share. This seems crazy. Ricky Rational decides to short the stock at this level.
