Explaining it to an empty chair

Study habits · about 3 minutes

The Feynman technique: pick a topic, explain it in plain words as if to someone new to it, notice where you stall, go back to the source, and simplify again.

The stalls are the point. Every place I reach for jargon, or say "and then it just works", is a gap I had not noticed while reading.

Where it falls short

It checks understanding, not recall. I can explain a proof today and forget it in a month.
It rewards fluent talk. Sounding clear is not the same as being right, so I check against worked problems.

So I pair it with a few review cards for the parts I need to keep.