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Paperwork: We all know how zippers work, but try explaining it to an 8-year-old · Illinois Valley - Shaw Local

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  Speaker 1: Paperwork. We all know how zippers work, but try explaining
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  Speaker 1: it to an eight year old. Written by Lonnie Kine.
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: This article is being read by an automated voice brought
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  Speaker 1: to you by Everlett. I don't know what I know.
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  Speaker 1: I'm not sure how else to put it. I am
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  Speaker 1: not saying I am dumb. In fact, this has nothing
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  Speaker 1: to do with IQ or SAT scores or report cards.
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  Speaker 1: Dads remember report cards, those awful summaries that put you
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  Speaker 1: on a smart scale. The goal was to be in
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  Speaker 1: a student right, But did that mean you were learning? Actually,
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  Speaker 1: that's what I am thinking about learning the process of learning,
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  Speaker 1: and how often I find myself realizing I don't know
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  Speaker 1: what I know? Or, to put it another way, how
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  Speaker 1: do you know what you know? I've been reading about
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  Speaker 1: Richard Feynman. At first I was drawn to a headline
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  Speaker 1: telling me that this man's thinking habit made him a genius.
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  Speaker 1: Feynman was a Nobel Prize winning theoretical physicists who helped
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  Speaker 1: give us nanotechnology and quantum computing. He died in nineteen
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  Speaker 1: eighty eight and is remembered by many for how he
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  Speaker 1: explained complex concepts in such simple terms, which is what
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  Speaker 1: his thinking habit was all about. He is still being quoted.
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  Speaker 1: I don't know what's the matter with people. They don't
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  Speaker 1: learn by understanding, They learn by rote or something. He said.
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  Speaker 1: Their knowledge is so fragile. Fragile is the perfect word.
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  Speaker 1: We might be great at memorizing facts and figures, but
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  Speaker 1: that does not mean we understand them or can apply
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  Speaker 1: them to real life situations. And isn't that the true
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  Speaker 1: test of knowledge? Feynman taught a simple way to test
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  Speaker 1: what you think you know. An online search of the
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  Speaker 1: Feynman technique provides a good summary. Starting with this basic step,
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  Speaker 1: force yourself to explain complex concepts in plain, jargon free language,
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  Speaker 1: as if teaching an eight year old. When you stumble,
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  Speaker 1: you instantly identify the gaps in your knowledge. An article
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  Speaker 1: on Feynman via Health thought substack dot com explain the
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  Speaker 1: learning process in terms I could easily relate to. You
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  Speaker 1: finish reading a book, you watch an hour long lecture,
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  Speaker 1: you nod along during a conversation, and for a brief moment,
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  Speaker 1: you feel smarter. Then someone asks you one simple question,
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  Speaker 1: can you explain it? Suddenly your confidence disappears, because somewhere
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  Speaker 1: between hearing an idea and truly understanding it. Something went missing.
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  Speaker 1: Most people never notice that gap. Richard Feynman did. The
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  Speaker 1: article notes, there is a quiet sentence millions of people
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  Speaker 1: repeat every day, I get it. Usually they don't. Psychologists
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  Speaker 1: call this the illusion of explanatory depth, our tendency to
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  Speaker 1: believe we understand complex things far better than we actually do.
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  Speaker 1: Ask someone how a zipper works, or why antibiotics don't
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  Speaker 1: kill viruses, or how inflation happens. Most people are surprisingly
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  Speaker 1: confident until they try to explain it. Feynman thought that
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  Speaker 1: if you understood something deeply enough, you should be able
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  Speaker 1: to explain it clearly and in simple terms. He embraced
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  Speaker 1: confusion because he saw it as the beginning of intelligence.
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  Speaker 1: Confusion leads to questions. Never stop questioning, Fetman said, and
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  Speaker 1: rediscover basic principles used to build the formulas and rules
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  Speaker 1: we readily accept and follow. If you rebuild knowledge from
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  Speaker 1: its source, then you own it. He said, here's the test.
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  Speaker 1: List those things that guide your life, major decisions or beliefs.
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  Speaker 1: Then point to each one and ask, can I explain
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  Speaker 1: this clearly and simply in my own words? That test
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  Speaker 1: is what now has me wondering what I really know?
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  Speaker 1: It has me thinking that I don't know what I
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  Speaker 1: know until I pass that test and answer the critical
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  Speaker 1: question can I explain it? And for me that means
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  Speaker 1: I must write, lean into a keyboard and talk as
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  Speaker 1: if I were explaining to an eight year old. Of
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  Speaker 1: course I am talking to myself. I write. That's how
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  Speaker 1: I explore ideas or feelings and all those things I
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  Speaker 1: think I know. That is how I try to explain
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  Speaker 1: things to myself. That's not always easy. I write to
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  Speaker 1: question myself and what I believe. Then I often share
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  Speaker 1: it with others, with you, and when you respond, it
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  Speaker 1: helps me understand even more that there's always a lot
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  Speaker 1: more to learn. Lonnie Kane, retired managing editor of The
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  Speaker 1: Times in Ottawa, also was a reporter for the Herald
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  Speaker 1: News and Joliet in the nineteen seventies. His paperwork email
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  Speaker 1: is Lonnijkane at gmail dot com or mail the News
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  Speaker 1: Tribune four to twenty six Second Street, LaSalle, Ail six
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  Speaker 1: one three zero one