"You can not explain with simple words" If you do not "understand"

ByChristine Cavalier

According to author John Gruber, Apple engineers are required to explain complex technologies and products with words that are simple and easy to understand. That is because the executives do not need simple words to understand, but engineers can understand the technology and the product in the true sense by using simple words. This way of thinking was not only for Apple, it won the Nobel Prize in PhysicsRichard P. FeynmanAlso leave similar words.

If you can not explain something in simple terms, you do not understand it
http://kottke.org/17/06/if-you-cant-explain-something-in-simple-terms-you-dont-understand-it


Richard P. Feynman, who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1965 as having contributed greatly to the development of quantum electromagnetism, was teaching college students in the 1960s. The university's lesson conducted by Feynman was "Feynman physicsAlthough it was later made into a book as a book, some lecture content was not published due to lost material. After that, Feynman's colleague David L. Goodstein decoded the notes that Feynman left behind for recording contents of the lecture and preparation of the lecture "Lost Feynman's lecture (Feynman's Lost Lecture)Published a book titled " At that time, GoodsteinCaltech's Engineering and Science magazineFor the magazine called Feynman as follows.

"Feynman was a really wonderful teacher and he himself boasted of being able to explain with a variety of phrases to freshmen of the university even with an esoteric idea: once I clicked on 'Dick, why particles with half integer spin areFermi · Dirac StatisticsDo you obey? "When asking, Feynman returned" I will prepare a lecture for the university first grade. " But a few days later, he said: "could not. I could not break down to the first grade level. In other words, I did not understand at all. "

Feynman explained the scientific content with a simple word, and as a result, the person hearing the talk was famous for having an agenda deeply understandable. And another thing that was known was that Feynman acknowledged it without worrying about "I do not understand". Even in the following movies that explain magnetic force, Feynman says "I can not explain at all at all.It is that you can not explain with magnetic force in words that you know well, I know the magnetism in words you know I do not understand it. "

Feynman: Magnets FUN TO IMAGINE 4 - YouTube


In February 1988, when Feynman left this world, on the blackboard "What I can not create, I do not understand." (I do not understand what I can not make in my true sense) It was said that it was left.