@cryptogee,

This was a very interesting article. There's a similar maxim (paraphrasing): "If you want to really understand something, teach it." Teaching something finds the holes. And teaching it to a 5-year-old is going to find every hole possible.

I encounter this in my tutoring all the time. You'd be surprised at how many beliefs and assumptions you take for granted without being able to articulate why. But when you have to explain them in a coherent way to another person, especially one who cannot be counted to fill in the holes with their pre-exisiting knowledge, it forces you to first organize it coherently for yourself. And it is this re-organization of old information that can be so enlightening and the source of insights. And often, the result of such re-organization is better analogies.

I found your memory explanation interesting as well. I have an extremely selective memory ... I remember with incredible acuity that which I find interesting or useful ... but don't ask me what I had for breakfast yesterday. Hence, I can recall, with incredible fidelity, things I read as a child about which I was fascinated ... but I dump the mundane with equally ferocious efficiency.

I actually watched one of your Feynman video-editing tutorials before reading this post and commented that I was surprised that I found it so interesting ... now I know why. :-)

Quill