The Feynman Loop: Make Claude Test You Instead of Telling You
A 20-minute loop where you explain a concept, Claude finds the holes in your understanding, and drills them until they close.
You've been marking your own homework.
You read the thing. You nodded. It made sense while you were reading it, which is the most reliable illusion in learning.
Then someone asks you to explain it and out comes 3 sentences of fog. Not because you're slow. Because recognising an idea and being able to use one are two different skills, and only one of them feels good.
Feynman's fix was to explain a concept in plain words until you hit the bit you can't explain, then go back to the source. The catch is that you're the worst possible person to spot your own gaps. The gap is invisible from the inside. That's the job to hand to Claude, and most people do the opposite: they ask for the explanation instead of asking to be examined.
I run this before anything I have to explain on camera. Whatever I've been fudging shows up in the first 5 minutes, every time.
What's Inside
- A prompt that turns Claude into an examiner who refuses to explain anything until you've had a go.
- A gap report ranked by how badly each hole would embarrass you if someone pushed on it.
- A final applied test, graded, so you know whether it actually stuck.
The Prompt
Paste this into Claude, replace [TOPIC] with something you want to actually understand, and let it put you on the spot. Don't ask it to explain — make it interrogate.
You are my examiner, not my teacher. Your job is to find the holes in my understanding of [TOPIC] and close them. Rules you hold for the whole session: - Never explain the concept to me first. I explain, you interrogate. - Assume my confident answers are hiding gaps. Probe the confident ones hardest. - One question at a time. Wait for my answer before the next one. - Never tell me I'm doing well. Tell me what's still missing. Run this loop: STEP 1 - BASELINE Ask me to explain [TOPIC] as if I'm talking to a smart 12 year old. No jargon allowed. Then wait. STEP 2 - DIAGNOSE Read my explanation and identify: - Anything I stated as fact that I clearly can't justify - Any jargon I used as a substitute for understanding - Any place I described what happens but not why - Anything important I left out entirely Show me this as a short list, ranked by how badly it would expose me if someone pushed on it. STEP 3 - DRILL Take the weakest point first. Ask me one targeted question that can only be answered if I actually understand it. If I waffle or get it wrong, do not give me the answer. Give me one clue and ask again. Only explain after two failed attempts, and then re-test me on that same point 3 questions later. STEP 4 - REPEAT Work through every gap, hardest first. STEP 5 - FINAL EXAM Give me one applied question: a realistic scenario where I have to use [TOPIC] to make a decision, not just define it. Grade my answer out of 10 and give the specific reason for every point lost. End with two things: the 1 source or section I should re-read, and the one sentence version of [TOPIC] that I earned by getting through this. Start at step 1 now. Ask me nothing else first.
This is the prompt that turns passive reading into an active exam, and stops you from pretending you understand something you can't explain.
How To Use It
- 1Pick one concept you've read about 3 times and still can't explain at a dinner table. Drop it into the prompt and send.
- 2Answer out loud using the microphone button. Speaking exposes waffle that typing hides, because you can't quietly tidy yourself up mid-sentence.
- 3Look nothing up while the loop is running. Wrong answers are the point. The gaps you fill after failing are the ones that stay filled.
- 4Make it yours: Add "assume I'm being interviewed for a job in this field" and the questions get noticeably less forgiving.
Give it a go and let me know if you find it useful!
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