Scientific Definition
Six escalating levels of teaching that compound learning: self-explain, simulated other, dialogue, informal teach, full-spectrum teach, professional teach.
Plain-English Definition
Six escalating levels of teaching that compound learning: self-explain, simulated other, dialogue, informal teach, full-spectrum teach, professional teach.
Feynman Explanation
Talking to yourself is level one. Charging for it is level six.
Core Principle
Six escalating levels of teaching that compound learning: self-explain, simulated other, dialogue, informal teach, full-spectrum teach, professional teach.
Mechanisms
Pending editorial review.
Six escalating levels of teaching that compound learning: self-explain, simulated other, dialogue, informal teach, full-spectrum teach, professional teach.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Career growth path: every level up multiplies what you retain.
Inputs (Triggers)
Pending editorial review.
Outputs (Behaviors)
Pending editorial review.
Behavioral Signature
Talking to yourself is level one. Charging for it is level six.
Examples
- Mental Model Club framework for sequencing teach-to-learn habits.
- Career growth path: every level up multiplies what you retain.
Pending editorial review.
Famous Experiments
Pending editorial review.
Design Principles
- Pick one concept per week and push it up at least one level on the pyramid.
Measurement Approaches
Pending editorial review.
Evidence
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
The Perverse Incentive Lens™
How this behavior is exploited — and how to redesign around it.
- Pick one concept per week and push it up at least one level on the pyramid.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Interactive Mini Network
Click any neighbor to re-center the graph and follow the threads of connection.
Knowledge Graph Neighbors
Auto-linked to the rest of the Human Behavior Taxonomy by family, domain, dimension, and shared keywords.
Forcing yourself to explain a concept reveals exactly where your understanding is hollow.
Your capacity to learn, unlearn, and relearn faster than the environment changes.
Malcolm Knowles's principles of adult learning: self-direction, experience as resource, readiness, problem-centered orientation, intrinsic motivation.
Amishi Jha's research: attention is a finite, depletable, but trainable cognitive resource — short daily mindfulness measurably improves it.
Approach a situation as if you knew nothing.
Unusual or bizarre material is more memorable than common material.
Hierarchy of cognitive learning: Remember → Understand → Apply → Analyze → Evaluate → Create. Benjamin Bloom, 1956 (revised 2001).
Wallace J. Nichols: proximity to water reliably shifts the nervous system toward a calmer, more creative state.
Resourcing past memories with the state you needed at the time, so old triggers stop firing the old response.
Grouping information into familiar units to improve memory and processing.
Compressing many small patterns into one larger unit your mind treats as a single object.
Anchor a peak resourceful state to an imagined spot on the floor; step into it on demand before high-stakes moments.