To really understand a concept, you have to “invent” it yourself in some capacity. Understanding doesn’t come from passive content consumption. It is always self-built. It is an active, high-agency, self-directed process of creating and debugging your own mental models.

This profound insight, shared by François Chollet, cuts through the illusion of modern “learning” culture. We scroll through tutorials, watch explainer videos, consume podcasts—and mistake familiarity for understanding.

The Illusion of Passive Learning

The uncomfortable truth: you can watch a hundred videos about riding a bicycle and still fall flat on your face the first time you try. You can read endless articles about programming and still stare blankly at a text editor. Why? Because understanding is not transfer—it’s construction.

Active Mental Model Building

Real understanding requires:

  • High agency: Taking ownership of your learning process
  • Self-direction: Asking your own questions, not following someone else’s script
  • Active construction: Building the concept from first principles in your mind
  • Debugging: Testing your mental model against reality and fixing what breaks

When you passively consume content, you’re watching someone else’s mental model. When you actively invent the concept—even if you’re just rediscovering what’s already known—you’re building your own mental model. And that makes all the difference.

The Cost of Content Consumption

The modern knowledge economy sells us on the myth that consumption equals learning. Buy this course. Watch this masterclass. Read this thread. But the uncomfortable question remains: How much of what you consume do you actually understand?

If you can’t rebuild it from scratch, debug it when it breaks, or explain it in your own words without referencing the source material—you don’t really understand it. You’ve just memorized someone else’s explanation.

The Path to Real Understanding

Stop consuming. Start inventing.

  • Don’t just read the tutorial—try to build it before reading
  • Don’t just watch the explanation—pause and predict what comes next
  • Don’t just memorize the formula—derive it yourself
  • Don’t just copy the code—delete it and recreate it from memory

Understanding is expensive. It requires effort, struggle, failure, and iteration. But it’s the only kind of knowledge that actually sticks—and the only kind that lets you create something new.

This post is inspired by François Chollet’s insight: Understanding Through Invention