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Really glad to hear the site helps with new insights (especially for someone who has aced the tests/grades). I was in a similar boat, qualified on paper, but no

by kalid 11y ago

Really glad to hear the site helps with new insights (especially for someone who has aced the tests/grades). I was in a similar boat, qualified on paper, but not in my heart of hearts. 1) In general I like any efforts to explain things in new ways, and ExplainedVisually is great. My philosophy is that teaching is like humor. You want to make something funny, present it well, but not overexplain it. Let's people enjoy the joke. If you do too much handholding, you ruin the surprise and it's not fun to be told "Ok, the punchline is coming up...". It's not an exact science, but you get a nose for when something is truly illuminating vs. trying to chew your food for you. 2) BetterExplained is a side business. Happy to share numbers, etc. I have some earlier posts about ebook sales and techniques: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=870015 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=870015 I don't think I should be taken as a model of learning though (I write very infrequently) but thankfully math is evergreen. Many of my most popular articles are 5-7 years old. I do want to dedicate more time to it. I realize I was afraid of ruining my love of learning by turning it into a profession, but I'm slowly coming to grips with it. That's one of the hardest parts for me actually, feeling I'll kill the golden goose by squeezing too hard. I'll probably do a blog post / postmortem on marketing, numbers, etc. so keep an eye out :).

neilsharma 11y ago
1) "Not over explain it" -- that's really good advice. You don't want to take the "aha" moment away from someone. 2) Thanks for the link! Definitely looking forward to your blog post/postmortem (don't let BetterExplained die!). Have you found learning to be less enjoyable by writing about it, or do you end up discovering a dozen other tidbits of math magic you want to share with everyone? Two more questions if you don't mind :) 3) What are your thoughts on word problems? For example, in most linear algebra textbooks, you are given matrix and are asked you to process it. Rarely are you given a word problem and are asked to think through the entire process (data and operations matrices setup --> processing --> meaningful end result). 4) For inspiration, what are you experiences explaining concepts in a cross-disciplinary manner? When I was a student, I never understood why a concept is important. Homework problems were abstracted out of all real-world context to train for mechanical problem solving. Only now, after exploring data and writing algorithms in health, journalism and finance, have I finally been able to answer the question I always had as a kid: "why is this stuff useful?"
- kalid 11y ago
  (Looking back at comments, replying to this a bit later.) 1) Exactly. It's like spoiling a movie. 2) Hah, the postmortem is more about the Reddit interaction (write up about went well / things I'd change). I'm planning on working on the site as long as I can. It's a life mission at this point. Learning has stayed enjoyable, I tend to write insights that really strike me and get excited to share. (Which leads to me studying it more and figuring out new insights.) When learning is drudgery (this happens often), I tend to let the topic sit a bit, and I don't write publicly about it. The articles on the blog are what genuinely get me excited about the topic. I do think there's usually a way to see a topic that makes it come alive. As an example, I'm working on quaternions. I have a large list of notes here: http://aha.betterexplained.com/t/quaternion/267 http://aha.betterexplained.com/t/quaternion/267 and I'm slowly getting an intuition that I'll then work into an article. 3) I like word problems because they force us to ask the uncomfortable question of whether we can think with the material (vs. follow the steps). That said, this check of whether you're thinking or following steps can be accomplished with other types of questions too. For me the method isn't as important as the outcome. 4) Good question. So far, my audience is typically people who are self-motivated (i.e., they have a test, are curious, need homework help, etc.) vs. giving a talk to a potentially uninterested audience. (Not intentionally uninterested, but a volunteer audience.) The primary motivations to learn are probably: * practicality * curiosity * beauty / awe * sense of accomplishment Depending on your audience you'd have to tailor it. But I think beauty/awe is more powerful than we think. Even for a technical talk, I'd get people see the aha! moment. It's the sugar that helps the medicine go down.

by kalid 11y ago

neilsharma 11y ago

1) "Not over explain it" -- that's really good advice. You don't want to take the "aha" moment away from someone. 2) Thanks for the link! Definitely looking forward to your blog post/postmortem (don't let BetterExplained die!). Have you found learning to be less enjoyable by writing about it, or do you end up discovering a dozen other tidbits of math magic you want to share with everyone? Two more questions if you don't mind :) 3) What are your thoughts on word problems? For example, in most linear algebra textbooks, you are given matrix and are asked you to process it. Rarely are you given a word problem and are asked to think through the entire process (data and operations matrices setup --> processing --> meaningful end result). 4) For inspiration, what are you experiences explaining concepts in a cross-disciplinary manner? When I was a student, I never understood why a concept is important. Homework problems were abstracted out of all real-world context to train for mechanical problem solving. Only now, after exploring data and writing algorithms in health, journalism and finance, have I finally been able to answer the question I always had as a kid: "why is this stuff useful?"

kalid 11y ago
(Looking back at comments, replying to this a bit later.) 1) Exactly. It's like spoiling a movie. 2) Hah, the postmortem is more about the Reddit interaction (write up about went well / things I'd change). I'm planning on working on the site as long as I can. It's a life mission at this point. Learning has stayed enjoyable, I tend to write insights that really strike me and get excited to share. (Which leads to me studying it more and figuring out new insights.) When learning is drudgery (this happens often), I tend to let the topic sit a bit, and I don't write publicly about it. The articles on the blog are what genuinely get me excited about the topic. I do think there's usually a way to see a topic that makes it come alive. As an example, I'm working on quaternions. I have a large list of notes here: http://aha.betterexplained.com/t/quaternion/267 http://aha.betterexplained.com/t/quaternion/267 and I'm slowly getting an intuition that I'll then work into an article. 3) I like word problems because they force us to ask the uncomfortable question of whether we can think with the material (vs. follow the steps). That said, this check of whether you're thinking or following steps can be accomplished with other types of questions too. For me the method isn't as important as the outcome. 4) Good question. So far, my audience is typically people who are self-motivated (i.e., they have a test, are curious, need homework help, etc.) vs. giving a talk to a potentially uninterested audience. (Not intentionally uninterested, but a volunteer audience.) The primary motivations to learn are probably: * practicality * curiosity * beauty / awe * sense of accomplishment Depending on your audience you'd have to tailor it. But I think beauty/awe is more powerful than we think. Even for a technical talk, I'd get people see the aha! moment. It's the sugar that helps the medicine go down.