About BetterExplained.com

There’s always a better way to explain a topic. Insights are fluid, mutable, and work for different people. I’m sharing the insights that helped me, hoping they’ll help you too. Here’s my take on learning:

Ideas start hard and finish simple.

Complicated ideas get easier. Multiplication, reading and even tying your shoes seemed tough at first and are trivial now. Likewise, I believe (I know!) that math, science, business, technology or any topic can be understood at an intuitive level – after overcoming the initial complexity.

The best teacher is you – after you’ve learned the subject.

You are your own perfect tutor. Think about it – you overcame the problems and can explain the solution in language that makes sense. Unfortunately, we can’t go back in time. But I can share the “Ah-ha!” moments that I’ve found.

And maybe you think like me, so the explanation works for you too. Or maybe you think a little differently, and a helpful comment gives an insight that works better. Our “ah-ha!” moments are different, and that’s ok. There’s no single way to explain an idea, yet we all have a single textbook.

Get a map, not directions.

Memorization often masquerades as learning. Just follow the recipe, memorize the formula, get from A to B without asking why.

Sure, directions are easy — too easy. But what about wrong turns? New destinations? Detours and roadblocks? Helping a friend who’s starting at point C, not A?

You need a map. Yes, it’s more work, but once understood a map gets you from any point to any other point. You don’t memorize, you derive.

This site is about discovering and sharing maps, the intuitive insights that make complicated ideas simple. Let’s leave the details for the encyclopedias.

I still don’t know (that’s OK with me).

The site began after I slammed my head against the vector calculus books; insights eventually tumbled out. “Why wasn’t it explained like that in the first place?” I thought, furiously scribbling my thoughts before they escaped. But I’m never done.

“It is impossible for a man to learn what he thinks he already knows.” -Epictetus

I could still be far from the truth, and that’s where you come in. I’m always scrounging for more insights, so send ‘em along .

About Kalid Azad

I’m an extremely curious person and love sharing my insights with other people. Back at Princeton I started a site to explain concepts as I would have liked to learn them. BetterExplained is a continuation of that idea.

I worked at Microsoft after graduation, and recently became an entrepreneur, developing InstaCalc: a real-time, shareable calculator. I think it’s really quite cool (my unbiased opinion, of course) and you can learn more about it here. I have other ideas up my sleeve that will emerge with time. Feel free to ping me at kalid@instacalc.com.