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Text Content

ANDY
MATUSCHAK


ANDY MATUSCHAK

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Hi! I’m a software engineer, designer, and researcher. I work on technologies
that expand what people can think and do. more…

Hi! I’m a software engineer, designer, and researcher. I work on technologies
that expand what people can think and do.

My methods meander between academia and Silicon Valley: I explore theories by
expressing them in real-world systems, which produce insights I use to improve
the theories, which I use in turn to improve the systems, and so on.

Prior to my current work, I helped build iOS at Apple and led R&D at Khan
Academy.

I’m now an independent researcher, supported by a crowdfunded grant from my
Patreon community. If you find my work interesting, you can become a member to
get patron-only "letters from the lab" and early access to new work.

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PROJECTS:
TOOLS FOR THOUGHT


PROJECTS: TOOLS FOR THOUGHT

Augmenting cognition and creativity; "how to create magicians?"; "what comes
after the book?"; enabling environments.

What comes after the book?


 1. HOW CAN WE DEVELOP TRANSFORMATIVE TOOLS FOR THOUGHT?
    
    Barriers and opportunities, joint with Michael Nielsen
    
    


 2. QUANTUM COUNTRY
    
    An experimental “mnemonic book,” joint with Michael Nielsen


 3. WHY BOOKS DON’T WORK
    
    On designing media to reflect how people think and learn


 4. TIMEFUL TEXTS
    
    Extending the reading experience over time; joint with Michael Nielsen


MORE


MORE WORK


 1. ORBIT: A PLATFORM FOR THE MNEMONIC MEDIUM
    
    My current project, still under construction


 2. HOW TO WRITE GOOD PROMPTS
    
    Using spaced repetition to create understanding


NOTES


WORKING NOTES


 1. WHAT‘S TOP OF MIND
    
    An index of the questions and ideas I‘m exploring


 2. THE MNEMONIC MEDIUM
    
    Design properties, evidence of impact, top questions


 3. EVERGREEN NOTES
    
    Methods for developing ideas over time


 4. ENABLING ENVIRONMENTS, VIDEO GAMES, AND THE PRIMER
    
    Incomplete notes on a new kind of growth environment


 5. PROGRAMMABLE ATTENTION
    
    Systems which systematically orchestrate your mind


 6. TAKING KNOWLEDGE WORK SERIOUSLY
    
    Athletes and musicians vs. knowledge workers


LETTERS FROM
THE LAB


LETTERS FROM THE LAB

Informal essays and project updates. Most are initially written for my patrons,
but a subset are later made available to the public.

Less formal essays (some patron-only)


 1.  EXPONENTIALS AND FORGETTING IN QUANTUM COUNTRY
     
     Patterns in preliminary data


 2.  LESSONS FROM 2021
     
     Reflections on creative work, the field, crowdfunding


 3.  TOOLS FOR THOUGHT: SCIENCE, DESIGN, ART, CRAFTSMANSHIP?
     
     Lenses for progress in interface invention


 4.  QUANTUM COUNTRY’S SUSPICIOUSLY FLAT FORGETTING CURVES
     
     Surprises in analysis of conceptual memory


 5.  DOING-CENTRIC EXPLANATORY MEDIUMS
     
     Board game instruction manuals… and Figma


 6.  ARCHITECTURES FOR A MORE FLEXIBLE MNEMONIC MEDIUM
     
     Interface approaches for reader control


 7.  REVAMPING THE MNEMONIC MEDIUM FOR READER CONTROL
     
     Expanding beyond primers' assumptions


 8.  ARMORIES FOR TOOL-MAKER/-USER COLLABORATIONS
     
     Notes on bridging skills and ideas


 9.  FINDING RESEARCH–CONTEXT FIT
     
     A challenge for tool-builders


 10. CROWDFUNDED RESEARCH VS. THE NSF CAREER GRANT
     
     Open-sourcing Orbit; technical collaborations


 11. TOO EASY TO BE EFFORTLESS
     
     Surprising distributions in Quantum Country


 12. RATCHETING PROGRESS IN TOOLS FOR THOUGHT
     
     How to accrete insight as a field?


 13. IN SEARCH OF BETTER QUESTIONS
     
     From memory systems to meaning


 14. REFLECTIONS ON 2020 AS AN INDEPENDENT RESEARCHER
     
     Funding, culture, limitations, process


 15. LIQUID OLIVES AND IPHONES
     
     Problem-solving and -finding; The Uncertainty Mindset


 16. WORKING WITH AUTHORS: ENTANGLED SKILLS
     
     Text-writing needs prompt-writing needs text-writing


 17. THE CARRYING CAPACITY OF A REGULAR MEMORY PRACTICE
     
     Tensions with deliberate practice and flow


 18. THE GALAXY BRAIN PROBLEM; SPEED-RUNNING UIS
     
     Challenges in explaining new mediums


 19. “SKIP”: EXPONENTIAL-BACKOFF DEFERRAL MECHANISMS…
     
     … and fuzzy inboxes


 20. THOUGHTS ON CROWDFUNDING TOOLS FOR THOUGHT
     
     Remarks on a milestone in crowdfunding


 21. A NASCENT ART DIRECTION FOR ORBIT
     
     Escaping educational aesthetics


 22. DEMONSTRATING A PERSONAL MNEMONIC MEDIUM
     
     Integrating spaced repetition into prose notes


 23. BRINGING IDEAS INTO YOUR ORBIT
     
     Extending the desktop for programmable attention


PROJECTS:
ED-TECH


PROJECTS: EXPERIMENTAL ED-TECH

Work from my time at Khan Academy, where my team worked with teachers to invent
novel interactive learning environments.

Creations from my R&D work at Khan Academy.


 1. BUILDING COMPLEX SKILLS ONLINE
    
    Beyond right and wrong: scalable open-ended learning activities


 2. NUMBERS AT PLAY
    
    Designing digital manipu­latives to reveal numbers’ hidden properties


 3. PLAYFUL WORLDS OF CREATIVE MATH
    
    Reframing early numeracy around adventure, wonder, and creativity


BLOG


RESEARCH BLOG


 1.  NARRATED EXPLORABLES: THREE MENTAL MODELS
     
     When author and learner share a canvas


 2.  STUDENTS ARE THE SUBJECTS OF OUR SENTENCES
     
     A syntactic trick to emphasize student agency


 3.  LOOKING SIDEWAYS AT THE DESIGN SQUIGGLE
     
     Reflections on the team’s design process


 4.  MASTERY LEARNING AND CREATIVE TASKS
     
     Mastery learning’s limits for complex skills


 5.  SORTING PRODUCT “BASEBALL CARDS”
     
     Bridging behavioral interviews and prototypes


 6.  EXPLANATIONS FROM ‘MASTERS’ OF GEOMETRY
     
     The gulf between application and explanation


 7.  SAFELY SHOWING STUDENTS PEERS’ COMMENTS
     
     Designing peer interactions to avoid abuse


 8.  GAMES VS. EDUCATION ON UNGUIDED INSTRUCTION
     
     The limits of teaching without words


 9.  RICH TASKS WHICH CROWDSOURCE MORE RICH TASKS
     
     Using student work to arrange social learning


 10. SURVEYING THE OPEN-ENDED TASK LANDSCAPE
     
     Notes from literature / market review


 11. AMPLIFYING OPEN-ENDED QUESTIONS
     
     Enabling open-ended online learning activities


 12. ONE MEDIUM, MANY CONTEXTS
     
     Designing math manipulatives for fluid use


 13. OLD AND NEW WAYS OF LOOKING AT NUMBERS
     
     Making abstract properties more visible


 14. A MEDIUM FOR EXPLORING QUANTITY
     
     Introducing our math manipulative project


 15. STUDENT AGENCY AND FLOW
     
     Helping students surf their learning edge


MORE, MISC, META

Miscellaneous writing, appearances, and projects scattered across the web.

Miscellaneous writing, appearances, projects.


 1. SCRYING PEN
    
    A pen which draws its own future using a realtime recurrent neural network


PODCASTS


SELECTED PODCASTS


 1. ECONTALK WITH RUSS ROBERTS
    
    2019-08-05


 2. CLEARER THINKING WITH SPENCER GREENBERG
    
    2021-07-29


 3. METAMUSE WITH ADAM WIGGINS AND MARK MCGRANAGHAN
    
    2020-09-03


 4. FREE THOUGHTS WITH AARON ROSS POWELL AND TREVOR BURRUS
    
    2021-01-22


 5. VENTURE STORIES WITH ERIK TORENBERG
    
    2019-10-24


 6. NORTH STAR WITH DAVID PERELL
    
    2020-04-06


ARTICLES


OTHER WRITING


 1. EXALTING DATA, MISSING MEANING
    
    The delusions of measurement absent theory


 2. SATISFACTION AND PROGRESS IN OPEN-ENDED WORK
    
    Seeking gradient in the fog of novel work


 3. BUILDING HABITS VIA SMOOTHLY RATCHETING TARGETS
    
    A surprisingly reliable strategy for starting habits

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