About Andy Matuschak
Andy Matuschak is a software designer and applied researcher who works on what he calls tools for thought: interfaces and media meant to help people understand, remember and use difficult ideas. He publishes essays and public research notes on learning, memory and reading.
Before turning to independent research, Matuschak worked in industry. At Apple he helped build iOS, and at Khan Academy he led research and development, where his team worked with teachers on new interactive learning environments. Since 2019 his independent work has been funded mainly by readers and supporters through Patreon. On his site he says he is currently on leave from research to help make Pico, a project concerned with human attention.
His best-known project is Quantum Country, made with the physicist and writer Michael Nielsen. It is an introduction to quantum computing that places spaced-repetition review prompts inside the essay itself, so that readers are periodically asked to recall what they read. Matuschak and Nielsen call this format a mnemonic medium, and they described the ideas behind it in the long essay "How can we develop transformative tools for thought?" He later built Orbit, a platform for experiments with memory systems.
Matuschak's writing appears on his own site rather than in magazines. His 2019 essay "Why books don't work" argues that books and lectures quietly assume people learn by absorbing what they are told, and asks what a medium designed around how people actually learn would look like. "How might we learn?" (2024) follows an imagined learner to sketch how study could serve real projects. He also publishes his working notes openly, including notes on what he calls evergreen notes.
What Andy Matuschak is known for
- Research on tools for thought and the mnemonic medium
- Quantum Country, made with Michael Nielsen
- The essay "Why books don't work"
- Evergreen notes and his public working notes
- Helping build iOS at Apple and leading R&D at Khan Academy
Works by Andy Matuschak
1 essay to practice
More notable works
How might we learn? (opens in a new tab)
Essay · 2024
Uses an extended scenario about one learner to imagine study that is tied to meaningful projects.
Long essay with Michael Nielsen on the mnemonic medium and why tools for thought are hard to build.
How to write good prompts: using spaced repetition to create understanding (opens in a new tab)
Essay
A practical guide to writing review prompts that build understanding rather than rote recall.
An introduction to quantum computing, written with Michael Nielsen, with spaced-repetition prompts embedded in the text.
His public note describing notes written to evolve and accumulate across projects.
An essay on how the app model and conventional programming constrain what people can make with computers.
Andy Matuschak’s writing style
Matuschak's writing is characterized by careful analysis of cognitive processes and learning systems. He combines technical expertise with cognitive science insights, often experimenting with new formats and structures in his writing itself.
- Argument grounded in learning science
- His essays lean on cognitive science, such as spaced repetition and the limits of working memory, and cite research directly rather than relying on intuition.
- Openly tentative first person
- He writes as "I" and marks how sure he is with phrases like "I suspect" and "I suggest," presenting ideas as working hypotheses rather than conclusions.
- Thinking through a concrete learner
- "How might we learn?" is built around an imagined engineer named Sam, and abstract claims are tested against what that person would actually experience.
- Step-by-step case building
- Long essays move through headed sections that diagnose a problem, examine evidence and end with a proposal, often for a new kind of medium.
- Short sentences that land the point
- Long, carefully qualified sentences are punctuated by blunt ones, such as "Failure is the default here." in "Why books don't work."
- Atomic, densely linked notes
- In his public notes each note states one idea in its title and links heavily to related notes, so the writing grows as a network rather than as a finished document.
How to write like Andy Matuschak
Start from a real problem you have noticed in how people learn, work or think, and say plainly why the usual explanation falls short. Then build the argument in visible stages: what happens now, what research or experience says about why, and what a better design might be. Keep your confidence honest. Say "I suspect" when you suspect and "the evidence shows" only when it does, and cite the studies you lean on.
Test every abstraction against one specific person in one specific situation, the way Matuschak follows an imagined learner through a week of study. Practise the note habit too: write one idea per note, give it a title that states the claim, and link it to related notes. Over time those notes become the raw material for longer essays, and your drafts start from ideas you have already worked through.
The quickest way to absorb these habits is to retype one of Andy Matuschak’s essays above, word for word, then write a paragraph of your own in the same voice. New to this? Read what copywork is and how to do it.
Frequently asked questions about Andy Matuschak
- Who is Andy Matuschak?
- Andy Matuschak is an applied researcher and software designer who studies tools for thought, meaning interfaces and media that help people understand and remember complex ideas. He helped build iOS at Apple and led research and development at Khan Academy. Since 2019 he has worked independently with support from Patreon, and with Michael Nielsen he created Quantum Country, an essay on quantum computing with built-in spaced-repetition review.
- What are evergreen notes?
- Evergreen notes are Matuschak's term for notes written and organized to keep developing and accumulating across projects, instead of being filed away after one use. In his public notes he argues they should be atomic, focused on concepts rather than sources, densely linked to one another, and written for yourself first. He presents the practice as a way to think, not just to store information.
- What is "Why books don't work" about?
- Published in 2019, the essay argues that books and lectures rely on transmissionism, the assumption that knowledge passes directly from author to reader. In practice, readers must plan, test themselves and notice their own confusion, which many cannot do well. Matuschak proposes media whose structure builds in what we know about learning, and he points to Quantum Country as an early example.
- What is Andy Matuschak's writing style?
- His style is careful, first-person and exploratory. He builds long essays in clear stages, cites cognitive science, and hedges claims honestly with words like "I suspect." He grounds abstractions in concrete scenarios, such as one learner's week of study, and mixes long qualified sentences with short, direct ones. His public notes are atomic and heavily linked rather than linear.
- What is Quantum Country?
- Quantum Country is an online introduction to quantum computing written by Matuschak and Michael Nielsen. As readers move through the text they answer review prompts, and those prompts come back later on a spaced-repetition schedule rather than being seen once. The authors call this a mnemonic medium and use it to explore how a text can help readers remember what they read.