Concise and Simple

In no more than 1500 words and assuming no prior knowledge, describe something interesting.

I’m a programmer and I enjoy writing. On my personal blog I’ve written a set of articles about aspects of computing that are all subtitled “concise and simple”. None are longer that 1500 words nor do they assume previous knowledge of the subject under scrutiny. I simply have two aims: community service and self improvement.

I figure that if I can explain the essence of an interesting technical topic to a lay audience then I have a good understanding of that subject. I will have needed to figure out what’s important, how to simplify, what makes a good analogy and, perhaps most importantly, what to leave out. It’s also a test of my technique as a writer and an opportunity to practice.

I’m going to re-post one of my articles here on Medium. It’s about public key cryptography. I’d welcome any feedback you may have. I may add further concise and simple articles from other subjects (my background is actually music and philosophy).

Most importantly, I challenge you to choose a subject (not necessarily to do with computing), write your own concise and simple article and post it to this collection.

It’s actually a lot of fun!