About Hobab

but let someone draw a shape, or let a chart move in front of my eyes, and suddenly everything clicks into place.

So for a long time I had a simple wish: a place that would show me the big, complicated questions, the ones a two-line definition can't answer.

A place where I could play with an idea, change a number and see what happens, until I really understood it.

My first thought was a podcast. I love telling stories with sound, and I still do.

But here's the thing: a podcast lacks the one thing I needed most. Pictures.

In the end I came back to where I started: a blog. The thing a lot of people think has had its day.

But a web page today isn't just text. It can have charts and simulations, and a button the reader presses to see what changes.

And readers can stop wherever they like, go back, and move at their own pace.

Every question that gets stuck in my head becomes an interactive article: a story you can play with, connect with and learn from. And for me, it's a place to put the interesting, exciting things I find.

Hobab is Persian for bubble. To me, nothing in this world is certain. Truth is always relative;

something can be true right now, in this very moment, and still not last through time.

With how fast human knowledge is changing, anything that's true today could pop like a bubble in a few seconds and be gone.

Look at history from far enough away and all of human knowledge is the same: something bright and fragile that's still standing, for now,

(If you're curious how a real bubble survives those few seconds, I wrote about it here.)

Every article on this blog is one of those bubbles: what I think is true today, based on the best sources I could find.

But while it's here, you can look at it up close, see its colors, and ask how it's managed to stay up this long.

J.azimi