# (Feedback/Suggestion)Things that I think, would make Brilliant.org better

I'm not sure if this is the right place to post this suggestion. Note to Admin/Staff: please tell me or put this where it belongs.(if it belongs anywhere)

-I think having an option to get what kind of problems you get for every week would certainly be better than solving math problems all the time, or random problems. I'm not that adept in most of the math problems and would like to use computer science (which is where most of my interests are) to guide me along the way through all the boring mathematical details. Truth is, I like math but it is hard to study something you are not very good at and does not have much interest in. So I think having the option to have computer science problems, for example, every week is a good option to have. And this isn't limited to computer science, I'm talking all sorts of different topics. Another reason why this is good, is because by letting people take agency over their own learning; they are encouraged to learn more (which I presume is the objective of brilliant.org). Also, Mastery over one topic at a time is much better than broad unrelated stuff all the time. So having a feature that allows people to:

• Select what field they want to learn
• While asking them challenging questions in a certain way that improves their mastery of the material

While this might seem a little bit like Khan academy way of teaching as it is their philosophy(Mastery of the material being taught). I think you guys can make it more personalize and better than Khanacademy, through what khanacademy is doing for free, you have more resources to allocate.(I think) Perhaps make the progress graph, being the dashboard of what to learn next. (This also saves time over coding new features) If anyone has any other suggestion or have noticed a critical mistake I have made in my remarks above, please share your thoughts. I simply seek to improve my experience here at brilliant. Please offer your "Brilliant" ideas below.

Note by Virento Voshe
11 months ago

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Well, it takes work to feature problems for every field, and there aren't an overwhelming number of CS problems, so I think that brilliant is making a sensible choice. Maybe if the site gets bigger, but for now, I think it's okay to just do CS problems from the site, after all, regardless of if they are featured or not, it doesn't really change the problems or add more.

- 10 months ago

Yeah, you're right, I just thought that it would be nice to have that.

- 10 months ago

I understand your viewpoint. However, that is what the practice courses are meant to do: encourage mastery on specific topics. Granted, it is not as refined as Khan Academy; that (I'm pretty sure) is intentional. Brilliant's main focus is to be community-based unlike Khan Academy. Both websites are fantastic ways to learn; they are just designed in different ways.

I like to think of this site as an "educational social media," whereas Khan Academy is, well, an online academy.

Brilliant relies on subscription fees mainly because it is smaller, and it is constantly working to add new features. Its main focus is math, mainly because it started out as math. Now they offer subjects such as mechanics, chemistry and computer science. However, Brilliant mainly focuses on math and physics.

If you were looking for a place to learn computer science, then try using codecadamy.com. Another way to focus on computer science on Brilliant is to go to Community, and change the topic to Computer Science.

- 10 months, 2 weeks ago

Codecademy costs even more money for there premium. I am taking cs50 currently and it’s great, it’s free and everything. On the other hand I still think having a feature to pick weekly topics would be better. I’m sure it’s not just me who feels the questions they receive is not interesting to them.

- 10 months, 2 weeks ago

Here's my brutal opinion: Brilliant.org needs to stop catering to beginners and make the website friendly for intermediates and experts (like myself). The market for beginner-level mathematics & science material is over-saturated; I could go to Khan Academy, Coursera, edX & Udemy (among many other websites) and learn beginner calculus/algebra/geometry/trigonometry over there better. Brilliant.org is incapable of that reach or capability, given their current platform.

The appeal of Brilliant.org is in the challenge of learning from others who have interesting results to present. Think of it as a broader academic community for those who aren't at an academic level. It's nice to solve user-generated problems and take part in a two-way discussion board where people present interesting results and others get to comment on them. This should be the focus of Brilliant.org, NOT trying to make it user-friendly or beginner-friendly.

On a final note, here's a simple rule of marketing: it is far easier and more beneficial to maintain old customers than obtain new ones. Businesses who do the latter at the cost of the former will find themselves in a hole quite quickly. With that in mind, I rest my case.

- 7 months, 1 week ago