
Thankful and lucky to have helped build Khan Academy - DanielRibeiro
http://bjk5.com/post/147398152966/thankful-and-lucky-to-have-helped-build-khan
======
phleet
I worked at Khan Academy for two internships and then just under 2 years
fulltime, and don't know anyone that has anything less than positive to say
about Kamens (nobody called him Ben because there were no less than 5 Bens at
Khan Academy when I left).

One of his most memorable habits to me was coming into a meeting room where
his words obviously had a lot of sway, then sitting on the ground when we were
short on chairs.

He was an inspiration to many, first as an engineer, and later as a manager,
and I'm excited to see what he takes on next.

~~~
mooreds
> One of his most memorable habits to me was coming into a meeting room where
> his words obviously had a lot of sway, then sitting on the ground when we
> were short on chairs.

I love hearing stories like this. "Servant leadership" means so much to me.
Being humble, realizing that people closest to the problem have the most
knowledge, hiring folks smarter/stronger than you are--all key aspects of a
leader I want to work for. (Of course, you still have to have the "leadership"
component too.)

~~~
keithpeter
Education: I have been fortunate over the years in having managers who see
their role as supporting me (and my tribe of colleagues) to teach students.
That includes; going over the shop to get yellow paper to make copies for the
student who needs handouts on yellow and who turned up in my class without
warning (not the students fault); sorting out the student who is being totally
unreasonable and rude (phone call to Mum, one day suspension); staying late to
sort out class groups and exam registration when they get scrambled.

You get the picture.

A quote from Steve Reich...

[http://sohcahtoa.org.uk/pages/files/quotes.pdf](http://sohcahtoa.org.uk/pages/files/quotes.pdf)

and the _good_ managers support us in that.

------
Dangeranger
Back in 2010 when I first heard about Khan Academy and started using it the
videos were incredible but the exercises were limited at best.

Over the past six years I've seen the quality of the videos, the exercises,
and the tracking of student progress improve at least 10x on the whole.

Ben has played an massive role in the development of Khan Academy and though
it, has effected the lives of millions of students myself included.

If you are reading this, thank you so much for all of your hard work.

------
kiba
I used Khan Academy over the years...and I have some questions.

1) Why do they keep redoing the exercise system? It seemed that they are
changing for the sake of changing.

2) How do I know if there are new math problems and exercises that show up? I
am interested in advanced math and learning how to do math proofs, not simply
compute an answer.

~~~
wodenokoto
Khan Academy is focused on K-12 (I think it's called. First grade through high
school) math, so I'm not sure it's the right place if you want to do advanced
math.

One year ago you could answer all exercises using only the keyboard and now
you can't. That is a shame, but I think most young students (the main focus)
weren't using this feature, so it was kept alive as more and more types of
exercises were added. And these new ones are a great addition.

~~~
gecko
Just to note, our eventual goal is to have toddlers through what I think we
call C-2 internally (sophomore year of college in the American system). We do
actually have content at all of those levels, and expanded really nicely to
the younger crowd when we "bought" Duck Duck Moose, but we're definitely not
covering all of those areas consistently across subjects. Some stuff (e.g. art
history) is only at high school level, other stuff (e.g. English) covers the
gamut but amazingly randomly in terms of actual content, etc.

So, I don't think we'll have "advanced" math (for some values of "advanced")
any time soon, but we're definitely aiming to get solidly into general
college-level stuff, so things like stats/linear algebra/etc. should all be
covered nicely eventually.

~~~
rwmurrayVT
I hope you achieve your goal. Not long ago I saw a posting for a mechanical
engineer content creator. By the time I had a moment to prepare an
application, it was (presumably) filled.

I hope Khan Academy continues to create content in areas for young adults and
up.

------
qntmfred
Just to point out, this was back in July

------
rjdevereux
What's Ben doing next?

~~~
kornish
His LinkedIn says "Pointing engineering and leadership skills at healthcare."

------
nashashmi
Where do they get their revenue from?

~~~
cityzen
I would say the vast majority of their money comes from grants (I'm guessing
here). I got an email from them at the end of 2015 asking me to donate $3 but
when I saw that Sal Khan was pulling down a salary of $550k+ I was completely
turned off by it. In fact, I actually emailed Sal and asked him (the email
appeared to come from Sal himself) but never got a response.

Don't get me wrong, I appreciate what organizations like Khan Academy do, but
I find emails like this a little misleading, "there are only hours left in
2015, and we need your help to raise the money that we need to keep innovating
and offering new learning experiences in 2016 and beyond. If you’re able to
pitch in, we’d really appreciate your support before 2015 is over."

Granted I am picking on Khan Academy a bit here, this is how most nonprofits
function.

~~~
naveen99
I think sal khan is a good example to follow for non-profit startups. non
profits are a sizable portion of the economy and are a nice option between
government and for profit corporations for executing an idea.

In some ways, nonprofits maximize surplus for workers and customers at the
expense of owners and government.

~~~
cityzen
Sure, Sal Khan is a great example that you can do a start up, get on that
sweet grant gravy train and still make a respectable Silicon Valley salary.
What's not to like? I just wish non-profits like this would drop the BS facade
of acting like my $3 is going to make or break the organization. The only
thing that will wreck an organization like Khan Academy is if/when they stop
receiving grants which will likely never happen.

