Codictionary: A newsletter that explain tech terms in plain, everyday language

$12/month for a ELI5 seems pretty steep to me, especially so during these times when ChatGPT is available (even with its caveats).

Targeting developers who are just starting out is a cute concept but having to decipher the ramblings of a madman, be it in code or documentation, is a pretty standard part of the job.

I completely agree with you on the importance of developers being able to read and understand others' code and documentation. It's an essential part of their job. However, the focus of my newsletter is a bit different. It caters to a specific audience: managers and directors, who may not need to learn programming but need to at least understand what a server is for example.

What's the intended way it's supposed to be used? Are the managers and directors supposed to subscribe to it or the developers? If it's the developers, when they need to explain a concept do they just copy-paste the explanations? Forward an email? Send some kind of a link? It seems like an awkward interaction to me.

As a developer, it's always been my job to explain things to non-technical people in as few words as possible during conversations. I'm not sure how a newsletter would fit in that use case.

This is mainly for managers and directors to get in on the action of understanding tech terms. My theory is that if I send them nicely formatted emails that are short enough to keep them interested, but packed with enough info to quickly grasp the basics of a tech term, they'll be able to understand it when they come across it again.

This isn't an instant explanation hotline for tech terms they encounter right now (for that you have Google and GPT), but more like a learning resource to get better at understanding tech jargon.

It's interesting you show a picture of Wikipedia but then don't mention the Simple English wikipedia, i.e. https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Application_programming_in...

What differentiates your product from the Simple English wikipedia for example?

Thanks for the question, it's a good one.

Unlike the Simple English Wikipedia, which covers a bunch of topics in a traditional encyclopedia format, we're laser-focused on tech. We dive deep into tech terms, giving you concise explanations that cut through the noise. We're all about keeping it relevant, practical, and accessible to everyone. But the best part is that we're not just sending you information and leaving you hanging. If something isn't clear or you have questions, just hit that reply button in our email. We're here to chat and give you personalized explanations.

I am also a non-technical person learning to code with GPT as my mentor.

If non-techie people are willing to pay you $15 for you to write simplified summaries of programming concepts, so they can glance for 15 seconds at the occasional email they receive, then good on you. I can actually see people paying, but let's be real... ChatGPT can do this.

Your value add is that you're just giving a 'path' for someone to follow along since they won't know where to start. But anyone that 'wants' to learn will quickly find a learning path like javascript.info

You're overestimating people's abilities to teach themselves.

The amount of individuals I've come across who don't even have instinct to look up vocabulary they don't know is unbelievable.

Happens all the time, even users on HN sometimes ask very basic questions that could be answered by just looking up a word in a dictionary, or doing a very quick search for more information.

> [...] It's more of a LARP where we pretend we have some [...]

> What's a LARP?

> https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36104515

You're absolutely right, ChatGPT can do this if someone has the curiosity and motivation to ask it for explanations. However, in my experience working with my clients, I haven't seen them utilize it in this way. Just a couple of months ago, when I discussed optimizing the application and mentioned APIs, they had no understanding of how they work. Even if I were to ask them today, I doubt they would have much knowledge on the subject. Would they read a well-formatted email, that they paid to get, to understand what's an API and how it works? I hope yes and I should find out with this project.

Never underestimate the capacity of people to not bother hitting ChatGPT to explain things to them. We all might have it set as a default in our heads, but I can see this newsletter appealing to lots of managers. The same folks who have word-a-day calendars (or tweet alerts for them) would certainly go for this, imho.

Congratulations on launching! I’ve often found myself doing these kinds of explanations as an eng manager to other stakeholders, so kudos for identifying a problem and launching a solution.

Lots of folks here with commentary on pricing and chatgpt. I’ll suggest that these folks aren’t your customers - they already know what an API is! From a business perspective the most valuable feedback will be from people who have a need, right now, to get up to speed on technical topics. Take HN with a little grain of salt.

Good luck!

Thanks a million for the encouragement! I really appreciate your uplifting words.

I feel like this type of task was already handled well by ChatGPT. I am a designer currently learning web development. When I am confused about something, I just add a prompt such as "explain it to a middle school student" to the question.

For example,

Q: "What is closure in javascript?"

GPT4.0: A closure in JavaScript is a function that has access to its own scope, the scope of the outer function, and the global scope. This feature enables the function to access variables from an enclosing scope even after that scope has finished execution, providing a sort of "memory" for the function.

Q: "What is closure in javascript? Your task is to explain it to a middle school student."

GPT4.0: "Imagine you're building a magical castle. Inside this castle, you have a special room where you keep all your secret treasures. Normally, once you leave the room, you can't see or use the treasures anymore.

But then, you invent a magical backpack. With this backpack, you can take any treasure from the room, and no matter where you go, you can always see and use the treasure you put into the backpack. Even if the room disappears, the treasures in your backpack stay with you.

In JavaScript land, the "castle" is like your program, the "room" is a function, and the "treasures" are variables or data that the function uses. A closure is like the magical backpack. It's a special kind of function that remembers the variables it saw when it was created, even after the function it was created inside is done running."

Congrats on learning web development! ChatGPT can indeed be super helpful when learning programming, I wish I had access to such a tool back in my days when I was learning it. A lot of people I'm working with are not using it in such a form, and maybe my newsletter can help them learn some of those terms.

Smart prompt and yes, ChatGPT is very useful for learning, no doubt. Especially for javascript since it is so widespread and so many learning ressources incorporated. So mostly things should be fine. (for more exotic languages, it isn't)

But you still have to check with proper ressources and if possible, a real human at the current state of tech. Otherwise you will likely get some things very wrong and that can hurt you later.

I’ll say that this example doesn’t convince me that chatgpt is a substitute. I find it downright confusing.

We start off with “imagine a magic castle”, then a magical backpack that lets you put things in and take them out in a different location - doesn’t a regular backpack do this already? and a (magical?) room that disappears. None of this makes any sense, it doesn’t relate any of these concepts to something a student might already know about.

I don’t doubt that gpt will continue to improve, but this example makes me feel like the OP will definitely be able to add value for explaining concepts.

I would be more interested in a newsletter that offers comprehensive bits of information on useful tech topics (or any topic for that matter) if it was from a source with reputable knowledge in the domain who was providing it in a fashion derived from their subjective expertise.

The personification of businesses + the personification of AI in this instance frustrates me since it’s clear to myself and most users on HN and possibly not so clear to others, that it’s likely that the “We” who is explaining the projects is not necessarily the “you”, as in the person advertising this service or any other human being that you work with.

I appreciate your feedback. There are some really great writers on Substack that provide tech topics from their subjective expertise, and as you, I'm also interested in that. This newsletter is trying to achieve a different goal.

A suggestion on your sample. It says “The librarian goes to the stacks, finds the book, and brings it back to you.

The next time you need that same book, the librarian doesn't have to go all the way to the stacks again – they can just grab it from the shelf behind the counter.”

This is missing the step where after you return the book to the librarian, they put it on the shelf behind the counter.

Then if you want you can talk about the shelf only fitting a limited number of books, and the librarian having to decide what to do if the shelf is full.

This is very good suggestion, thanks. I'm in the process of rewriting some sections of the sample and will update the 'librarian' part.

In the example you use (cristianmd7 OP) you should put a large X or make it clear the wikipedia example is the villain. Also put your example (what you write) in a larger color.

I would also include an about page with a writeup of your qualifications to be doing this (as specific as you want to get w/o personal info if you don't want it there).

Finally I'd also offer a service that is not a newsletter basically an 'ask me' type where a non tech person can email questions and get short replies.

Thanks for the suggestions! I really like the idea of adding an 'ask me' feature, and I'll definitely think about how to implement it. Right now, I'm working on creating an About Us page to share more about the team behind this project. I agree that the design could be improved, but I wanted to launch something quickly to validate the idea.

Once again, I appreciate your advice. It's really helpful, and I'll take it into consideration as I continue to develop and make enhancements.

OK I have a use case for this that's just spot-on. I just signed up, thank you so much for making this, it's the perfect tool I didn't know I needed.

I help tech people with immigration filings. One of the most important components of a successful filing, is describing your highly technical industry, job, and accomplishments, in a way that's relatable to the immigration examiner.

The examiners are laypersons, not tech workers or attorneys. They may or may not have the comprehension level of your grandma or your middle schooler. They're under time pressure, and they're not necessarily on your side.

So the more concise and compelling your story is, the more likely you are to elicit from the examiner, that aha moment of "oh, I get what this applicant does, it sounds really cool!" And that's the moment you win your case.

This is a really hard thing to do well. It requires lots of metaphors, analogies, and simple homely examples. But when it IS done well, it's the clincher.

I really like the different ways you explain it. I also like the contrast with the Wikipedia article, which honestly made my eyes glaze over by the second line.

Thanks most kindly, I'm looking forward to reading it. One suggestion: provide your actual cash buyers with a little reward tidbit, like a sample, or like last week's newsletter? I threw down on a Monday, so my actual product doesn't arrive till Thursday, and it would be exciting to have a bit of immediate gratification.

Anyway nice job, I hope this use case is helpful.

Thank you so much for your support and for signing up for the newsletter.

I like the idea of offering an immediate reward after signing up. Unfortunately, I don't have it set up just yet, but it's now in my to-do list.

By the way, as a tech worker who went through the immigration process a few years ago, I completely understand. It wasn't exactly a joyride, although I consider myself lucky because my examiner didn't mind not fully understanding what I do at my job.

Once again, a big thank you for your support! Get ready for some fantastic content coming your way in the upcoming newsletters!

You're most welcome, and I'm glad you had a successful visa process. It's not easy. A few more data points on the need this fills:

Basically as the attorney, I've been serving as the translator. My job is to take things like iPaaS, or TLS certificate management, or ring algorithms in distributed databases, and explain to the examiner what that means, in very simple stories. Like, this resets your password when your computer locks you out. Or, this makes your Netflix run faster. Really at that level, or below.

This is honestly my hardest problem. It can take weeks of iteration. I'm familiar with the industry, but I'm not an engineer or a programmer. I do write my own HTML-CSS, but beyond that, just, no. :)

There isn't much out there, that does what your product does. I've used things like the Sideways Dictionary, and various hashtags like #badlyexplainyourjob and #postitnotescience, and searches for articles like "explain your job to your parents." They don't quite get the job done.

ELI5 is way too general, and the quality of the Q and the A isn't helpful. The AI queries are promising, but right now they're kind of weird. Like the magic castle one was cool, but it wouldn't help my examiners much.

It's even harder for the applicants to translate it to this level too. James Cash elegantly called this "the problem of trying to teach something, when you don’t remember what it’s like to not understand it at all." *

And yet, the payoff of solving it is so huge. If all the other pieces are in place, a good narrative is the grand-slam home run of the EB-1A process.

Anyway, this is a super niche application for your thing, but it's going to help a lot of people (and I'm first in line). Thank you.

* https://occasionallycogent.com/programming_isnt_coding/index...

Edited to add: I checked out the Technically substack, and it's useful and engaging for sure, but it's still a bit too complex for my audience.

Cool idea! Small suggestion for the landing page though, the email you show for the definition of API is basically unreadable on phones. I get why the Wikipedia article is a screenshot, but the email should really be actual text and not an image. It gets cut off at the sides and the text is too small to read.

If you’re charging people 12$/month to get emailed, I would really want to read the sample email first!

Thank you! Will get that fixed asap

Simplicity isn’t the issue, it’s relevant points to my decisions, simplified that is.

I don’t need random topics delivered to my inbox, I want simplification of my information. Which now AI can do pretty easily.

This seems like too thin an offering for too transparently low value a product. But I’m just one guy. Could be wrong.

Thank you for the feedback. I totally understand that sending random topics to someone's inbox may not the best approach. Maybe in the future I will create a guided plan or a customizable learning path where users can select specific topics of interest.

I'm guessing this is using GPT4? Otherwise I'm having a hard time understanding how you'd deal with all the emails with follow-ups as demonstrated on the landing page.

But the Privacy Policy / Terms of Service doesn't mention any 3rd parties what so ever, which if you were using OpenAI's APIs, you'd mention them surely.

So I guess the conclusion is that a human writes all of this then? If that's true, you should make that clear, as currently it looks like it's powered by GPT4. Without knowing how the content is produced, it becomes a bit misleading.

Currently, I am not using OpenAI's APIs for this project, at least not at the moment. My primary focus is on validating the idea and gauging interest. Scaling is something I haven't given much thought to yet. I appreciate your reminder about Privacy Policy and Terms of Service, I will definitely update it if I end up using OpenAI's API.

Follow up here. Is this human written or some other AI LLM? Your answer didn't make it clear except that you aren't using OpenAIs product.

If you look in the submission, is the same every time anyone ask about it, author being purposefully unclear.

I'm not trying to be purposefully unclear. I launched this product today to the public, used it only for a couple of my clients until now. There was no need to integrate any LLM API's because it's not worth it yet the effort. If there is enough interest and people are asking a lot of questions, then I can build something that can scale.

Human written at the moment. I know I can't scale it that way, but if I get to a point where I get too many email, I will explore using OpenAI API's.

I assume you're using ChatGPT for this, especially for the "ask a question" functionality which would scale poorly with human responders?

That being the case, I expect people will use (or already are using) a free GPT-based tool to summarise, simplify and clarify tech jargon.

Perhaps the quality of you're offering is much higher than that, which would be a selling point. However the sample text is hidden behind an email harvesting form, and the people you're targeting would need to be interested before they give you an email address.

Thank you for your feedback. I haven't thought about scaling too much yet, would like to validate the idea the first. I'm not sure how to present a sample email without sending it directly to the user's inbox. I could probably have a PDF that anyone can download, will explore this idea.

Link to a web page with the content of the example email. You don't need to do anything fancy to provide a preview, just let people see an example of the content they are about to start paying for.

It's an interesting idea, but I don't think a newsletter is the right format for this. If someone needs to learn about an API, they probably also need to know about something related, like cloud storage maybe.

I'm reminded of those "word of the day" calendars people used to have. With the internet making dictionaries and thesauruses obsolete, I never see those calendars anymore.

I really appreciate your comment, and the analogy with the "word of the day" is spot-on. My target audience consists of individuals who may not be specifically interested in learning programming, but who would benefit from understanding tech jargon in their day-to-day work.

From my experience working with managers and directors, I've noticed that they often lack the time and motivation to get into technical terms and concepts on their own. However, I believe that by receiving an email that presents information in a simple and easily digestible manner, hopefully they can quickly scan through the content and hopefully derive some value from it.

How is this different to Technically (Substack newsletter)?

Not so different, we provide a similar service.