Another way to build math intuition before the formulas — through stories and sketches. Ben Orlin writes as if explaining to a friend over tea: with humor, no pretense, and a focus on why any of this matters.

Author’s site: Math with Bad Drawings.

Math with Bad Drawings

The flagship book. Orlin covers school and early college topics — probability, geometry, statistics, infinity — via comics and everyday analogies.

The strength: math as a way of thinking, not a memorization exam. Pairs well with BetterExplained: more pure intuition there, more narrative and humor here.

Change Is the Only Constant

The second book — calculus and the history of ideas: how people arrived at derivatives, integrals, and limits. A good bridge to derivatives and the circle area example: story and meaning first, symbols second.

Math Games with Bad Drawings

A collection of games and puzzles — logic, combinatorics, strategy. Less directly about ML, but it trains mathematical thinking: spot structure, test hypotheses, don’t fear being wrong.

When to read in this series

• After BetterExplained — same “understand, don’t memorize” vibe, in book form.
• Alongside the interview math overview — so the checklist topics aren’t just a dry list.

You don’t need all three in order: start with Math with Bad Drawings for a broad tour; with Change Is the Only Constant if calculus is the sticking point.