Sanderson graduated from Stanford University in 2015 with a bachelor's degree in math. He worked for Khan Academy from 2015 to 2016 as part of their content fellowship program, producing videos and articles about multivariable calculus, after which he started focusing his full attention on 3Blue1Brown. 3Blue1Brown started as a personal programming project in early 2015. In a podcast of Showmakers, Sanderson explained that he wanted to practice his coding skills and decided to make a graphics library in Python, which eventually became the open-source project "Manim". To have a goal for the project, he decided to create a video with the library and uploaded it to YouTube. On March 4, 2015, he uploaded his first video. He started to publish more videos and improve the graphics tool.
Videos
3Blue1Brown videos are themed around visualizing math, including pure math such as number theory and topology as well as more applied topics in computer science and physics. The visuals are predominantly generated by Manim, a Python animation library written by Sanderson, though occasionally visuals are drawn from other software such as macOS's Grapher application. The channel includes several series on topics including linear algebra, calculus, differential equations, and neural networks. During the beginning of the COVID-19 Pandemic, the channel also featured a series of live-streamed lectures under the name "Lockdown Math" aimed at students learning from home. The channel has collaborated with several other educational YouTube channels, including videos with MinutePhysics on quantum physics and orbital motion. as well as projects with Numberphile, Smarter Every Day, Physics Girl, and Stand-up Maths. The channel's videos have been featured in Popular Mechanics,ABC News, and Quanta Magazine. Sanderson appeared on podcasts such as the Numberphile Podcast, Lex Fridman, the Art of Problem Solving's AfterMath podcast, Siraj Raval, and Showmakers. Sanderson briefly hosted his own podcast called "Ben, Ben and Blue" with Ben Stenhaug and YouTuber Ben Eater.
Talks
In August 2019, Sanderson delivered a keynote titled Concrete before Abstract at ODSC India. The talk outlines a principle he attempts to follow to make mathematics accessible. In January 2020, Sanderson delivered a talk in An Evening with Grant Sanderson, hosted by the Stanford Speakers Bureau. Sanderson offered his perspective on engaging with math: instead of prioritizing usefulness, he emphasizes emotion, wonder and imagination. He aims to “bring life to math” with visuals, graphics, and animations.
“When people engage with fiction, no one ever asks, ‘When am I going to use this?’ The same thing fiction can do for people, so can math. There’s wonder and mystery — and once there’s a story, you can go behind the mechanics.”
Grant delivered a TEDx talk titled What Makes People Engage With Math on February 9, 2020. A 20-minute video of the talk was uploaded to YouTube on Pi Day of the same year.
