Fake news. Alternative facts. Ideological agendas. How do you tell the difference between true and false? How do you know what it all means? In Actually, It's Not Easy, novices and experts alike can grow their ability to understand complex topics in today's world. A consistent, analytical approach results in an understandable context useful for solving problems. Timely subjects like health reform and tax policy blend with voyages into probability theory and the history of totalitarian coups. These topics, perhaps arcane at the start, achieve clarity and consequence on their way to an often-surprising thesis. Only by accepting - perhaps even enjoying - the complexity of these topics, can we hope to achieve sturdy solutions to the problems faced by our society.