How to display a content in two-column layout in LaTeX?

Question

I am writing an article in LaTeX and I would like to display some content in two column layout. In the left column a matrix and in the right column a list of items. I have tried

Answer 1

Use two minipages.

\begin{minipage}[position]{width}
  text
 \end{minipage}

Answer 2

Load the multicol package, like this \usepackage{multicol}. Then use:

\begin{multicols}{2}
Column 1
\columnbreak
Column 2
\end{multicols}

If you omit the \columnbreak, the columns will balance automatically.