Isn’t it strange how we can spend hours mindlessly scrolling through social media, yet struggle to focus for even a fraction of that time on learning something meaningful?<p>Why is it easier to absorb endless streams of stupid content than to invest in something that can truly enrich us?<p>Obviously, we get constant dopamin hits with the former and the latter feels like effort, right?<p>Wrong!<p>I mean, think about it, when you finally understand a math problem and get that AHA-moment, this is the biggest hit of dopamin you can ever imagine, no?<p>So, if you ask me, the biggest difference between being addicted to learning vs. social media is the delay of gratification.<p>Also, social algorithms know you very well. They know exactly when it’s time to show you something that you like to keep you engaged.<p>Luckily, the same applies to resourceful content. If you interact with that 2h every day, an algo trained on your behavior also knows the ins- and outs of how you learn and get to your small and big AHA-moment the quickest.<p>So, who’s building this?<p>We do. It’s called evulpo.<p>A learning companion that delivers aha-moments for K-12 students. We source the content from the teachers, run it through our algorithm, and provide it to each student in a way where they learn best (i.e., get the AHA-moment).<p>Thoughts? And also, how can we make it work in the US?
> I mean, think about it, when you finally understand a math problem and get that AHA-moment, this is the biggest hit of dopamin you can ever imagine, no?<p>Not really, but I do get that when I've completed a challenging project. I love learning and engage in it constantly, but it's never given me a dopamine hit.<p>> the biggest difference between being addicted to learning vs. social media is the delay of gratification.<p>That may be a factor, but I really do think the largest difference is being mentally passive vs mentally active. Social media requires no effort. You let it wash over you. It's the same as television: mental candy, empty calories. Learning requires mental effort. It's like a full meal.<p>All that said, people vary a lot on this sort of thing and so a tool like this may be very useful to many.
Could you maybe provide an annotated transcript showing how the algorithm nudges the AHA-moment? I tried a path giving both correct and incorrect answers, but didn't see anything that would make me believe there was any more going on than straight gamification.
> this is the biggest hit of dopamin you can ever imagine, no?<p>No. I would imagine the biggest hit of dopamine would be literally injecting dopamine into my system.