21 Days
21 days is my current Duolingo streak.
I downloaded the app 3 weeks ago on a whim, and I've been guilted into doing at least a lesson a day by that damned owl.
I usually struggle with staying consistent with things, so I'm surprised I've been able to do something for 21 days in a row.
Now we're at day 22, and there are definite feelings of anxiety and guilt as the day wanes on without me opening the app.
I fell for it. I am now trapped by an owl.
If Duolingo managed to hijack my dopamine response through cute language learning exercises, could I "hack" myself to do something else for just as long?
Distributing Time
Here's the trick though, over 21 days, I've dedicated ~100 minutes to Duolingo.
For other tasks, it is much harder to distribute time that sparsely.
Imagine coding on a side project for five minutes a day.
With this methodology, you've got the following package:
- A short, fun time commitment
- Immediate rewards
- Perceived immediate risk (losing your treak)
- Feeling of progression (the streak increases, you're higher on the leaderboard)
This is a lethal combination that forms a habit fast.
When constrasted to a habit that might lead to deeper rewards (say gym, or shipping new features to a side project):
- A longer, usually less enjoyable time commitment
- Delayed reward
- Low immediate risk
- Delayed feeling of progression
This is almost a boring comination of things, that make it far easier to not do the habit with deeper reward, no matter how much you intellectualise about the reward (writing it down, making a vision board, whatever).
Am I Learning A Language?
The sparse time distribution, coupled with the relative ease of the lessons does beg the question of whether I am learning anything meaningful.
I think this question has two answers:
- I am learning "stuff"
- I am not learning useful "stuff"
I have good recall on the words I've learnt in the app, but only when I see them in the context of the daily Duolingo exercise.
So does the 5 minutes a day achieve any meaningful results for my learning? Am I making progress toward a goal?
I think that Duolingo is giving me a false sense of achievement.
This is not a novel discovery. It's fairly well understood that the app is designed to 'hook' more than it is designed to teach.
It's modifying the deferred reward loop of language learning (being able to converse in, and read the language), and replacing it with a shortened reward loop (the daily streak, rewards and leaderboard).
The snowball effect of the streak increasing gives you the perception of a growing, and impactful reward. But in the worst way, the journey seems to be better than the destination.
I don't have strong hopes that I will be able to hold a full conversation (or even half a conversation) in isiZulu by the end of the course, but I will definitely have a TON of gems.
Good Idea or Bad Idea?
It depends, if you're a business trying to make your app really sticky, then ye - go ahead.
In reality, probably not. The likely reason why Duolingo worked so well on me is because 'new' social media (TikTok, Shorts) has gotten me used to getting the punchline as soon as possible.
In fact, with TikTok in particular, the "reward" is usually within three minutes.
Which is the average striking distance for (me) to complete a Duolingo lesson and get the "congratulations" screen.
The Impact
I'm mildly (very) concerned by the overall impact that modified reward loops are having on my (and everyone elses) brain.
It has definitely had an impact on my ability to sit down and complete tasks that I really want the results of.
For side projects that I have - I can visualise the rewards (money, the feeling of finishing something, people enjoying something I've built).
But often, I get so caught up in focusing on the outcomes, I procrastinate starting the journey.
I'd guess that if the journey had a rewards chest at each milestone, I'd get addicted to it and make it most of the way through.
Fixing It
I'm not sure about how to fix this yet, but at the very least - today I've managed to write this. So maybe there's a new 21 day streak on the horizon?