The dependency trap

We're building learning systems that do too much of the thinking for students. And we call it good design.

The efficiency trap

Modern educational technology prioritizes efficiency above all else. Remove friction. Eliminate confusion. Make everything as smooth as possible. The goal is to get students to the right answer with minimal cognitive effort.

But here's the problem: learning happens in the struggle. When we remove all the difficulty, we might also be removing the learning.

Take adaptive learning systems that adjust difficulty so students always feel successful. Or AI tutors that provide explanations before students have a chance to think. Or educational games that guide students so carefully they never have to figure anything out for themselves.

These tools feel helpful. They feel like good design. But they might be creating a dependency that undermines the very thinking skills we're trying to develop.

Productive struggle vs. unproductive frustration

There's a crucial difference between productive struggle and unproductive frustration. Productive struggle builds resilience, problem-solving skills, and deep understanding. Unproductive frustration just makes students want to quit.

The challenge is designing systems that maintain productive struggle while eliminating unproductive frustration. This requires understanding not just what students need to learn, but how learning actually happens.

What we should optimize for

Instead of optimizing for efficiency, we should optimize for thinking. This means:

• Delayed gratification: Giving students time to think before providing hints or explanations
• Multiple attempts: Allowing students to revise and improve their work
• Reflection opportunities: Asking students to explain their thinking, not just their answers
• Strategic support: Providing help that guides thinking rather than replacing it

The long game

The goal isn't to make learning easy. It's to make learning possible. Sometimes that means embracing difficulty. Sometimes it means sitting with confusion. Sometimes it means letting students make mistakes.

The best educational technology doesn't remove all the friction. It removes the right friction while preserving the struggle that actually builds understanding.

That's harder to design. But it's what learning actually requires.