Is Product Bad

Duolingo: Why is Duolingo a Lousy Teacher but a Fantastic Product? “With that streak, you should read Nietzsche in fluent German!!” A few days ago, a friend found out how long my latest German Duolingo streak was (670 days as of writing, thank you!) and uttered this sentence. They don’t use the app and were dumbfounded that someone could practise German that frequently and still only just say “hello” and ask, “What time does the cinema open?”. It made me stop and think firstly about my inadequate proficiency in German but also to examine from a product perspective why so many people continue to use Duolingo multiple times a day, every single day, despite mediocre progress. A Lifelong Dream Becoming bilingual was a dream I’d held for a long time, and I was always awed by anyone who could effortlessly switch between languages. I imagined myself on holiday, speaking like a native, garnering the respect of my peers and impressing the locals rather than shouting my English slo...