It was good while it lasted
Evaluating some four years of Duolingo practice, and letting go of things
I started my very long Duolingo streak in the second month of the covid-19 pandemic, in 2020. I said to myself I would quit the streak when I considered the pandemic over (yes I know there's little reason behind this idea, but you have to imagine it was April 2020 and well-considered reasons were not on the top of my agenda).
Taking myself as the measure, when I would deem it over, but still backed up by the WHO, I am still going strong with Duolingo almost four years and counting. It's funny how the one time I nearly lost my now 1350-day streak was when I was very, very sick with covid for two weeks, and I could barely manage a single lesson (this is called a “mild” infection, because I did not have to go to the hospital at the time and I survived the bout, even though I have still a few long-term symptoms, over a year later).
With recent unconfirmed reports that Duolingo is teaming up with OpenAI and integrating ChatGPT-4 in its learning, and laying off large numbers of translators, I have to reconsider my relationship. I don't want to use AI that was trained on the stolen work of translators. I asked them for clarification, but even so, no matter what they'll say, I'm rethinking my continued engagement.
I know that Duolingo is using various tricks in its arsenal, even a widget showing an ever-more desperate looking owl, to use the app daily: streaks, friend quests, streak freezes and more. But I laughed it off, going with C. Thi Nguyen's idea that while gamification is bad, if you can use it for some greater goal, it can still be advantageous. But how justifiable is it?
I do not rely on gamification in any other aspect of my life, or at least not to my knowledge. For one thing, I rarely play any games (weekend chess is one of the only things). I practice my musical instrument without reminders or streaks or timers almost daily. I read for pleasure without having to be prompted. Once long covid loosened its grip on me, I returned to a carefully managed regime of daily exercises that I'm now intensifying—no apps or reminders or goals or friend quests needed.
I've started to learn Latin, because I want to read early modern sources in Latin in the original text. I also have Latin on Duolingo but it's terrible: lots of sentences about angry parrots that don't really make the declensions stick. There are beautiful methods such as Lingua Latina: Familia Romana, a method by Hans Ørberg, that I've begun to engage with. You can see how it is fun although a bit violent and disturbing at times. So, I was already incentivized to learn Latin less efficiently than I could.
As Danny Weathers reminds us, streaks are a very different beast compared to habits. Habits are things we do because our physical environment, or our action patterns, remind us to do them, like putting on a seatbelt automatically as you get into the car. Or, after dinner I usually practice half an hour of music. The fact that I've eaten, the fact that I move into the same room where my instrument and music stand are, signals to me to do it. But it can sometimes happen that I'm too tired, or that I do have to still work a bit (e.g., grading) and then I skip a day. It's not a problem to skip a day when you have a habit. But it is, or at least feels, like a problem to lose the streak. You can feel unmotivated and give up.
So, you can use the streak loss to let go of Duolingo. Jessica Wildfire reminds us that it's good to sometimes give up. Rats trained to do some annoying action such as poking their head into a hole give up if the reward is not forthcoming. But humans, thanks (or sadly burdened by) mental time travel can always rationalize going on whereas quitting is really the best. Losing a 1350-day streak is not a sunk cost. At some point, you just have to let go. Persisting in an enshittified environment should not be a goal in itself.
Enshittification is the big theme of 2023, the word of the year for the American Dialect Society, and will continue to be in 2024. It's good to be able to say “It was good while it lasted.” It recognizes that you're not beholden to an enshittified platform. You can say the same for Twitter (now X), Facebook, Netflix, and all the other enshittified platforms that try to keep you there.
Sad to see that Duolingo somehow got enshittified. Despite its moderation policy issues and the somewhat (in my opinion) cluttered nature of Notes, this platform (Substack) is still one of the few still somewhat non-enshittified places on the internet, hence I’m happy to see the writers I like to read stay around. At least, it’s not Reddit or Twitter.
I let go of Duolingo early because I found the exercises not as rewarding for me. Been trying out certain apps (Bluebird and Clozemaster) over the past year and a half on and off. Not saying I would definitely positively recommend either of them, as I haven’t made up my mind about them, but one of these apps could work as a suggested alternative.
Jessica Wildfire's article was good until it brought up Annie Duke. Then she summarized the whole book in a three word phrase. No call-in there is a real bad move wrt. a fucking smiling shark.
You can tell who's never seen Kakegurui (either version) or professional Starcraft (same).
Almost everyone should watch BTS (hint, hint: better than sex) music videos and Aggretsuko.
For the kids, Rilakkuma and Kaoru, Yoshi's Crafted World/Kirby and the Forgotten Land, Counter-Strike tournaments, and TA For Tots.