I spent years building educational platforms, and I've learned something uncomfortable: most learning tools fail because they're designed backwards.
We start with the tool and try to fit learning into it. A learning management system here, a content platform there, a collaboration tool somewhere else. Each one promising to be the magic ingredient. But they're solving the wrong problem.
The Real Problem Isn't the Tool
When I built Offcourse, I thought the issue was access to knowledge. If we just made learning more open, more flexible, more democratic—that would crack it. What I discovered instead was that tools don't create learning. Context does.
The best learning I've witnessed happened in spaces where:
- People had a genuine reason to learn (not because a course told them to)
- They could connect what they were learning to something they cared about
- They had people around them asking good questions
- Failure felt safe enough to try things
None of these require fancy technology. Most require the opposite.
When Tools Actually Help
That doesn't mean tools don't matter. They do. But they matter most when they're invisible—when they get out of the way and let the actual work happen.
The learning tools worth your time are the ones that:
- Reduce friction between thinking and sharing (a good notebook, a simple wiki)
- Create connections between ideas and people (without forcing collaboration theater)
- Preserve what matters so you can build on it later
- Stay out of the way when you're in flow
I think about this a lot with Rizom. We're not building a learning platform. We're building infrastructure that lets organizations think better together. The learning happens as a side effect of doing work that matters.
The Uncomfortable Truth
Here's what I've learned: the best learning tool you have is curiosity, and the second best is people who ask good questions.
Everything else—the platforms, the apps, the systems—should serve those two things. If your learning tool is making you feel like you're checking boxes instead of building understanding, it's working against you.
What learning tools have actually stuck with you? The ones that changed how you think? I'd bet they're simpler than you'd expect.
Reply and let me know what's worked for you.