Hacker News Reader

Comment by cryptozeus | Hacker News Reader

Imo all these complaints against duolingo not being good enough are not fair. Have you seen the alternatives ? I mean they did get 1 billion dollars for not nothing !

View on HN

They have the most money because they got the most users. They got the most users because their courses demand the least effort.

I have used several of the alternatives, and all of them are more effective at teaching languages. Granted, Duolingo is better at raising money.

And why is that bad ? If users can learn with least effort then isn’t that better:)

It’s bad because it takes a very long time for a language learner to assess their own progress. Duolingo relies on its userbase making an uninformed choice. If Duolingo warned a user “it will take a you 30 years of daily ‘Casual Level’ use to learn the basics here” he or she would likely choose a different website or strategy.

Product market fit does not lie. There is a reason they have user base and activate users who keeps coming back.

Yes, the reason is that it takes around two years before a user realizes how ineffective the site is. That’s about the maximum amount of time a user can fool themselves into thinking “I’ll start to see some progress any day now!”

If Duolingo were as effective as sites that require the user to make actual effort, its popularity would be more than justified.

Have you used it? You're limited in learning when you make a few mistakes/typos. As if mistakes are bad!? Then you need to pay to continue that day. Just a new cash-cow feature.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com