Name: 如何讓學習像社交媒體一樣讓人上癮 | Duolingo's Luis Von Ahn | TED (How to Make Learning as Addictive as Social Media | Duolingo's Luis Von Ahn | TED)
Uploaded: 2025-01-16T13:30:34.000Z
Duration: 12 min 55 s

Also, that is not where they keep the prisoners.

此外，那裡也不是關押囚犯的地方。

That is called Guantanamo, not the same place.

那叫關塔那摩，不是同一個地方。

So Guatemala is right below Mexico, and for the Americans in the audience, and let this sink in because it really applies in most ways.

是以，瓜地馬拉就在墨西哥的下面，對於在座的美國人來說，讓這一點沉澱下來，因為它確實適用於大多數方面。

For the Americans in the audience, you can think of it as Mexico's Mexico.

對於觀眾中的美國人來說，你們可以把它想象成墨西哥的墨西哥。

Just like the U.S. doesn't want illegal immigration from Mexico, Mexico doesn't want illegal immigration from Guatemala.

就像美國不希望從墨西哥非法移民一樣，墨西哥也不希望從瓜地馬拉非法移民。

It's a smaller country, it's a poorer country, and, well, what can I tell you, it has much better Mexican food.

它是一個較小的國家，也是一個較貧窮的國家，而且，我還能告訴你什麼呢，它的墨西哥菜要好吃得多。

Guatemala is a very poor country, and a lot of people talk about education as something that brings equality to different social classes.

瓜地馬拉是一個非常貧窮的國家，很多人都說教育能給不同社會階層帶來平等。

But I always saw it as the opposite, as something that brings inequality, because what happens in practice is that people who have a lot of money can buy themselves a really good education and therefore continue having a lot of money, whereas people who don't have very much money barely learn how to read and write, and therefore never make a lot of money, and this is especially true in poor countries.

但我始終認為這恰恰相反，它帶來了不平等，因為實際情況是，有很多錢的人可以為自己買到非常好的教育，從而繼續擁有很多錢，而沒有很多錢的人幾乎不學習如何閱讀和寫作，是以永遠賺不到很多錢，這在貧窮國家尤其如此。

Now, I was fortunate that I received a rich person's education, even though I didn't grow up rich, and it's because I'm an only child.

現在，我很幸運地接受了富人的教育，儘管我從小並不富裕，這是因為我是獨生子女。

And my mother, who was a single mother, spent all of her resources on my education, and this allowed me to come to college to the U.S. and eventually get a Ph.D. in computer science.

我的母親是一位單身母親，她把所有的資源都花在了我的教育上，這讓我得以來到美國上大學，並最終獲得了計算機科學博士學位。

Now, because of all of this, about 10 years ago, I decided that I wanted to do something that would give equal access to education to everyone.

正因為如此，大約 10 年前，我決定要做一件事，讓每個人都能平等地接受教育。

Oh, by the way, this is what I want to talk to you about today, giving equal access to education to everyone.

哦，順便說一下，這就是我今天要跟你們談的，讓每個人都能平等地接受教育。

At the time, I was a professor of computer science at Carnegie Mellon University, and I decided to work on this with my Ph.D. student Severin.

當時，我是卡內基梅隆大學的計算機科學教授，我決定和我的博士生塞弗林一起研究這個問題。

The way my brain works, all of education is just too general of a problem.

按照我的思維方式，所有的教育問題都太籠統了。

So I decided, let's start by teaching one thing, and then I started thinking, OK, well, what should we teach first?

於是我決定，先教一樣東西，然後我開始思考，好吧，我們應該先教什麼呢？

Me and my co-founder, we both love math, and, you know, we didn't decide to do math.

我和我的聯合創始人都喜歡數學，但我們並沒有決定要做數學。

Then we started thinking, well, maybe we should teach computer science.

然後我們開始想，也許我們應該教計算機科學。

But eventually, and this may be surprising to people in North America, eventually we decided that the best subject to start with was teaching foreign languages.

但最終，可能會讓北美人感到驚訝的是，我們最終決定，最好從外語教學開始。

One of them is that there's a huge audience for it.

其中之一就是它有大量的閱聽人。

There's about two billion people in the world learning a foreign language, both in school and outside of schools.

全世界約有 20 億人在學校和校外學習外語。

Most of these people, by the way, are learning English.

順便說一句，這些人中的大多數都在學習英語。

About 80 percent of them are learning English.

他們中約有 80% 正在學習英語。

In this weird map right here, all the countries in green are countries in which people are predominantly learning English.

在這張奇怪的地圖上，所有綠色的國家都是人們主要學習英語的國家。

And the reason for that is because English can truly transform your life.

原因就在於英語能真正改變你的生活。

In most countries in the world, knowledge of English can significantly increase your income potential.

在世界上大多數國家，掌握英語可以大大提高你的收入潛力。

So this is another reason why we decided to start with foreign languages, and it's because you can directly make more money if you learn another language, in particular, English.

是以，這也是我們決定從外語入手的另一個原因，因為如果你學習另一門語言，特別是英語，你可以直接賺到更多的錢。

And see, this is pretty different than many other subjects.

你看，這和其他很多主題都很不一樣。

In the case of math, just knowledge of math does not increase your income potential, because usually you have to learn math to then learn physics to then become a civil engineer, like that's how you make more money, whereas with languages, if you were a waiter and you learned English, now you can be a waiter at a hotel and make more money.

就數學而言，僅僅掌握數學知識並不能增加你的收入潛力，因為通常你必須先學習數學，然後再學習物理，最後成為土木工程師，好像這樣才能賺更多的錢；而就語言而言，如果你以前是一名服務員，現在你學會了英語，你就可以成為酒店的服務員，賺更多的錢。

So we decided, well, let's get started by teaching languages.

於是我們決定，那就從語言教學開始吧。

Now we also convinced ourselves that the only way to really reach a lot of people was by using a mobile phone or a smartphone in particular.

現在，我們也相信，只有使用手機，特別是智能手機，才能真正接觸到很多人。

See, building schools all over the world is simply too expensive.

你看，在世界各地建造學校實在是太昂貴了。

On the other hand, most of the world's population already has access to a smartphone, and the trend is that that fraction is only going to increase.

另一方面，世界上大部分人口都已擁有智能手機，而且這一比例還在不斷增加。

So we decided at the time that we would make a way to learn foreign languages on a mobile phone that was accessible to everyone, and then we called it Duolingo.

是以，我們當時就決定，要開發一種人人都能使用的手機外語學習方法，並將其命名為 Duolingo。

Now, in order to truly be accessible to everyone, rich and poor, Duolingo uses a freemium model to support itself.

現在，為了讓所有人，無論貧富，都能真正使用 Duolingo，Duolingo 採用了免費模式來支持自己。

What that means is that you can learn as much as you want without ever having to pay, but if you don't pay, you may have to see an ad at the end of a lesson.

這意味著，你可以在不付費的情況下盡情學習，但如果不付費，你可能不得不在課程結束時看到廣告。

Now if you don't like ads, you can also pay to subscribe to turn off the ads.

現在，如果你不喜歡廣告，也可以付費訂閱來關閉廣告。

And it turns out that the vast majority of the revenue for Duolingo comes from people who pay to subscribe to turn off the ads.

事實證明，Duolingo 的絕大部分收入都來自付費訂閱以關閉廣告的用戶。

Now who are these people who pay to subscribe to turn off the ads?

現在是誰在付費訂閱關閉廣告？

Well, they're usually people, well-off people in rich countries like the US and Canada.

嗯，他們通常是人，是美國和加拿大等富裕國家的富人。

Who are the people who don't pay to subscribe?

They usually come from poorer countries like Brazil or Vietnam or Guatemala.

他們通常來自巴西、越南或瓜地馬拉等較貧窮的國家。

So what I like about this model is that it is a small form of wealth redistribution, because we're basically getting the rich people to pay for the education of everyone.

是以，我喜歡這種模式的原因在於，它是一種小規模的財富再分配，因為我們基本上是讓富人為每個人的教育買單。

So with smartphones, we can reach a lot of people, and we can even get the rich people to pay for the whole thing.

是以，有了智能手機，我們就能接觸到很多人，甚至還能讓有錢人掏腰包。

However, if you're trying to deliver education with a smartphone, you run into a humongous problem.

但是，如果你想用智能手機提供教育，你就會遇到一個巨大的問題。

And it is that smartphones come equipped with some of the most addictive drugs that humanity has ever engineered.

這就是智能手機所配備的一些人類有史以來最容易上癮的藥物。

See delivering education over a smartphone is like hoping that people will leave their broccoli, but right next to it, you put the most delicious dessert ever made.

通過智能手機開展教育，就好比希望人們留下西蘭花，但你卻在西蘭花旁邊放上了有史以來最美味的甜點。

If you really want to deliver education to everyone, not only do you have to make it accessible, but also you have to make it so that people want to actually learn.

如果你真的想讓每個人都能接受教育，你不僅要讓它變得容易接受，還要讓人們真正願意學習。

And with Duolingo, we've been able to do this.

有了 Duolingo，我們就能做到這一點。

And at the highest level, the way we've done this is by making the broccoli taste like  I'll say it another way.

在最高級別上，我們做到這一點的方法就是讓西蘭花吃起來有另一種味道。

What we've done is that we've used the same psychological techniques that apps like Instagram, TikTok, or mobile games use to keep people engaged.

我們所做的是，我們使用了與 Instagram、TikTok 或手機遊戲等應用程序相同的心理技術，以保持人們的參與度。

But in this case, we use them to keep people engaged with education.

但在這種情況下，我們用它們來保持人們對教育的參與。

Let me give you some examples of these techniques.

One of the most powerful ones is the notion of a streak.

其中一個最有力的概念就是 "連勝"。

What a streak is, is it's just a counter that measures the number of days that you've used the product consecutively.

什麼是連用，它只是一個計數器，用來衡量你連續使用產品的天數。

You just take that number, you put it very prominently in your product, and then people come back every day.

你只要把這個數字放在你產品的顯著位置，然後人們就會每天都來光顧。

And the reason people come back every day is because, well, if they don't come back, that number resets to zero, and people don't want to lose their streak.

人們之所以每天都回來，是因為如果他們不回來，這個數字就會重置為零，而人們不想失去他們的連勝紀錄。

Now, on the one side, streaks have been criticized for, for example, getting teens addicted to Snapchat.

現在，一方面，連連看受到了責備，例如，它讓青少年沉迷於 Snapchat。

But in the case of an educational app, streaks get people to come back to study every day.

但對於一款教育應用程序來說，連勝會讓人們每天都回來學習。

Now to give you an idea of the power of streaks, in the case of Duolingo, we have over 3 million daily active users that have a streak longer than 365.

為了讓你瞭解連勝的威力，就 Duolingo 而言，我們有超過 300 萬的日活躍用戶的連勝紀錄超過了 365 天。

That means they haven't missed a day in the last year or longer.

這意味著他們在過去一年或更長的時間裡沒有缺席過一天。

What country do you think has the longest average streaks for an educational app?

您認為哪個國家的教育應用程序平均連勝時間最長？

Another important mechanism to get people to come back to your product are notifications.

讓人們再次訪問您產品的另一個重要機制是通知。

On the one side, notifications can be really spammy and annoying, but in the case of an educational product, people actually want to be reminded to learn.

一方面，通知可能真的是垃圾郵件，令人討厭，但就教育產品而言，人們其實是希望被提醒學習的。

In the case of Duolingo, we have a very sophisticated AI system that basically chooses when to send a notification and also what to say in each notification to maximize the probability that people come back.

在 Duolingo 的案例中，我們有一個非常複雜的人工智能系統，它基本上可以選擇何時發送通知，以及在每個通知中說些什麼，從而最大限度地提高人們再次訪問的概率。

Now, interestingly, even after all this sophistication, it turns out that the algorithm for choosing what time to send you a notification is pretty simple.

有趣的是，即便如此複雜，選擇什麼時間向你發送通知的算法卻非常簡單。

You know what is the best time to send people a notification?

你知道什麼是向人們發送通知的最佳時機嗎？

It's 24 hours after they use the product last.

這是他們最後一次使用產品後的 24 小時。

If you were free yesterday at 3 p.m., you're probably free today at 3 p.m. as well.

如果你昨天下午 3 點有空，那麼今天下午 3 點可能也有空。

So this is what a very sophisticated millions of dollars of AI found.

這就是耗資數百萬美元的尖端人工智能的發現。

Now, with notifications, you shouldn't be spamming.

現在，有了通知，你就不應該再發送垃圾郵件了。

With Duolingo, we actually stop sending notifications after seven days of inactivity.

對於 Duolingo，我們實際上會在用戶七天未使用時停止發送通知。

So if you don't use Duolingo for seven days, we stop sending you notifications.

是以，如果您連續七天不使用 Duolingo，我們就會停止向您發送通知。

Now, at some point, it occurred to us, if we're stopping to send people notifications, we should let them know.

現在，我們突然想到，如果我們要停止向人們發送通知，就應該讓他們知道。

So we started sending this notification to people, saying, hey, these reminders don't seem to be working.

於是，我們開始向人們發送這樣的通知：嘿，這些提醒似乎不起作用了。

You know what people do when they get this notification?

你知道人們收到這個通知時會怎麼做嗎？