Langlearn

Remember how I went on and on the other day about my brave new architecture? Turns out there were some unanticipated flaws in that scheme that have forced another sea change.

There is a particular failure mode that has bedeviled my project life for decades. I call it the “extra mile” problem. I build things because they solve a problem for me. Once I get a solution that works for my particular case, that itch has been scratched, and the remaining work — onboarding, explainers, error messages, edge cases, polish — is an extra mile of annoying minutiae that never seems as appealing to me as the next problem waiting to be solved. So I tend to move on without ever sharing the results with anyone else.

It’s a shameful, totally selfish habit, but fighting your own subconscious is a constant battle that you’re doomed to lose in the end anyway. So instead of fighting my own nature, I look for ways to trick it. And with FrankenTongues, I think I’ve finally done that.

But the epiphany required was so profound that it had to arrive in three parts.

I’ve come up with a fun way to practice written conversations in norsk—by taunting my AI practice partner.

If that sounds like fun, just step behind this curtain and I’ll show you the game.