It's Friday. Let's wrap this week properly.
But first, a shoutout to Preyaansh for Monday's prediction:
"Duolingo shows up with an espresso-slinging green owl yelling 'You didn't finish your lesson.'"
This is objectively hilarious and I'm mad Duolingo didn't think of it first. Preyaansh, you win this week's Nostradamus crown ;)
(Real answer: Nothing major happened yet. But Anthropic's café is still packed, so the trend's alive. And somehow convinced people to switch LLMs.)
This Week's 59-Second Quiz
No Googling and no cheating. Just reply with your answers (A/B/C/D).
Question 1: Superhuman's 1-hour onboarding call teaches you:
A) Product features and keyboard shortcuts
B) Their philosophy about why email speed matters
C) How to unsubscribe from spam
D) Integration setup with Gmail
Question 2: Basecamp's homepage has how many words?
A) 11 words
B) 47 words
C) 3 words
D) 100+ words
Question 3: Notion's template gallery is actually:
A) Created by their in-house design team
B) User-generated content that became free marketing
C) AI-generated templates
D) A paid premium feature
Question 4: Liquid Death sells water but markets it like:
A) A health drink
B) An energy drink / heavy metal brand
C) A luxury product
D) A sports beverage
Answers at the bottom.
Now, today's breakdown:
Duolingo sends you notifications when you miss a lesson.
But they're not normal reminders. They're guilt trips. From an owl. That looks sad.
"These reminders don't seem to be working. We'll stop sending them."
Suddenly, you feel bad. You open the app.
The 59-Sec takeaway:
Guilt is a powerful retention tool (when used lightly).
Duolingo doesn't say "You missed a lesson." They say "We're giving up on you."
The difference? Emotion.
People don't respond to "reminder." They respond to "you're letting me down."
How I’d use this:
If someone hasn't engaged in a while, send a breakup email.
"I noticed you haven't opened the last 5 emails. That's cool—inboxes are full.
Should I keep sending these, or would you rather I stop?"
Two buttons: [Keep sending] [Unsubscribe]
ANSWERS:
B - Philosophy beats features. Always.
A - "Basecamp's the project management tool that actually gets used."
B - Thousands of user-created templates = infinite SEO + demos.
B - "Murder Your Thirst" is more memorable than "Stay Hydrated."
Your Score:
4/4: You're dangerously good at this. Top 1% energy.
3/4: Solid. You retained the patterns that matter.
2/4: You're learning. Keep opening these emails.
1/4: At least you're here.
0/4: Did your intern take this quiz for you?
Catch you Monday,
Pavan
P.S. How'd you score on the quiz? Reply and brag (or confess). And if you have next week's prediction, send it early. The weirder, the better.
Emotion drives action. Screenshots don't.