Episode 12 - The Curse of Conditional Learning

2025-12-09

The chapter where a simple task becomes a six-module prequel trilogy nobody asked for. In this episode, we crack open Chapter 10: The Curse of Conditional Learning — the moment your “quick refresher” turns into a full-blown academic saga with prerequisites that have prerequisites. This is the symptom where we, as learning designers, panic that learners “won’t understand Topic A without Topics B–Z”… and suddenly Jimmy can’t submit a risk assessment without completing a 45-minute history lesson on papyrus.

The chapter where a simple task becomes a six-module prequel trilogy nobody asked for.

In this episode, we crack open Chapter 10: The Curse of Conditional Learning — the moment your “quick refresher” turns into a full-blown academic saga with prerequisites that have prerequisites.

This is the symptom where we, as learning designers, panic that learners “won’t understand Topic A without Topics B–Z”…

and suddenly Jimmy can’t submit a risk assessment without completing a 45-minute history lesson on papyrus.

We talk about:

How a simple update for Jimmy became a branching “lore expansion pack” worthy of Marvel
The internal spiral of “But what if they don’t know this? Or this? OR THIS?”
My own disaster: an eight-module prerequisite chain… for expenses
Why your LMS course structure sometimes looks like a family tree with trust issues
How front-loading context kills motivation (and the will to live)

This chapter exposes the habit of assuming learners know nothing and must earn the right to see the real content — turning your course into an educational obstacle course.

Comments (3)