i didn’t set out to study dopamine loops. i just wanted people to finish a spanish challenge. i built talken to explore how far you could push language learning if you layered in crypto-native incentives. what i found was a weird corner of behavior design that looks less like education and more like game theory meets compulsion. this isn’t an essay about talken. it’s about what we’re learning from building it.what learning looks like when it’s powered by streaks, xp, and onchain rewardshumans...

i didn’t set out to study dopamine loops. i just wanted people to finish a spanish challenge. i built talken to explore how far you could push language learning if you layered in crypto-native incentives. what i found was a weird corner of behavior design that looks less like education and more like game theory meets compulsion. this isn’t an essay about talken. it’s about what we’re learning from building it.what learning looks like when it’s powered by streaks, xp, and onchain rewardshumans...