We founded Kinnu to give everyone the power to learn anything they want to. Our minds have so much more untapped potential to acquire and retain information than we think. One of our core founding tenets is that technology designed around how the brain actually works can unlock that.
Today, after 18 months of research and hard graft (and millions of synapses connected) we’re pulling back the curtains on Kinnu 2.0 – codename Origami. It incorporates our new, turbocharged Learning Engine, profound discoveries in the science of learning and blends it all together with a totally fresh design philosophy to make a delicious, powerful supersmoothie of brainy goodness. We’re so proud to share it with you today.
Download Kinnu 2.0 now
Rolling out in stages this week.
If you don’t see it yet, please check back later.
From curious beginnings…
While we are very proud of the work we did on Kinnu 1.0, we knew we were just grazing the surface of what was possible with our Brain First approach to learning. From the very beginning, we began objectively measuring learning efficiency. While Kinnu 1.0 performed impressively, we believed we could do so much better. So we did.
…to the laboratory
In December last year we built Kinnu Labs – a virtual learning laboratory with 10,000 participants to run learning and feature experiments to see how much we could quantifiably increase learning efficiency. We benchmarked our results against the gold standard in learning: in-person 1-on-1 tutoring. Our combined discoveries blew 1-on-1 tutoring out of the water, for both STEM and humanities pathways.
Buckle up your brain because the most potent of these discoveries are headed your way in the revamped Learning Engine in Kinnu 2.0.
Kommunity Wisdom
While our team is comprised of some pretty hardcore product and learning geeks, many of our best ideas actually came from the Kinnu Learning Kommunity. Your votes on content and feature ideas on our wildly popular Kommunity Vote feature shaped our roadmap. Your brilliant suggestions on Discord inspired learning experiments and product ideas we would never have thought of. We simply cannot thank you enough for caring. It matters, it shapes, it has meaning.
Enter Kinnu 2.0 – Origami
Nestled within the folds of Kinnu 2.0 is the most powerful learning engine we’ve ever built. We’ve always believed that the ultimate learning experience needs to simultaneously remove cognitive load while increasing intrinsic motivation.
The new Learning Engine in Kinnu 2.0 performs twice as well as the previous generation in terms of learning efficiency, performance we didn’t even think was possible when we started.
Here are the crux ways we’ve achieved that…
A New Order in the Kinnuverse
One of the most profound changes you’ll notice in Kinnu 2.0 is how content is structured in pathways. The base unit of knowledge in Kinnu is now the Orb.
Think of Orbs like cohesive or conceptually related ideas that can stand on their own feet. Orbs create a more logical scaffold for pathways, and make your progress and memory states easier to understand. They also play nicely with our latest Content Engine to create smoother pathway flows, which are increasingly ‘storified’ because stories are how we make sense of the world.
Learn once. Remember forever
Learning is not only about gaining new knowledge, but also about remembering what you’ve learned over time. Retaining what you learn creates a graph of connections for building new knowledge in the future. Memory Shields in Kinnu 2.0 are now dynamic aids to help you learn, remember and master Orbs.
Different shields help you learn different things and we’ve designed a bunch of new ones. For instance, our new Ordering Shields help build mental timelines for chronological knowledge and How/Why Shields (coming soon) help synthesise disparate ideas for deeper understanding.
Take this to the (knowledge) bank
In Kinnu 2.0 we’re introducing the Knowledge Bank. This is a picture of your brain on Kinnu. It shows you what Orbs are safe in your memory and which are at risk of being forgotten, as well as a handy ‘Strengthen’ button to quickly refresh any at-risk Orbs, on the fly.
The Knowledge Bank also contains a totally new visualisation of your knowledge which we call Memory Prediction. Memory Prediction gives you a visualisation of how long you’ll remember each Orb and is profoundly useful for gauging the health of your knowledge. Remember – the more you know the more you can learn.
1,000 Cranes
Ahh streaks… Useful to build a habit, fun to maintain, oh so painful to lose. Kinnu 2.0 does away with streaks (kind of) and introduces Crane Stamps. Learning is a long term investment that yields increasing dividends over time – even if you miss a day (or three).
Every day you complete a learning session, you’ll get a Crane Stamp on your learning calendar, so they never stop accumulating. Crane Stamps don’t punish momentary lapses in consistency when life gets in the way. Something earth-shatteringly cool happens when you get to 1000 stamps. Earth. Shattering.
A New Design Chapter Unfolds
We knew that for Kinnu 2.0 to work it needed to speak in a design language that had the right ‘words’. That language needed the precision to capture the science behind Kinnu 2.0 while still being playful and accessible because learning should always be fun. We can’t be curious if we’re not having fun.
Tall order… But we think we nailed it. We particularly love the new Avatarigamis which delightfully unlock every time you complete a pathway.
The Path(way) ahead
We’re extremely proud of Kinnu 2.0 but there is so much more work still to do to realise our vision. Here’s a sneak peek of what we’re thinking about building next.
Knowledge Bank as credential
We’ve always thought that academic credentials can be viewed as a kind of crude technology to prove what you know. The entire hiring economy, and therefore every first job and every promotion leans on this crude technology. It could be so much fairer and truer.
We really thought hard about the Knowledge Bank in Kinnu 2.0 because we believe a dynamic, atomic approach to credentialing knowledge would be a more accurate and faithful representation of what you really know – useful today, paradigm shifting tomorrow. Watch this space closely.
Going beyond memory
Without spilling too many beans, we’re working on a way to add Mastery as another dimension in the Knowledge Bank to score your knowledge on depth of comprehension. Memory is cool, but Memory + Mastery paints the real picture of your brain. Not only would this be powerful in optimising your learning sessions, but would be one step closer to the credential of the future.
Building a consortium of octopi
The richness and contribution of the Kinnu Learning Kommunity never ceases to amaze us. Right now the Kommunity lives largely ‘outside’ the app, eg on Discord – but we’re thinking of more and more ways to bring it inside. We want Kinnu to harness the power of learning together, whether that be through discussion, friendly games, or improving content in the Kinnuverse. Who knows, maybe there’ll also be a way for you to make a buck or two 😎.
One last thank you
(and an ask)
What we’re building is worth working really hard for. And it simply wouldn’t be possible without you – the Kinnu Learning Kommunity. We owe you so much, so thank you. Please download and share Kinnu 2.0 with your friends and family. Deep down, we believe the best way to improve learning for everyone is by learning from you.
To ensure a smooth upgrade, Kinnu 2.0 will begin rolling out over the next few days. If you don’t see it in the App Store or Play Store, please check back soon.
We are so psyched for the future.
Do this with us.
Abraham, Hanna, Chris & the entire Kinnu Team
