A friend of mine believes that the reason she didn't do her best in academics is because the "subject was presented in a very boring way". I tried to persuade h

A friend of mine believes that the reason she didn't do her best in academics is because the "subject was presented in a very boring way". I tried to persuade her that overcoming that feeling of boredom is already a good sign that you are learning the material well - granted, it is really hard to read poorly written stuff, but academic material isn't exactly a heart pounding thrill ride and it is quite a task to make it interesting, particularly as the material gets more advanced. But you know that you can rarely change people's views on such abstract things. I once mentioned a plan to develop a little learning app (based on spaced repetition) for her kids and asked her if she felt it was something worth paying for. She pointed out this new app called Lumosity and asked me "Why don't you make something like this? It is very interesting, and kids will actually want to use it." I sort of gave up at that point because I didn't quite believe that it was all that effective. After a little while, the topic of this article started floating around the internet and last I heard, my friend had stopped using Lumosity. On a more cheery note, I am surprised to find no one mentioned the book "Make it stick" by Peter Brown et. al. which would probably be a hard pill to swallow for the Lumosity fans. Someone should find a way to "appify" the principles in the book. It would be one seriously boring app, but very effective. :-)