607 Luis von Ahn, Co-Founder and CEO of Duolingo — How to Be (Truly) Mission-Driven, Monetization Experiments, 10x Growth, Org Chart Iterations for Impacting Metrics
This is a OPEN AI summary of the Tim Ferriss Podcast #607- visit www.TinyTim.blog for more AI summaries, or www.Tim.blog for the official Tim Ferriss Podcasts.
In this episode of the Tim Ferriss Show, host Tim Ferriss interviews entrepreneur and professor Luis von Ahn. Von Ahn discusses his work in crowdsourcing, including inventing CAPTCHAs and founding Duolingo. He also talks about his various awards and accolades, including being named one of the "Brilliant 10" by Popular Science and one of the "Innovators Under 35" by MIT Technology Review.
Duolingo is a language learning company that has been successful in attracting and retaining employees by focusing on their company culture and mission. The CEO, Luis von Ahn, discusses how they use their profits to improve their product and how they are always looking for ways to make their product more effective.
Crowdsourcing is helping to improve technology in a variety of ways. For example, reCAPTCHA is crowdsourcing the task of identifying traffic lights and stop signs for self-driving cars. Language translation has also gotten better, to the point where people may not need to learn a new language before traveling. Luis von Ahn, the creator of Duolingo, discusses the platform's most popular courses. He notes that Spanish is the most popular language among English speakers, followed by French, Japanese, Korean, and German. He attributes the popularity of Korean to the popularity of K-pop music and Korean TV shows. In this conversation, Tim Ferriss and Luis von Ahn discuss the popularity of learning Mandarin Chinese. Von Ahn notes that while many people in tech and educated circles are teaching their kids Mandarin, it is still a relatively unpopular language to learn compared to other languages offered on Duolingo. This is likely due to the difficulty of learning Mandarin. The vast majority of Duolingo users are either learning English or another language as a second language. The former are motivated by the increased opportunities that speaking English affords them, while the latter are motivated by the desire to learn a new language.
In this conversation, Luis von Ahn and Tim Ferriss discuss the importance of looking at data on a daily basis in order to make informed decisions about changes in their product. Von Ahn mentions that it can be difficult to do this when looking at hourly data, due to the large differences in usage patterns at different times of day. Ferriss agrees that looking at data on a daily basis can be helpful in attributing causations and controlling for confounding factors.
In this conversation, Tim Ferriss interviews Luis von Ahn, the creator of Duolingo. They discuss a variety of topics, including Garry Taylor, Denis Roegge, resistance training, and the Oral-B iO electric toothbrush.
Ferriss and von Ahn discuss the importance of investing in a good bed and shoes, as well as pillows. Ferriss shares his opinions on various mattresses and pillows, and von Ahn offers his own advice on the matter.
Luis von Ahn, the creator of Duolingo, discusses the app's notifications and how they can be passive-aggressive. He also talks about the Duolingo owl's evolving persona on the internet. The Duolingo team is mission-oriented, and their mission is to make sure that everybody who wants to learn can do so. They are constantly making decisions based on this mission, and it drives everything they do. The app is free to use because the company wants to promote its mission- which is to teach languages to people without them having to pay. The company makes most of its money from subscriptions, but it also gets revenue from ads. The company believes that its mission is aligned with its long-term success. Luis von Ahn discusses how taking the long view when hiring employees has been beneficial for his company, Duolingo. He explains that because employees tend to stick around for a long time at Duolingo, it's important to be picky when hiring and to find people who will be 20 percent better for the job than not. Luis von Ahn discusses the hiring process, both for technical and non-technical roles. He emphasizes the importance of taking your time to find the right candidate, as hiring mistakes can be costly. The author discusses the importance of behavioral interviews in order to assess whether or not a candidate is likely to blame others for their mistakes.
In this conversation, Tim Ferriss interviews Luis von Ahn about his decision to go public with his company, Duolingo. Von Ahn explains that he was very hesitant to do so, but ultimately decided it was the right move for the company. He also discusses his process for choosing a chief financial officer, and how he is always looking for ways to improve his products.
In this conversation, Tim Ferriss and Luis von Ahn discuss Duolingo's expansion into literacy education with their new app, Duolingo ABC. Von Ahn describes how the app works and their plans to expand into other areas of education in the future. The app is designed to help people learn to read and do math at an early age, and to help adults improve their math skills. The app is based on the idea that people of all ages can benefit from brain training. In 2022, the math learning project will launch. It is designed to help people learn math and make it more enjoyable. Tim Ferriss is looking forward to the project as it will help him improve his own math skills. Duolingo is an online platform that offers a standardized English exam that is accepted by 4,200 academic programs around the world. The company's mission is to make this exam accessible to everyone, regardless of their location. This is particularly important for people who live in remote areas and do not have easy access to testing centers. In addition to English, Duolingo plans to offer exams for other languages in the future. Luis von Ahn, the CEO of Duolingo, is working on a new project to create a standardized test for measuring language proficiency. This test will be one-sided and will give a score that can be used to compare language skills across different platforms.
In this series of interviews, Luis von Ahn discusses his work with Duolingo, his breakfast routine, and his advice for college students entering the workforce. He also talks about the importance of having a helpful attitude, and how he has learned to say no to things more often. Finally, he discusses the corruption problem in Guatemala and how he believes it could be solved.
In this podcast, Tim Ferriss interviews Luis von Ahn, the CEO and co-founder of Duolingo. They discuss trade agreements and other resources that policymakers can use to educate themselves. Von Ahn also talks about the Matrix-like background he has in the Duolingo offices.
607 https://tim.blog/2022/07/12/luis-von-ahn/
