Episode 12 - The Curse of Conditional Learning

09/12/2025 11 min Episodio 12
Episode 12 - The Curse of Conditional Learning

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Episode Synopsis

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.