Sport used to be about competition. That was the whole point. Teams played to win, and yes someone won and someone lost. The winners were usually the ones who were more skilful, who trained harder, who understood the game better, and who put in the effort outside of match day. It was never just about showing up it was about perseverance, discipline, and pushing yourself to improve.

Becoming better meant doing the hard work: training, practising, refining your skills, and sticking with it even when it wasn’t easy.

But that doesn’t seem to be the focus anymore.

These days, it feels like competition has been replaced with an obsession for fairness, where everything has to be equal, regardless of skill, effort, age, or ability.

You see it in things like:

• Equal playing time for all players, no matter their performance

• Moving kids into easier divisions if they lose too often

• Adjusting outcomes to avoid disappointment

On the surface, it sounds positive. Who wouldn’t want things to be fair?

But I can’t help but question whether we’re actually helping kids or doing the opposite.

If we’re honest, this shift doesn’t seem to be for the kids as much as it is for the parents.

Parents today are more involved than ever, and with that comes more pressure, more complaints, and more expectations. It feels like organisations have responded by lowering the bar and smoothing out every rough edge, essentially waving the white flag and saying, “Let’s just keep everyone happy.”

But should sport be about keeping everyone happy?

Or should it be about growth?

When everything is equalised regardless of effort, what message are we sending?

We risk teaching kids that:

• Effort doesn’t really matter

• Improvement isn’t necessary

• The system will adjust itself to accommodate them

That’s not how the real world works.

In reality, effort matters. Skill matters. Discipline matters. And outcomes aren’t always equal.

When kids who work incredibly hard are given the same rewards as those who don’t, it can be demotivating. It blurs the connection between effort and achievement.

I remember hearing a story from someone who played basketball years ago. Back then, you weren’t even allowed to play inside the main gym unless you were good enough. You had to earn it.

If you weren’t there yet, you played outside. You practised. You improved. You worked your way up.

And when you finally made it, it meant something.

That sense of progression of earning your place taught valuable lessons:

• Hard work pays off

• Improvement is possible

• Achievement is something to be proud of

Watching kids today, especially when you see some just starting out alongside others who’ve put in years of effort, it’s hard not to feel like something’s off.

When everyone is rewarded the same regardless of commitment or ability, we risk removing the very thing that makes sport valuable: the opportunity to grow through challenge.

Maybe we’ve overcorrected.

Maybe in trying to protect kids from disappointment, we’re also protecting them from learning resilience, discipline, and the rewards of hard work.

This isn’t about being harsh or excluding kids. Every child should have the opportunity to participate, learn, and enjoy sport.

But participation and competition don’t have to cancel each other out.

There’s room for both:

• Encouragement and standards

• Inclusion and merit

• Support and accountability

The question is whether we’re willing to find that balance again.

Because if we don’t, we may end up raising a generation that expects outcomes to be equal, instead of understanding that equal results come from equal effort.

I experimented with different tools to put together a short course on metric units. The goal wasn’t to create the perfect video, but rather to test how easy (or hard) it is to build course material using just the curriculum details and the huge range of AI tools available.

The end result? A complete video that took no more than 45 minutes to make. The hardest part wasn’t the tech—it was imagining what the finished product should look like.

Here is the final production:

Here’s is the list of tools I used:

• Overhead phone mount from Amazon ($80)

• Eleven Labs subscription ($5) for voice-over and background music

• ChatGPT to help with content

• QuickTime for recording

• iPhone camera

• iMovie for editing

Steps

1. Idea Generation

I started by feeding the curriculum into ChatGPT and asking how it could be represented visually. After a bit of back-and-forth, I had a rough picture of what the final video might look like.

2. Rough Design

I searched online for images I could adapt into drawings for the course.

3. Preparation

Next, I set up the workspace, tidied the desk, added props like a Pikachu figure, pens, and a ruler to make the scene more engaging. I mounted the iPhone on the overhead stand and adjusted it to frame the paper properly.

4. Recording

Using QuickTime on my Mac, I connected to the iPhone camera and hit record. Having the rough design open on screen was a big help—I could simply sketch while following the draft.

5. Audio Creation

For narration, I used Eleven Labs to generate a voiceover from the ChatGPT script. I also added background music with Eleven Labs’ music generator to make it feel less flat.

6. Video Editing

Finally, I pulled everything into iMovie. The process was simple: drop in the audio and video, speed up the footage 4x, and split the audio into sections so it matched the drawings. Then it was just a matter of exporting and uploading to YouTube.

Pretty straightforward overall.

What I Learned

• Content creation is fairly simple, but traditional tools like props and editing are still needed to make it engaging.

• The style works well for younger audiences, but older students may find it a bit childish.

• AI tools massively cut production time. Things like scriptwriting and voiceover that once needed professionals can now be done in minutes.

• With just an iPhone and basic Mac tools, the whole process is surprisingly accessible.

That’s it! I’d love to hear your thoughts.

PS: For fun, I also created a Croatian version of the video to see how it might work in another language. The obvious catch: since all the drawings are in English, I’d have to recreate them entirely in Croatian to make it feel natural.

As the landscape of education rapidly evolves, more parents are turning to supplementary learning tools to ensure their children thrive academically and personally. Through a series of one-on-one interviews with parents, five powerful themes emerged. These insights not only reflect the challenges parents face today but also point toward what the next generation of learning platforms must deliver.

1. Personalisation is non-negotiable

One of the strongest takeaways from our research is that parents feel the current education system often doesn’t cater to their child’s unique needs. The demand for personalisation came up in almost every conversation. Parents want platforms that adapt to their child’s strengths, weaknesses, and pace of learning - ensuring that no child is left behind and no child is held back.

This was especially true for families with neurodiverse learners, such as children with ADHD, autism, or dyslexia. Many parents shared that traditional teaching methods leave their children feeling frustrated or disengaged, which can impact both academic outcomes and self-esteem. They expressed a desire for tools that can provide multiple pathways to understanding, including audio aids, visual aids and interactive content. By tailoring learning experiences to individual needs, supplementary education platforms can not only boost results but also build confidence and a lifelong love of learning.

2. AI can unlock new opportunities

Artificial intelligence is a topic parents are curious and hopeful about. Many see its potential to transform the way their children learn. They imagine a tool that can identify knowledge gaps instantly, recommend topics and exercises in real time, and adapt lessons to a child’s unique learning style. Parents talked about how AI could become like a personal coach - always there, always ready, and always patient.

One idea that particularly excited parents was voice interaction with AI platforms. Instead of just reading instructions on a screen, what if children could talk to their learning companion, ask questions in their own words, and receive explanations that feel natural and conversational. For younger learners especially, this kind of interaction could make learning more intuitive and less intimidating, almost like having a friendly teacher in the room whenever they need help.

Parents also shared that AI could relieve a pressure point they often feel: not knowing exactly how to best support their child at home. With AI-driven insights, recommendations, and even voice-based guidance, they would feel more equipped to guide their child’s learning without needing to become the tutor themselves. For families, the hope is that AI will make quality, individualised learning accessible to every child, not just those who can afford private tutoring.

3. Convenience and Flexibility drive adoption

Modern families are busier than ever, and one of the strongest themes from our interviews was the need for flexibility. Parents described balancing school schedules, extracurricular activities, and family commitments, often leaving little time for structured tutoring. As a result, they want supplementary platforms that fit seamlessly into their daily lives rather than adding another source of stress.

Features like self-paced modules, mobile-friendly lessons, and the ability to learn anytime and anywhere were frequently highlighted. Parents also valued the option to adjust lesson length, from short, bite-sized sessions on busy days to longer deep dives when time allows. For many, this flexibility was not just a convenience but a necessity for maintaining balance in the household. The platforms that win parent loyalty will be those that allow learning to happen on the family’s terms, not the other way around.

4. Engagement must go beyond the Textbook

It was clear that parents want learning to be more than just rote memorisation. Many expressed frustration that their children often find school boring or unmotivating. The desire for supplementary platforms to spark curiosity and make learning enjoyable was universal.

Gamification came up repeatedly - parents shared that integrating gaming elements to a learning platform could help engage their children more, especially if their friends were using it as well. Others pointed to the value of interactive problem-solving and real-world applications that show how academic concepts are useful outside the classroom.

Importantly, while many parents highlighted the importance of staying aligned with the school curriculum, they want learning platforms to go a step further. They’re looking for learning that incorporates practical life skills, such as money management, digital literacy, and teamwork, which they feel are often missing in traditional schooling. Parents believe that blending core academic subjects with these real-world skills not only prepares children for exams but also equips them to navigate life more confidently.

The message was clear: when learning combines curriculum mastery with practical knowledge, children are both more engaged and better prepared for the future.

5. Seeing progress builds confidence

Parents want reassurance that their efforts, and their child’s efforts, are paying off. That’s why progress tracking was one of the most frequently mentioned needs. They don’t just want to know whether their child got today’s questions right; they want to see a bigger picture: how skills are building over time, where their child is excelling, and where extra help might be needed.

A common frustration parents shared is only finding out about a problem too long after it’s already taken place. That’s why real-time updates are so important. Instead of waiting for a test result weeks later or the School report card, parents want immediate insights into how their child is doing - the moment they finish a lesson or even while they’re still working on it. This kind of instant feedback helps families step in quickly with encouragement or extra support before challenges turn into setbacks.

Detailed dashboards, progress notifications, and easy-to-understand reports give parents confidence that their child is on the right track. They also make it easier to celebrate wins along the way, whether that’s mastering multiplication tables or finally cracking a tricky essay.

Closing Thoughts

The message from parents is clear: they’re not just looking for more content, they’re looking for learning that truly works for their child. That means education that is personalised, powered by smart technology like AI, flexible enough to fit into everyday life, deeply engaging, and backed by meaningful, real-time feedback.

Ultimately, families want their children to feel confident, curious, and supported — not just prepared for the next test, but equipped for a lifelong love of learning. The challenge is to create a seamless experience that brings all of this to life — and the opportunity is truly transformative.

Conventional startup wisdom says: ship fast, validate, iterate. And while I get the value in that approach (especially when you’re finding product-market fit) - my 30 years of software engineering experience keep pulling me in a slightly different direction.

I just can’t bring myself to launch something on top of a brittle foundation. It’s not that I disagree with moving fast, I just don’t believe speed should come at the cost of stability.

There are parts of every software system that are always the same, no matter the use-case. And when you skip those “boring” bits, you will feel the pain later - especially when real customers start using your product.

I’m talking about things like error handling, logging, observability, traceability, authentication and authorisation management, transaction management, project structure, CI/CD pipelines, and a proper dev/prod environment setup. These are the things that no one brags about, but they’re what let you build fast later without everything falling apart.

That’s what we’re doing right now with Brainiac.

Before writing a single line of domain logic, we’re getting the foundation rock solid: architecture, infrastructure, and tooling. These aren’t just nice-to-haves; they’re the backbone of any reliable product.

I’ve been on the other side of my previous business. We got some of it right and it paid off massively. But some things we overlooked (logging and observability especially), and it caused serious pain. Having customers tell you something’s broken before you even know about it - is an embarrassing position I never want to be in again.

To the startups and founders reading this - here’s what I recommend you nail before building features:

• Design a clean, modular project architecture

• Set up proper error handling and logging from day one

• Configure observability and traceability (yes, including logs and metrics)

• Build your first CI/CD pipeline — even a basic one makes a big difference

• Put in place a solid unit and API testing framework

• Implement user registration and authentication

• Add role-based authorisation management early

• Set up both development and production environments properly

• Establish consistent API standards and structure

• Create a simple system to manage offline or async work (you’ll thank yourself later)

• Write database scripts to reset and rebuild your DB on demand (clean slates are powerful)

With all of this in place, we’ve created a stable, testable, observable, and deployable base that lets us now dedicate all of our focus on real product features.

Yes, it’s a slower start. But once the groundwork is done, we can move with speed and confidence - no firefighting, no rewrites, no embarrassing surprises. Plus, if we need to change things or pivot, we can do this knowing we will always have a solid base to build upon. Having a solid foundation will also enable us to onboard new engineers seamlessly, catch issues early, and deploy frequently without breaking things.

Some might say this approach goes against the lean startup grain. Maybe. But to me, this is lean - we’re removing waste later by investing smartly now. Once this foundation is set, we can be truly agile - iterating on the product itself, not scrambling to patch broken plumbing.

So if you're starting something new, think about your foundation. Don’t skip the boring bits - they’re what make the exciting stuff possible.

Somehow, whether by destiny or fate, I find myself drawn once again to a common theme: leveraging software to make the world fairer, to give everyone equal opportunity to succeed – not just the ones who can afford it.

This time, my target is education.

I have witnessed first-hand the growing divide in the quality and delivery of education. The ones with money can afford to send their children to private schools, pay for tuition, and provide them experiences that others can only dream about. As for the rest, they are playing a lottery with much higher odds against them – left to the declining public education system that struggles to appropriately fund schools and teachers, giving tomorrow’s adults that one extra challenge in life.

I don’t believe that quality education is something that only the fortunate should be able to afford.

But it’s not just the money that’s the issue, it’s the system – the way we teach has also fallen behind. Although technology has made significant leaps and bounds, the fundamental structure of teaching and classrooms has mostly remained the same. Schools are driven by curriculums, national tests, and conformity.

The teacher, like a conductor in an orchestra, stands in front guiding their pupils to the same pace, same tune, and song. If you play too slow, you must work harder to catch up to the rest, and if you play too fast – you must learn to slow down and be patient.

Somehow, the current state of education believes that we are all the same - drones made in a factory, each with the same operating system, built to the same specification.

But this is not who we are. We are human. We have individual thoughts, individual desires and passions, and our own unique lens on the world.

An effective education system would see this, and ensure that learning is uniquely adapted to each individual – one that can understand the individual’s state of learning and dynamically adjust their path to what will be most effective for them. A system that recognises the unique needs of the individual and is able to guide them at their own pace.

We call this personalised learning.

It’s with these primary objectives – making quality education accessible to everyone and ensuring that education is tailored to the individual – that I have decided to dedicate the next chapter of my life to building a business that is able to accomplish these goals.

It’s called Brainiac.