During beta we ran a small internal experiment. We loosened the attempt-gate — reduced the minimum attempt length from 20 characters to 5 — for a subset of users. The change was silent. Users didn't know.
Two weeks later, the pattern was clear. Users in the loose-gate group averaged 40% more messages per session but 30% shorter session length. They also averaged fewer hints requested (they didn't need them), fewer explain-backs completed (they didn't finish the concept), and lower Brain scores at the following weekly compute.
In other words: they were getting more answers, doing less work, and learning less. The gate was doing exactly what it was designed to do.
We restored the 20-character minimum for all users and haven't loosened it since. The strong version of this rule is a good one: the AI cannot help you until you have shown you have started.
Written by Brainback Research. Published Jul 25, 2026. Filed under Data.