Field notes from teaching, AI, and the design of Strive.
Written by Simas Zurauskas. Cognitive science behind the recall queue, engineering behind the live-streaming lessons, and the product principles that shape what Strive does — and what it deliberately doesn’t.
Engineering
Lesson streaming, block by block: building real-time AI UX without spinners
Most AI products show a spinner while the model writes. Strive doesn't. Here's the engineering behind streaming structured lesson blocks to the browser as they generate.
May 10, 202610 min read
EngineeringWhy we don't use vector embeddings for course generation (yet)
Most "AI tutor" demos are RAG over course material. That pattern is a great fit for Q&A and a poor fit for generating coherent curricula. Here's the trade-off.
May 10, 202610 min read