Follow a rabbit hole without losing the thread

One question leads to another, and three questions later you've forgotten what you were trying to find out in the first place. Learnfold is built for that pattern. Every lesson ends with a choice of where to go next, each new page links back to where it came from, and a course map with a "You are here" marker shows the whole trail.

Every lesson ends with a door

At the bottom of every lesson, "Where next?" offers four ways out.

• Go deeper. More detail on something the page mentioned briefly.
• Go sideways. A related or opposite idea that helps you understand this one.
• Zoom out. The bigger picture this fits into.
• Your own question. Typed in, for whatever the page made you wonder.

Picking one writes a new page, linked to the lesson it came from. That link is the thread. However far you wander, each page knows its parent.

You don't have to sit and wait, either. New pages are written in the background, and a small banner tells you when one is ready. You can keep reading the page you're on.

A trail, as an example

Here is how a trail might go. Start with a question.

Why does the same note sound different on a piano and a guitar?

The first lesson mentions harmonics in passing. You pick Go deeper and ask what a harmonic is. That page talks about strings vibrating, so you go deeper again. Then you wonder about the opposite case, an instrument with almost no character at all, and take Go sideways. Partway through, you want to know why any of this matters to how music is built, so you Zoom out.

Four pages in, you are a long way from pianos. That's fine. Each page links back to the one before, and the course map shows the route. If you'd like to see the opening question answered in full, our explainer on why the same note sounds different is a good start, and what bees see is a different kind of rabbit hole in the same format.

The course map shows where you are

The course map shows every page you opened, with a "You are here" marker. It's the overview you'd otherwise try to keep in your head.

Three things on the map help keep a sprawling course useful.

Pin a goal

Pin a page as a goal. Maybe that's the page that answers your original question, or a topic you promised yourself you'd get to. Branch off as much as you like, and the goal stays pinned.

See your open threads

Open threads are questions you haven't finished. You asked something, it raised another thing, you went after that instead. The open threads list keeps the first question from evaporating.

Tie it together

When the threads pile up, "Tie it together" combines them into one page. After a long wander, it gives you one page to come back to.

Ask without leaving the page

Not every question deserves its own branch. On any page you can ask about the whole page, or select a passage and ask Why, How, or for an example. Discussions are saved and can be reopened. Some answers stay in the chat, and some become pages of their own.

Pick it up later

You'll stop partway, often several branches from where you began. When you come back, Continue drops you on the exact page and spot where you left off. Courses and progress can sync across your devices through iCloud. For the steadier side of the same course, the page on a self-paced learning path you steer covers the plan and how you keep going.

How it starts

A trail can start from a question, a web link, a PDF, notes, Markdown or a photo. You see a course plan and approve it before anything is written, and lessons are written section by section. The plan is a starting point. The branches are where the course goes after that. For more on that part, see an AI course generator for iPhone.

Two things about long trails

• Each branch is a fresh request to the AI. Writing new pages needs a plan. Learnfold Cloud, Learnfold's own AI service, is included in the Cloud and Studio plans, and daily usage limits apply. Plus lets you bring your own provider. See learnfold.app/#pricing.
• The fifth page down is still AI writing. Learnfold uses AI to write every page, including the ones at the bottom of a long trail, where you're furthest from anything you already know. Check anything important against a reliable source.

When you only want one answer

If you need one tight answer and then want to get on with your day, a branching course is more than the job needs. A search or a single chat answer will do. Learnfold is for the person who reads one answer and immediately has another question.