Adults Need the Problem Before the Concept
A borrower’s EBITDA looks great and its cash is disappearing. Starting with a problem like that, not with definitions, is one of two lessons from Stanford, one from teaching and one from learning, behind every Shockproof module.
Adults engage more when training opens with a problem they care about and then explains the concept that solves it, an idea Malcolm Knowles built into his model of adult learning, andragogy. Short, learner-paced segments tend to help too. Every Shockproof module opens with a credit problem and runs 10-15 minutes, so learners can stop, rewind and restart.
A Section of 25 Students From 15 Countries
Teaching a Stanford section of 25 students from 15 countries showed me that a room does not share a mental model of anything: not what a good answer looks like, not when to interrupt, not even what a graph is for. The same concept had to be taught three ways.
I was a teaching assistant for about a dozen undergraduate classes and occasionally lectured when the professor was traveling. One student needed the derivation to trust the result. The next needed a worked example before the derivation meant anything. A third understood everything but wouldn’t say so out loud.
The most important sentence in any section turned out to be the first one: here is the problem we are going to solve today. If they didn’t buy the problem, nothing after it landed.
What Is Andragogy?
Andragogy is a model of adult learning that Malcolm Knowles popularized from the late 1960s, under a slightly unfortunate name first used in 1833. One of its core assumptions: adults are problem-centered, not subject-centered, and need to know why before they will invest effort in what.
Most professional training I have seen opens with definitions. Chapter 1: Terminology. It is the fastest way I know to lose an adult with a job.
The Best Class I Never Attended
One quarter a scheduling conflict meant I took a required engineering course from VHS recordings at Stanford’s Terman Engineering library. I expected a worse version of the class. It was better, because I controlled the clock: when to watch, when to pause and what to rewind.
I watched when I was actually awake. I paused when I needed a break. I rewound the parts I didn’t get the first time, which in a stochastic processes class was most of it. Some weeks I watched two or three lectures back to back and got properly lost in the material, which never happened in a 50-minute slot with a walk across campus on either end.
Nobody called it asynchronous learning then. It was just a library being helpful. The lecture itself was the same. What changed was that I had control of the clock, and for me that mattered more than I expected.
What Does Problem-First Credit Training Look Like?
Every module opens with the credit problem before the concept, for example a borrower whose EBITDA looks great while the cash disappears. Then it explains why. And every module runs 10-15 minutes, so a learner can stop, rewind and restart between meetings.
Neither change is large. Moving the problem to the front is a small change in order. Short modules are not a concession to short attention spans. Both come from the same observation: adults engage when they know why something matters, and learning fits better when the pace fits their day.
Start with the Problem
Every Learning Path opens with real credit problems and builds the concepts that solve them.
Browse Learning PathsFrequently Asked Questions
What is andragogy?
Andragogy is a model of adult learning popularized by Malcolm Knowles from the late 1960s; the term itself dates to 1833. Its core assumptions are that adults are self-directed, problem-centered, draw on their own experience, and need to know why before they invest effort. Knowles called these assumptions, and researchers still debate how well the evidence supports them.
Why are Shockproof modules 10-15 minutes long?
Short modules give learners control of the pace, so they can fit a module between meetings and stop, rewind or repeat as needed. The length is about control and focus, not short attention spans. Each module ends with a learning check, and each course ends with a quiz.
Do learners still get help from an expert?
Yes. Expert Coaching pairs self-paced modules with an instructor who works with a team or an individual on the questions the modules raise, including questions about real deals.
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Last updated October 1, 2026.