Seven Reasons Why the World Needs Larabee
What happens when you accelerate the dissemination of a specific type of knowledge? There are two concrete examples in history we can look to. First: Around the turn of the first millennium, an Italian Benedictine monk and musical theorist named Guido d’Arezzo looked around at his fellow brothers and asked himself: Why is it so difficult to remember our liturgical chants? Determining that the insufficiencies and vagueness of their current notation system was at fault, he developed key principles such as hexachords (groupings of pitches), a four-line staff, and key indicators that communicated pitch position. While he did not invent musical notation, he improved upon and systematized it so successfully that his contributions are considered to be an evolutionary leap forward in how human beings came to read and write music.
Another example is the Gutenberg Printing Press. Prior to Johannes Gutenberg’s invention, the publication of print was extremely arduous and time-consuming, meaning distribution was scarce and literacy was low. When Gutenberg came along and created mechanical movable type, it was possible to print and disseminate texts widely and en masse, the byproduct of which was accelerated literacy and the ease of resurrecting and sharing ideas from ancient Ancient Roman and Greek texts. Although the Renaissance had been underway in Italy for a hundred years prior, the printing press effectively “kicked [it] into high gear.”
Both d’Arezzo and Gutenberg took two wildly complex systems, created typification schemes around them, and advanced areas of knowledge (musical and declarative) in unprecedented ways – so much so that the world was never the same. What would happen if a similar thing happened for procedural knowledge - a neglected and overlooked but complex category of knowledge that requires repetition, interactivity, and context for it to be interpreted and absorbed? We imagine it would be a different kind of knowledge renaissance altogether. Here are seven areas we can make an impact.
1. Innovations in Climate Change
From carbon capture technologies to zero-emission hydrogen powertrain for airplanes, novel and viable solutions to climate change are surging forward. In order to scale their product and outreach, they require and deserve a training and education solution that matches the power and urgency of their groundbreaking innovations. In a race against the clock, Larabee shortcuts adoption time and enables disruptive companies to make a difference faster.
2. Healthcare Staffing Shortages
From nurses to organ-packaging perfusionists to home health aides, the United States is already facing a debilitating shortage of healthcare workers. Burnout and employee retention are certainly contributors to this growing deficiency. In many cases, however, there is an abundance of qualified applications for healthcare education programs but not enough educators to train them. An effective asynchronous procedural tool means students gain important skills at their own pace, enabling educators to reach a wider and more accelerated body of learners.
3. The Skilled Labor Shortage
According to Investopedia, “Skilled labor is a segment of the workforce that has specialized know-how, training, and experience to carry out more complex physical, or mental tasks than routine job functions.” This deficit is attributed in part to a decline of traditional apprenticeships, decreased worker satisfaction, and less desirability in terms of skilled trades as a profession. Not only does Larabee get people into jobs faster, it does so by tethering generational knowledge with both the hows and whys of skills and activities. Imagine what this could mean in terms of job satisfaction, retention, earning potential, and desirability?
4. Sustainable Food Solutions
Minimizing negative emissions by cutting down on livestock production is widely considered a critical step in mitigating environmental harm. Creating attractive alternatives for consumers is the focus on many innovators, including those in the precision fermentation space. Larabee enables high-tech sustainable food companies to engage with and educate customers in high-touch ways through narrative-driven guidance around recipes in ways that simply do not exist.
5. Eliminating Redundancy for Sales Teams
We’ve heard this time and time again: Companies create videos or learning modules for their customers on how to use a product, device, machinery, or other piece of equipment. Yet, their sales and support teams are continuously and repetitively having to walk their customers through the product over the phone or in person. Again: these resources are not designed for procedural knowledge. Larabee means your customers have a solution that makes total and complete sense to them, freeing your sales team to sell and helping your support team to not lose their minds.
6. Democratizing Knowledge for Everyone
Imagine that all 7th graders were given the same homework assignment once a year. Handed a small sack of flour, butter, salt, and chocolate, they were tasked with making a chocolate croissant. It is, in a sense, mathematics homework in exponential functions masquerading as a delicious and edible recipe. Or, let’s say you’re a health worker for the WHO and you are tasked with teaching global teams on new, simple, and cost-saving procedures. A multidimensional learning tool that marries rich guidance with dissemination means more people have access to important forms of knowledge, at significantly lower costs.
7. Needless Human Frustration
Human beings love challenges. But not all challenges are beneficial or even necessary. Whether we’re baking, installing, creating, or assembling, text-heavy instructions and passive videos are full of needless obstacles and frustrations. These can result in a lack of success, damage confidence, and lead us to give up on gaining a new skill or ability because we’re convinced we don’t have inherent talent. Creating a solve that marries utility with entertainment and meaningful context means there could be significantly more confident, capable, and happy individuals walking the planet.
Bonus: Bridging Political Divides
This might have you scratching your heads, but hear us out. There is something so accessible about the knowledge around how to do or create something. Building a table or operating machinery or making cold sesame noodles are unifying in that they are activities we can all participate in, learn technical information around, and also forge emotional connections to, by hearing the stories and lived experiences that personalize every Larabee lesson. We need shared experiences that are conduits for knowledge and empathy that remind us that there is more to connect us than there is to divide us.
