

Why It’s So Hard to Adopt New Skills (with Maxine Anderson, Co-Founder & CPO at Arist)
11 snips Sep 16, 2025
Maxine Anderson, Co-Founder and CPO of Arist, discusses her journey from teaching in rural Oregon to revolutionizing corporate learning. She emphasizes that traditional education hinders growth due to access and context barriers. Maxine highlights Arist's innovative text-based learning, using platforms like SMS, Slack, and Teams to meet learners where they are. She shares insights on the importance of concise content, tracking behavior change, and how AI enhances personalized learning experiences. Ultimately, she advocates that context and practice lead to true skill adoption.
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Teaching In Rural Oregon Sparked Arist
- Maxine started teaching in rural Oregon and built programs with almost zero resources.
- That experience led her to co-found Arist to scale personalized learning into the workforce.
Context Beats Content For Learning
- Learning failures are often about context and psychology, not content volume.
- Delivering small, timely bits of information meets learners where they already are and reduces barriers.
Push Learning Into Existing Tools
- Reduce friction to access learning by eliminating long login and click flows.
- Meet learners in the tools they already use like SMS, Slack, or Teams to increase uptake.