You slip through the wall, falling into a maze of empty, yellow-hued corporate corridors that seem to stretch on forever. You are surrounded by nothing but the smell of damp carpet, the glare of uniform wallpaper, and the relentless, industrial hum of fluorescent lighting. This is the baseline reality of the Backrooms, a piece of vernacular digital culture that has struck such a deep nerve that a major cinematic adaptation is already underway. Kane Parson’s take on The Backrooms will soon be released via A24, and it looks to be a horrific encapsulation of the horror of the contemporary age.

Back at the start of September, I was invited to give the opening keynote at the Festivalul Digital Predau Viitor - the Teach the Future Festival in Romania. The festival has been running since 2022, and in its 2025 edition, saw over 5000 participants join talks, workshops, and events for the biggest education conference in the region. It’s a powerhouse event and is both a really impressive feat of logistical engineering and an expression of enormous commitment to education and educators in Romania.

Like so much in our lives today, learning has been accelerated and commodified to try and offer instant results at low costs. We can take short-form classes on YouTube, SkillShare, Udemy, and dozens of other platforms. We can sign up for real-life classes and workshops. We can self-teach or join online communities. All of them offer quick skills at low prices. Inevitably some of that will be snake oil, people on the grift looking to extract money from those who want, or need, to learn new skills, improve their education, or expand their knowledge. Some of it, though, is high-quality, thoughtful, and impactful learning content. Telling which is which may be the trick, there.