I created Trane as a practice engine to optimize the acquisition of complex skills, combining the best research from cognitive science, expert performance, and optimal learning. It was originally developed to accelerate my own training in music, but I quickly realized its potential for all fields requiring mastery of complex, interconnected skills.
Later, I listened to the Sold a Story podcast and was appalled by the widespread failures in literacy education. Having learned to read and write in Spanish, I was shocked to discover that reading and writing English are taught in ways completely at odds with common sense and the science of reading. I realized that Trane held a crucial piece of the solution: the ability to deliver structured, mastery-based learning, something missing from all existing programs.
Pictures Are For Babies is the result of merging the science of optimal learning and expert performance with the science of reading and writing acquisition. My motivation is deeply personal. Growing up in a rural area of Mexico, all four of my grandparents were illiterate. My parents only had the opportunity to attend school until sixth grade. I was fortunate to have access to public education, but it was often inadequate. Despite this background, my love affair with books goes back as far as I can remember. It was this love that drove me to read everything I could get my hands on, from the history books that started it all to Cervantes and Tolstoy.
This foundation led to a scholarship to a private high school, a full-ride scholarship to MIT, two degrees in Computer Science, a career as a software engineer working on large-scale distributed systems, and the ability to independently design and implement systems like Trane and Pictures Are For Babies.
Pictures Are For Babies is built on the simple belief that every student deserves the kind of education my grandparents and parents were denied: clear, structured, rigorous, and capable of unlocking their full potential. It is dedicated to them and inspired by the conviction that mastering literacy to the highest level is a fundamental right for all. I hope that Pictures Are For Babies can help you or someone you love to discover the joy of reading and writing, and to open doors that previously seemed locked from the inside.
— MartÃn