🎧 Clickbait & Cognitive Load

A Soundtrack for L&D Pros, Marketing Nerds, and Anyone Caught in the Creative Crossfire

Let’s be honest: working at the intersection of Learning & Development and Marketing is like directing a Broadway show… during a thunderstorm… with a script that keeps changing.

Some days, you’re designing beautiful learning experiences, guiding behavior change, and aligning to business goals like a strategic rockstar.

Other days? You’re fighting with the LMS, explaining for the fourth time why “just turn the PDF into a course” isn’t a strategy, and wondering if your career is powered by caffeine or spite.

So I did what any burned-out-yet-weirdly-inspired professional would do: 👉 I made a playlist.

🎶 Introducing: “Clickbait & Cognitive Load”

A 20-song journey through the emotional chaos, cognitive juggling, and glorious absurdity of what we do.

It’s not just music. It’s therapy. It’s a rally cry. It’s… maybe a little unhinged.

A playlist for marketing-minded learning designers living on the edge of burnout and brilliance.

1. Toxic – Britney Spears
   Because every stakeholder request starts out shiny, seductive, and ends in psychological warfare.
2. The Less I Know the Better – Tame Impala
   For when leadership skips discovery and just wants “a quick course.”
3. Paper Planes – M.I.A.
   L&D pros don’t carry weapons, but they do fire off 40-slide decks like grenades.
4. Take Me Out – Franz Ferdinand
   You after revising the same eLearning module for the sixth time because “the button wasn’t blue enough.”
5. Everybody’s Got Something to Hide Except Me and My Monkey – The Beatles
   An energy that screams, “yes we’re talking about compliance training, but spiritually, we’re in the jungle.”
6. Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger – Daft Punk
   A motivational banger that somehow feels like your instructional design philosophy and a corporate cult mantra.
7. I Wanna Be Sedated – Ramones
   Monday, 8 a.m., when you’re reading SME copy that opens with “In today’s fast-paced environment…”
8. Sabotage – Beastie Boys
   Why does the LMS always break right before the big launch?
9. Stressed Out – Twenty One Pilots
   For the days you pretend to be a learning strategist but really just fixed broken SCORM files all morning.
10. You Don’t Own Me – Lesley Gore
    To play quietly while saying no to “Can we just turn this PDF into a quick module?” requests.
11. Wrecking Ball – Miley Cyrus
    An ode to the marketing campaign that tore down all your original learning objectives.
12. Bitch, Don’t Kill My Vibe – Kendrick Lamar
    For the moment you finally get into flow—and your calendar dings with a mandatory meeting.
13. Bohemian Rhapsody – Queen
    Too long. Too dramatic. Way too many voices. Also: perfect metaphor for course reviews.
14. No Children – The Mountain Goats
    The unofficial theme song of team retrospectives during Q4.
15. Work Bitch – Britney Spears
    “You want a modern learning culture? You better make some noise.”
16. Psycho – Post Malone
    For when a stakeholder gives you “creative freedom”—and then sends a 7-paragraph feedback email.
17. I Fought the Law – The Clash
    Alt title: I tried to innovate, but legal won.
18. Mad World – Tears for Fears
    Every time a new HR platform is introduced with no training plan in sight.
19. Another One Bites the Dust – Queen
    Pour one out for the pilot project that “didn’t get enough traction.”
20. Don’t Stop Me Now – Queen
    Final energy before launching a campaign that you absolutely made up in your sleep but are 90% sure will crush it.

---

Why This Playlist Exists

This is for the misfits and multi-hyphenates. The folks designing systems and stories.
The ones writing copy, coaching SMEs, crunching metrics, and still showing up with enthusiasm for the next big idea.

Because when we say “learning experience designer,” we’re not just talking about nice fonts and Bloom’s Taxonomy. We’re talking persuasion. Emotion. Strategy. Empathy. Timing. Marketing. Storytelling. And memes. Always memes.

This playlist is my love letter to all of that—and all of you.

👉 Listen Here

And now, I want to hear from you.

💬 What song belongs on this playlist—and why?

• Is there a track that perfectly captures the chaos of feedback loops?
• The existential dread of reviewing 47 quiz questions?
• The sudden high of a course launch that actually works?

Drop your pick in the comments or tag me with your addition to #ClickbaitAndCognitiveLoad.

Bonus points if your suggestion makes me laugh, cry, or rethink my entire instructional strategy.

Let’s build the coolest, most accurate L&D x Marketing mixtape ever. Together.