I realized that, after a year of learning German on Duolingo, the app had become something that I hated. The initial gamified fun-ness became a stressor. Seeing the notification every night that my streak was about to end stressed me out. I had long since stopped enjoying the learning process because it had felt like I wasn't learning anything at all. Ending my streak felt amazing.

I'm learning Japanese now through books, Anki, and a few webapps. The gamification is gone and streaks don't really matter. I'm sticking with it because I'm enjoying learning, not because the owl is threatening me.