There is a long-running internet habit of looking back at old photographs and laughing.

The haircuts. The glasses. The clothes. The facial hair. The accessories. The whole look.

It is easy to mock from a distance.

But at the time, those choices probably felt good. Someone walked out of a barber, salon or shop feeling sharper, newer and more themselves. Maybe they had come through a difficult patch. Maybe they just wanted a change. Maybe the look felt modern, confident and a bit future-facing.

Then fashion moved on.

What once looked current started to look dated. What had once felt bold became a punchline to someone else’s joke.

Workplace learning has its versions of this.

We look back at old learning fashions and laugh. Gamification. Juggling workshops. Role play. 8-bit videos. Icebreakers with balloons. Learning styles. Leadership away days that involved plastic bricks and trust exercises.

Some of it deserves criticism. Some of it was weak at the time and should have been called out.

But not all of it was ridiculous because people were foolish. Often, it made sense in the context of the moment. It reflected what organisations were worried about, what technology made possible, what vendors were selling, and what L&D thought would help.

That is a useful warning.

At some point, someone will look back at today’s all-singing, all-dancing learning platform, with AI summaries, social boards, badges, nudges, playlists, dashboards and share buttons, and wonder what on earth we were thinking.

Not because every current idea is wrong, but because fashion always feels more serious when you are inside it.

The test is not whether something looks modern now. It is whether it helps people do the work better, make better decisions, avoid real risks, improve service, or change something that matters.

Everything else is just this decade’s haircut.