Mining isn’t short on technology.We’ve got autonomous fleets, real-time diagnostics, predictive analytics… the works. But when it comes to sharing knowledge between the people who actually use the gear, we’re still running systems that feel like leftovers from another era.

‍Where Collaboration Tools Keep Falling Down

‍Over the years I’ve seen plenty of “collaboration platforms” pushed into mining and construction.Some were built in-house, clunky, and so unintuitive you needed training just to log in. Others were corporate attempts at social networks - but they quickly filled with noise, self-promotion, and irrelevant posts that buried anything useful. Even when companies recognised how important collaboration was - like when BHP flew engineers from all over the world to swap ideas in person - the solution never stuck. Great for two days. Gone the moment people went back to work. The pattern is the same everywhere: People don’t engage with systems that feel like work.

The Real Insight: People Crave Novelty - But It Has to Be Useful

‍This is where our industry often misunderstands human behaviour. People don’t engage with social media because it’s “fun.” They engage because it taps straight into the brain’s reward system for novelty and new information - the same wiring that helped us survive on the savannah. We evolved to chase new cues, new data, new signals. In a modern setting, that drive gets hijacked by endless scrolling, notifications, and algorithmic drip-feeds designed to keep eyes on ads. So here’s the question that changed everything for me: If we’re going to hack a reward pathway… why not do it in service of a good outcome? Why not use that same instinct for novelty to help people solve real problems faster, share practical knowledge, and make work safer and more efficient?

‍The Thinking Behind TORQN

‍This is the thought process that led to how we built TORQN - not as a “collaboration platform,” but as a knowledge network shaped around how people naturally consume information today.

Short, visual posts.

Fast feedback.

Relevance.

Novelty that actually matters.

Not dopamine for distraction - dopamine for problem-solving. But here’s the crucial part: everything is anchored to real equipment, components, and practical issues. That structure stops it from turning into a free-for-all like public social media. It keeps the noise down and the signal strong. So instead of being another place for announcements or corporate wallpaper, TORQN becomes a living feed of frontline insight - distilled, searchable, and instantly useful to the people doing the work.

Including in Torqn.