Using Anki to remember what you read • Hacker News Board

Re: Using Anki to remember what you read

#211

Post by oehtXRwMkIs » Thu, Mar 05, 2020, 8:57 PM UTC

kqr wrote: post #163

yewenjie wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For frictionless card-creation I have made an org-capture template for quickly adding cards to an org-mode file via a custom Emacs pop-up frame. This is accessible from everywhere with the keybinding (Super + c + a). Exporting to Anki from Emacs is done via the anki-editor mode for Emacs. https://github.com/louietan/anki-editor

There is also org-drill that implements spaced repetition in org mode.

I think org-drill is just better overall since it's all stored as plain-text at the end of the day and each card is really editable and accessible. Anki in my experience has a clunky, slow GUI. It can't beat the creation and editing speed from vim keybindings and macros.

Re: Using Anki to remember what you read

#212

Post by temo4ka » Thu, Mar 05, 2020, 8:59 PM UTC

r00fus wrote: post #192

yen223 wrote: post #35

I've used spaced repetition to help learn stuff in general. It's one of the most rewarding things I've done. Some general thoughts: 1. A lot of spaced repetition apps don't optimize for fast card creation. I like to make a card as soon as I come across something interesting, but the delay to get Anki started, and to create the card, etc just makes it frustrating. I wound up building my own app for this. 2. Cloze dele…

> 3. I fared better with lots of small, one-sentence cards. My rule of thumb is that a card should fit in a tweet. Can someone tell me if this is a crazy good idea? Social network + spaced repetition. Why should you build all your own cards? Taking a class with classmates? Create a group & create cards during lecture, review/curate cards afterwards during study session, then rate which ones were most useful after the…

Memories are very personal; something that works for you won't work for your friend, even if you're learning the same thing in a class.

Re: Using Anki to remember what you read

#213

Post by pgroves » Thu, Mar 05, 2020, 9:06 PM UTC

yen223 wrote: post #35

I've used spaced repetition to help learn stuff in general. It's one of the most rewarding things I've done. Some general thoughts: 1. A lot of spaced repetition apps don't optimize for fast card creation. I like to make a card as soon as I come across something interesting, but the delay to get Anki started, and to create the card, etc just makes it frustrating. I wound up building my own app for this. 2. Cloze dele…

Since you've made you're own app, and have noticed that a good card is a good tweet: I want an app that puts my cards in my twitter feed. I check twitter way too much and don't like opening Anki to review my cards. Not sure exactly how it would work, maybe I see a few tweets, and then there's a 'card' tweet, and I interact with it as usual and then get more tweets. Just an idea.

Re: Using Anki to remember what you read

#214

Post by the_af » Thu, Mar 05, 2020, 9:11 PM UTC

jaggirs wrote: post #199

the_af wrote: post #195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed. Also notice how he mentions he remembers "trickle down economics" was a "very important idea" during Reagan's presidency. But there is no mention whatsoever about the idea itself, how it's considered today, whether it was a good or bad idea, its relation to neoliberalism, whether he understands how politically divisive the idea is, etc. Someone remembering trickle down economics was something from the Reagan…

The article not about 80's economics. He was just making a point, of course he knows the concepts he mentions with more depth than discussed in the post.

Maybe he does, maybe he doesn't.

He is arguing for memorization. I'm saying memorization of this kind of "facts" seems unconvincing at best. Memorizing a "data card" about Reagan with this scribbled on it seems like something that would only be useful for a trivia quiz. "Mozart composed this or that", "Reagan's presidency had something to do with trickle down economics", "Washington had false teeth [1]", etc.

I know this isn't your main point, but I cannot resist to comment:

> The article not about 80's economics

It still pervades political discourse in many countries of Latin America, and many believe it's the cornerstone of neoliberalism, so...

----

[1] I wanted to write "wooden", basing my knowledge in LucasArts' Day of the Tentacle, but apparently this is false.

Re: Using Anki to remember what you read

#215

Post by jpalomaki » Thu, Mar 05, 2020, 9:11 PM UTC

gwd wrote: post #61

yen223 wrote: post #35

I've used spaced repetition to help learn stuff in general. It's one of the most rewarding things I've done. Some general thoughts: 1. A lot of spaced repetition apps don't optimize for fast card creation. I like to make a card as soon as I come across something interesting, but the delay to get Anki started, and to create the card, etc just makes it frustrating. I wound up building my own app for this. 2. Cloze dele…

One of the issues Anki has, I find, is that if you end up taking a long break for whatever reason, there's no way to "reset". I used Anki to study Chinese for a period of about 10 years. At some point I decided that I wanted to memorize the poker "outs" (probabilities of filling out a hand based on what had currently been dealt). Then I went through a time where I was really busy and didn't study the poker deck for a…

I ended up with similar problem. Started wondering if there’s some parameter you can tune to avoid this ”giant loop” issue?

I would prefer to iterate over small set of cards until I know them quite well.

Re: Using Anki to remember what you read

#216

Post by leon1717 » Thu, Mar 05, 2020, 9:16 PM UTC

Generally speaking, I don't believe reading more books helps your thinking better than going back to smaller amount of books, unless you just need the knowledge to be used for now. Memorizing is not good enough when reading a good book; it requires more time thinking than reading to grasp the essence of a good book.

Re: Using Anki to remember what you read

#217

Post by awefiawejfl » Thu, Mar 05, 2020, 9:17 PM UTC

sequoia wrote: post #162

This article reminds me of posts about "bullet journalling" on sites like Pinterest: the optimization of the productivity process or tool (or in the case of "bullet journal" posts, the beauty of the tool) is the end itself, not a means to an end. The posts are about/by "productivity" or "journalling" enthusiasts and don't map well to people who are simply seeking a bit of an organization or productivity boost, not an…

My BS detector went off immediately when I read the link about Zettelkastens, and then I googled "Zettelkasten", and I skimmed through five different articles that were each pages long and talked over and over about how wonderful Zettelkastens are but didn't give any information about how they work or how to implement them practically. That's a pretty reliable indication that the service is the end, not a means to the end.

For the uninformed, a Zettelkasten is a searchable, unordered, labeled database. That's it.

Re: Using Anki to remember what you read

#218

Post by cuntkiller » Thu, Mar 05, 2020, 9:17 PM UTC

bsanr wrote: post #169

>Imagine this: >You’re an 18 year old with just a high school degree. You immigrate to a new country that speaks a different language, and start work with some of the brightest engineers in the world. >Soon after, you’re thrust into management. Now, you’re leading teams of people who are 10 or 20 years older than you, working on one of the fastest growing internet companies of the last decade. I can't bring myself to…

if you think that's a race thing you're mistaken.

Re: Using Anki to remember what you read

#219

Post by goostavos » Thu, Mar 05, 2020, 9:26 PM UTC

wahnfrieden wrote: post #49

For Japanese learners, I built two iOS apps that cater to the special needs of the language. Manabi [0] is a flashcard app with the same algorithm as Anki but nicer UI. Manabi Reader [1] collects a bunch of short-form reading materials, lets you tap words to look them up, and tap to add a flashcard. It tracks the individual words you read and charts your progress word by word and kanji by kanji. This app has gotten p…

Ah, bummer that Reader is Apple only. It looks really awesome!

Re: Using Anki to remember what you read

#220

Post by sage3 » Thu, Mar 05, 2020, 9:37 PM UTC

qwerty456127 wrote: post #85

One anti-feature makes me go away every time I return to give Anki another try: lack of a "dismiss once and forever" button. Many decks I'd like to study contain too many cards I already know . Yet I can only choose how easy it was so it would decide how often to repeat it, it won't let me choose "it's easier than saying my own name, don't repeat it ever".

You could just delete the card right?