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Using Anki to remember what you read

superorganizers.substack.com

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Re: Using Anki to remember what you read

#221

Post by all2 »

awefiawejfl wrote: post #217
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 th…

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

I could spin up ElasticSearch or something similar and have it crawl all the files on my computer and get an 80% solution. Kinda like Apple's "Finder" functionality.

Re: Using Anki to remember what you read

#222

Post by sage3 »

tokamak-teapot wrote: post #2

I’ve used Anki for months, trying to learn the Greek alphabet. I’ve failed. I don’t think I’ve learned more than one or two of its letters. Is it possible I’m just not compatible with the way this works? Any tips on alternatives?

I don't think you did it right. I also used anki to learn the greek alphabet, I added just one letter a day for less than a month, and now two years later I know it by heart with a review load averaging 2 notes a month..

Re: Using Anki to remember what you read

#223

Post by groby_b »

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…

They are also usually todo lists of a size that... are small. I don't need to manage a todo list of 10 items. That's not the problem. How to manage 100+ items with due dates is a much more interesting question, and productivity porn is not the place to find answers to that.

(I still read it. I love that people obsess so much about it. It's like going into an office supply store, and just lovingly gaze at organizers :)

Re: Using Anki to remember what you read

#224

Post by theflyinghorse »

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…

His story is extremely similar to my second boss - a Nigerian man who was my CTO.

Re: Using Anki to remember what you read

#225

Post by 01100011 »

Does anyone know if Anki or a similar app can handle importing from a text document or spreadsheet?

I have a ton of things I need to learn for my job, and I already have a text document full of notes and definitions. I'd like to assemble everything on my PC and then have flashcards on my phone. I also need to control the syncing because I'd be making cards with the company secret sauce and can't sync to anything but our corporate google drive/docs account.

Having an app that pulls the cards from a google sheets doc would be awesome.

Re: Using Anki to remember what you read

#226

Post by rodonn »

omginternets wrote: post #131

Does anybody know how to get the LaTeX stuff working on MacOS? I've been wanting to memorize a number of mathematical formulae, but I haven't been able to find clear step-by-step instructions for building LaTeX cards.

Do the instructions here not work for you? https://apps.ankiweb.net/docs/manual.html#latex-support

If you have Latex installed on your machine and have used it before, the process of getting starting should be pretty straightforward.

Re: Using Anki to remember what you read

#227

Post by jaggirs »

the_af wrote: post #214
jaggirs wrote: post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Indeed, a fact like "Shostakovich composed his 5th sympohny in 1937" may have little value on itself, but its value is compounded with related facts. For example, if you also knew that Shostakovich was Russian, you could deduce with reasonable certainty that he composed this piece while living in the USSR (knowing also that the USSR was in place in 1937).

This in turn might allow you to enjoy the piece more, because you can relate the music to the time period and better understand what it depicts and what the composers intention was.

Now, you could also simply read a brochure about the piece/composer before the concert and you would know the same or more, but this would cost you time you may not have at that moment.

---

Anyways, I don't think he is arguing for memorization, rather, he argues that you should first learn something (by reading) and then use some tools to remind you of what you have learned in order to not forget it. It turns out that the tool he chose for this is one that reminds him of some facts once in a while. The intention is not necessarily to know these facts, but to be reminded of the learned concept through these. Whether this is an effective method or not I do not know. One could end up becoming very focued on the facts, forgetting the deeper knowledge behind them (as happens in eductation, but for different reasons).

---

Maybe I went a bit too in depth with this :p

I dont understand your point about my point (the article not being about 80's economics). Are you saying that because it is important, the article should have elaborated on it?

Re: Using Anki to remember what you read

#228

Post by sergiotapia »

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…

I've met quite a few people like that. It's masturbation disguised as productivity hacks. Well said.

Re: Using Anki to remember what you read

#229

Post by chipuni »

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've used Anki for about ten years, and I'm going to tell you a huge secret...

There's absolutely no need to "reset". Ever.

If you have only ten minutes to devote to Anki, then only spend ten minutes. If at some later point, you have more time, then spend that time.

Set the maximum reviews per day to something you can do most days -- for me, that's 250 cards. If you're behind, turn off 'new' cards. And eventually, you will catch up.

What if you don't do Anki for a month or two? You still don't need to reset. Anything you remember after that month will have a much longer time until you next see it.

Only use Anki as much as you have time for it. Let it figure out which cards to show you. Resetting messes with the algorithm for which cards to show.

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