Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Anki as Learning Superpower: Computer Science Edition

gresearch.co.uk

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

51–60 of 249 posts

Re: Anki as Learning Superpower: Computer Science Edition

#51

Post by hliyan »

fizixer wrote: post #2

> Anki as Learning Superpower If it's a superpower, it's at best a rote learning superpower. Can you use Anki to learn quantum field theory, and solve the lamb shift problem without looking at the existing solutions? Cut out the hyperbole please.

There is definitely a component of familiarity in the feeling or mental state that we call "understanding" (which is why analogies help understanding: they explain a lesser known thing using a more familiar thing). The brain is a neural network and repeated learning inputs definitely help. It's an oversimplification to look at the brain as if it's a simple Turing machine.

Re: Anki as Learning Superpower: Computer Science Edition

#52

Post by wendyshu »

Viliam1234 wrote: post #45
wendyshu wrote: post #40

What's the point of memorizing a bunch of facts you could easily look up on the web?

If the facts are in your head, you can make a connection between them. If they are in different places on the web, unless someone else already linked them for you, they remain separate.

Can you give an example?

Re: Anki as Learning Superpower: Computer Science Edition

#53

Post by DavidSJ »

amelius wrote: post #21
bhrgunatha wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use anki to document and remember all my emacs custom key-bindings. That might sound silly but it's easy to accumulate useful things over the years in emacs and forget about them. Emacs is vast and deep and there's a lot to learn and remember. It also serves the same purpose for key-bindings and functions in various modes and packages.

Wouldn't it be easier if you could just pop up a help screen with a good search option whenever you needed to know a certain key combination?

apropos-documentation (C-h d) and apropos-command (C-h a) provide some such functionality.

You could also try searching for "apropos" with apropos-command to find other related commands.

Re: Anki as Learning Superpower: Computer Science Edition

#54

Post by noman-land »

Excuse me if this is dumb question but this is the second time I've downloaded AnkiDroid and... am I supposed to answer the questions in the app or just do it in my head and then click show answer. I don't see any buttons to answer the question or enter your answer in the app. I am dumb or is something not working right?

Re: Anki as Learning Superpower: Computer Science Edition

#55

Post by Smaug123 »

noman-land wrote: post #54

Excuse me if this is dumb question but this is the second time I've downloaded AnkiDroid and... am I supposed to answer the questions in the app or just do it in my head and then click show answer. I don't see any buttons to answer the question or enter your answer in the app. I am dumb or is something not working right?

Answer the question in your head, show the answer, and click the button corresponding to how easy it was. It's digital flashcards.

Re: Anki as Learning Superpower: Computer Science Edition

#56

Post by Smaug123 »

m3kw9 wrote: post #37

Isn't Anki good only for memorization? Spaced repetition doesn't seem to help learning how something relates to another logically like how to determine when to use what programming patterns.

It can help. In the article, I recommend Nielsen "Seeing through a piece of mathematics", which is about exactly this. http://cognitivemedium.com/srs-mathematics

Re: Anki as Learning Superpower: Computer Science Edition

#57

Post by farresito »

tmountain wrote: post #44
farresito wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anki sucks for language learning or general vocabulary adquisition compared to simply reading.

I disagree. Lots of books have quite a few "hapax legomenon", or... words that only appear once. If you're trying to build long-tail vocab, Anki will make sure you get repeated exposure to words that occur infrequently in a particular text. One might argue that these words don't matter as much since they're less common, but once you've mastered all the common vocab in a language, building a broader vocabulary becomes…

I don't disagree with you. Maybe I should have been more precise with the term 'language learning'. If you find yourself in the situation that you propose, I think you are already at native level in the target language. I'm mostly referring to those that try to go from zero to C1 or C2 with it.

Re: Anki as Learning Superpower: Computer Science Edition

#58

Post by Anon1096 »

noman-land wrote: post #54

Excuse me if this is dumb question but this is the second time I've downloaded AnkiDroid and... am I supposed to answer the questions in the app or just do it in my head and then click show answer. I don't see any buttons to answer the question or enter your answer in the app. I am dumb or is something not working right?

You can add cards with answerable fields, but after many thousands of reviews I think that simple front-back cards where you answer in your head are the most effective. The extra work to type out an answer is not worth the hassle at all.

Re: Anki as Learning Superpower: Computer Science Edition

#59

Post by noman-land »

Smaug123 wrote: post #55
noman-land wrote: post #54

Excuse me if this is dumb question but this is the second time I've downloaded AnkiDroid and... am I supposed to answer the questions in the app or just do it in my head and then click show answer. I don't see any buttons to answer the question or enter your answer in the app. I am dumb or is something not working right?

Answer the question in your head, show the answer, and click the button corresponding to how easy it was. It's digital flashcards.

Thank you for clarifying.

Re: Anki as Learning Superpower: Computer Science Edition

#60

Post by Luc »

pritovido wrote: post #34
leke wrote: post #16

Trying to learn Finish vocab, Anki made me realize I had terrible recall. Sometimes, I couldn't even remember what the last freaking card was, and I would forget most things the next day, and everything the day after. After about 3 weeks, I had only remembered 3 or 4 words, so I gave up.

I thought I had bad recall, but the fact is that I did not know about the memory. I have trained people in my environment and they have improved enormously. It is a very good idea that you read a book about mnemonics, and all the techniques, things like exaggerating pictures or places in your head, remembering faces, what a neural connection is and so on, and start applying it. My upper limit (in anki) is over 400 ne…

> It is a very good idea that you read a book about mnemonics

Do you have any particular books in mind? Thanks!

Post reply on HN