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Anki as Learning Superpower: Computer Science Edition

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Re: Anki as Learning Superpower: Computer Science Edition

#141

Post by RMPR »

Smaug123 wrote: post #92
nmca wrote: post #82

Has anyone got a solid anki deck for probability and linear algebra?

I'd strongly recommend making them yourself. Everyone understands these things differently, and ideally your cards will complement the structures already represented in your own mind. Ideally, a card will shine light on one tiny aspect of the model you already have in your mind; if you're using cards shaped around a different model, and you drop them into place around your own model, the lights may be at strange angl…

Can definitely relate, Anki started to make sense after I started creating my own cards. Not batch-creating mind you, but carefully crafting each one, and updating when necessary while reviewing.

Re: Anki as Learning Superpower: Computer Science Edition

#142

Post by divan »

Jabbles wrote: post #33

I have used Anki productively, I think it's a great tool, and should be a component of learning in many fields. But I can't help but think it could be a lot better, a lot more efficient, perhaps even 2x more. Anki allows you to customise many aspects of when cards are shown. But presumably those settings can be tuned for a individual, a subject, or even a card. One person probably doesn't have enough data to know wha…

So much this.

I use Anki for more than a decade, and every single time there is a touch of frustration that Anki UX stuck in mid-2000.

Another super annoying feature is that historically Anki is free except iOS – somehow mentality of "iOS users are rich" sneaked in – and Anki for iOS costs ~25$. This makes it prohibitively hard to recommend Anki to non-Android users, especially to younger generation which virtually don't use desktops, type much faster on mobile rather then PC keyboard, etc.

Re: Anki as Learning Superpower: Computer Science Edition

#143

Post by milansm »

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.

Back at the uni days if I struggled to understand a math concept, proof or algo, I would just memorize it. After a while the understanding part would also come.

Re: Anki as Learning Superpower: Computer Science Edition

#144

Post by divan »

allenu wrote: post #108
moralsupply wrote: post #65

Is there a software less clunky than Anki out there with similar functionality?

I'm actually about to release my own SRS-based flash card app in a few days if you can wait a little bit. [1] I'm just putting the finishing touches on it and will release to macOS and iOS. I think Anki is a great tool, but I think there are so many aspects of it that can be improved, so I decided to write my own app. I'm hoping to refine the SRS algorithm, lesson UI, and card layout over time as I get input from fol…

Thanks for sharing, it looks great from the start.

Is iOS/MacOS only? Any chance it's going to be open-sourced?

Re: Anki as Learning Superpower: Computer Science Edition

#145

Post by hpfr »

divan wrote: post #142
Jabbles wrote: post #33

I have used Anki productively, I think it's a great tool, and should be a component of learning in many fields. But I can't help but think it could be a lot better, a lot more efficient, perhaps even 2x more. Anki allows you to customise many aspects of when cards are shown. But presumably those settings can be tuned for a individual, a subject, or even a card. One person probably doesn't have enough data to know wha…

So much this. I use Anki for more than a decade, and every single time there is a touch of frustration that Anki UX stuck in mid-2000. Another super annoying feature is that historically Anki is free except iOS – somehow mentality of "iOS users are rich" sneaked in – and Anki for iOS costs ~25$. This makes it prohibitively hard to recommend Anki to non-Android users, especially to younger generation which virtually d…

As a desktop and iOS user (and a member of a younger generation), this doesn’t bother me too much, to be honest. Free software projects might as well take advantage of closed distribution platforms as a revenue source when they’re the only option for distribution, in my opinion. That said, $25 is on the high side, but is that really prohibitive, even for students, or has the history of ingrained low price expectations in the mobile app ecosystem made us more shocked than we should be at a $25 one-time fee? People certainly frequently pay more for subscriptions now.

Regardless of the reason behind it, you’re right, it is admittedly hard to convince a large portion of iOS users that $25 for an app is worth it, which is unfortunate for Anki. But I don’t know if a free version would be worth the trade-offs.

Re: Anki as Learning Superpower: Computer Science Edition

#146

Post by allenu »

divan wrote: post #144
allenu wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm actually about to release my own SRS-based flash card app in a few days if you can wait a little bit. [1] I'm just putting the finishing touches on it and will release to macOS and iOS. I think Anki is a great tool, but I think there are so many aspects of it that can be improved, so I decided to write my own app. I'm hoping to refine the SRS algorithm, lesson UI, and card layout over time as I get input from fol…

Thanks for sharing, it looks great from the start. Is iOS/MacOS only? Any chance it's going to be open-sourced?

Thanks! If there's enough interest, I'd love to look into Android or Windows one day.

I don't have plans of open-sourcing this.

Re: Anki as Learning Superpower: Computer Science Edition

#147

Post by jedimastert »

tedmcory77 wrote: post #71

What anki desperately needs (to the point years ago I explored this), is out of app nudges. I know I know, lots of folks dont like nagware, but I've found that for recreational things sometimes life happens and I just forget to go back to certain decks. If it's not tied to a goal I never get back to it.

Just make sure you don't go full Duolingo...

never go full Duolingo...

Re: Anki as Learning Superpower: Computer Science Edition

#148

Post by wendyshu »

BeetleB wrote: post #118
wendyshu wrote: post #40

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

It's common for me to read something, and forgot it even existed. I can't look it up unless I know it exists. With flash cards, I am reminded that it exists every once in a while. As an example, here's a simple card: What is the recommended way to traverse all the files (including subdirectories) in Python? Answer: scandir and not os.walk os.walk is my standard goto. Then I learned about scandir, but kept forgetting…

Thanks for providing these details.

For your Python example I'd just use a snippet. On the other hand, Google's pretty fast and always updated.

It's all a personal trade-off I guess. I wouldn't say it's common for me to forget I knew something. But maybe the cost of creating, maintaining, and reviewing card decks is worth it for you.

Re: Anki as Learning Superpower: Computer Science Edition

#149

Post by arminiusreturns »

patresh wrote: post #85
Jabbles wrote: post #33

I have used Anki productively, I think it's a great tool, and should be a component of learning in many fields. But I can't help but think it could be a lot better, a lot more efficient, perhaps even 2x more. Anki allows you to customise many aspects of when cards are shown. But presumably those settings can be tuned for a individual, a subject, or even a card. One person probably doesn't have enough data to know wha…

I agree with your comment. As a sidenote concerning your last point, Gabriel Wyner's book "Fluent Forever: How to Learn Any Language Fast and Never Forget It" explains in detail how to build an SRS system to learn a language and it strongly advises against using translation tasks in your SRS. Instead of thinking in the target language, your mind will create strong associations with the words in your original language…

When I was younger I bought a learn Mandarin book of which at least half was stickers to put on objects around the house, it was surprisingly effective, because every time I opened the fridge for example, I would see the characters and pinyin and say the word aloud.

Re: Anki as Learning Superpower: Computer Science Edition

#150

Post by kixiQu »

divan wrote: post #142
Jabbles wrote: post #33

I have used Anki productively, I think it's a great tool, and should be a component of learning in many fields. But I can't help but think it could be a lot better, a lot more efficient, perhaps even 2x more. Anki allows you to customise many aspects of when cards are shown. But presumably those settings can be tuned for a individual, a subject, or even a card. One person probably doesn't have enough data to know wha…

So much this. I use Anki for more than a decade, and every single time there is a touch of frustration that Anki UX stuck in mid-2000. Another super annoying feature is that historically Anki is free except iOS – somehow mentality of "iOS users are rich" sneaked in – and Anki for iOS costs ~25$. This makes it prohibitively hard to recommend Anki to non-Android users, especially to younger generation which virtually d…

It costs money to publish an iOS app in a way that it does not for Android. In addition, the Android app was able to leverage the fact that Anki's desktop app is written in Java. It has nothing to do with an idea that "iOS users are rich". It is easy to recommend Ankiweb instead since it works well enough for mobile.

(I also question whether there are really a significant number of people who type -- at least Latin characters -- faster on mobile than a PC keyboard, but that's a digression)

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