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

221–230 of 249 posts

Re: Anki as Learning Superpower: Computer Science Edition

#221

Post by Smaug123 »

eska wrote: post #206
leppr wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually for language learning at least, understanding doesn't need to come before rote memorization. While "stupidly" learning a one-two word definition might not allow you to understand how a word is actually used, it will allow you to get its meaning should you encounter it in native material, delaying understanding to that moment.

Even in science there is a lot of knowledge that doesn't need to be understood. For math subjects that would be all the definitions for example.

Well, there can be a lot to be understood in why something is defined the way it is. For example, a red-black tree is defined the way it is because it's a pretty simple structural way to force the tree to be "pretty well balanced". Why does it force that?

Re: Anki as Learning Superpower: Computer Science Edition

#222

Post by wyclif »

vinay427 wrote: post #165
systemvoltage wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please don't equate UX to a particular era. UX is how a thing works . That is a timeless quality. Anki UX just sucks. I agree. Even if it were year 2000, its UX is not great.

I think they may have meant UI, at least more than UX. The visuals of the interface feel like they're from about a decade ago, and while I don't really mind this on my minimal Linux desktop environment because it's at least clearly laid out, it's a little aesthetically out-of-place on some other systems.

True. It looks really out of place and out of date on macOS.

Re: Anki as Learning Superpower: Computer Science Edition

#223

Post by edanm »

divan wrote: post #212
ImprobableTruth wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>somehow mentality of "iOS users are rich" sneaked in This is just not true. The android app is an open source project by the community, whereas the iOS app is made by the original developer of anki.

What about desktop app?

It's free.

It's "subsidized" by iOS purchases I believe.

Re: Anki as Learning Superpower: Computer Science Edition

#224

Post by krosaen »

eska wrote: post #211
krosaen wrote: post #70

I use Anki a few times a week. When I've used it for math (as I work my way through Gilbert Strang's book "Linear Algebra and its applications"), I add full problems that seemed to be key to the topic, or surprised me in some way. These take longer to review, but I find it's been really helpful. And once it sticks, I don't have to review it again for months. I also find it can be helpful to have a single card that pr…

But by keeping those things together you're essentially cheating. You won't be able to remember these things in isolation as well. Also if it's easy for you to remember the rank of the matrix, but not the subspaces, you will be asked about the rank too often, since you connected it to subspaces.

In the example of the fundamental theorem of LA, the key point is the relationship between the subspaces (there are other ones just about the definition of a nullspace for example) - agree if every card was like this it would not be ideal.

I think my more important point was about problem sets, for instance:

Construct a matrix with the required property, or explain why you can't.

- left nullspace contains [1 3]^T

- rowspace contains [3 1]^T

breaks down into a few steps, and trying to break that down into bite sized flashcards such as, "what's the key idea in constructing a matrix with left nullspace [1 3]^T" and "given a matrix that is the product of L with row [1 3] can you choose a U so that combined they form a matrix with row space [3 1]?" seems like it could risk in resulting in me not being able to figure out the entire problem together. But maybe not?

Bringing it back to the post's proof example, what if you had completely nailed every step of the proof such that Anki doesn't ask you about it for a while, and then 6 months later, one of the harder steps comes up in isolation:

"What is the second adjustment we make in the proof of the ratio test, a what if you can't remember the first steps? Would having the rest of the context help? I guess it's a tradeoff.

Re: Anki as Learning Superpower: Computer Science Edition

#225

Post by cehrlich »

coconut08 wrote: post #191
nullsense wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fun fact: when learning Japanese a decade ago I did 35 new cards a day for 2 years. I hit 400 reviews a day and review sessions were several hours. One day I just stopped and deleted it all.

well, yeah. you shouldn't be doing 35 new cards a day. it's not anki's fault that you had several hours worth of reviews. it's your fault. anki scales to take up as much time as you tell it to. if you had done 5-10 cards a day you could have easily had it take like 20 minutes. also you should have cards set to leech suspend. there is no reason to having certain cards that you clearly aren't going to learn taking up a…

Maybe user error is a bit harsh because it's difficult to find everything you need to know about using Anki properly in one place... but yeah, most people's dislike of Anki comes from not knowing how to use it.

Re: Anki as Learning Superpower: Computer Science Edition

#226

Post by namelessone »

semicolonandson wrote: post #136
yeutterg wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hey Jack, I've always found your Anki guides to be some of the best. I'm curious, are you still using it all these years later?

As someone who is now over a decade into their programming career, today I find more value in doing analytical breakdowns of my various success and mistakes. What were my oversights on a project? How could I have communicated better? What made one particular library a success, etc.? Therefore, after years of Anki, I've stopped adding new cards and doing repetition; instead I now focus on keeping a code diary. I've pu…

I love the code diary idea. Can I ask you what tools (software, pen&paper) you use for your diary?

Re: Anki as Learning Superpower: Computer Science Edition

#227

Post by barry-cotter »

miguelrochefort wrote: post #77

I've completed my Bachelor of Computer Science in just 3 months thanks to deliberate practice and memorization techniques (flashcards, Anki). It shows how outdated our education system is and how much better it could be.

You should write an article or blog post on how you did it.

Re: Anki as Learning Superpower: Computer Science Edition

#228

Post by miguelrochefort »

barry-cotter wrote: post #227
miguelrochefort wrote: post #77

I've completed my Bachelor of Computer Science in just 3 months thanks to deliberate practice and memorization techniques (flashcards, Anki). It shows how outdated our education system is and how much better it could be.

You should write an article or blog post on how you did it.

It's not a big secret, it's WGU. I'll write about it in November.

Re: Anki as Learning Superpower: Computer Science Edition

#229

Post by JoeDaDude »

eska wrote: post #208
JoeDaDude wrote: post #137

For those that would rather use an analog method, you can make a Leitner Box of flash cards, which, if you follow the schedule, works in a similar way as Anki. I find that writing the cards out by hand is the first step in memorizing them. See how to use one in this interactive comic: https://ncase.me/remember/

The issue with that is that I'd be at a 5 digit number of cards by now, certainly wouldn't keep all of those around, and so I'd stop revising old knowledge.

True. The method sends cards that are already memorized to the back (so to speak) where they are revisited less often. You could conceivably retire those cards forever and take them out the box.
Post reply on HN