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Spaced repetition can allow for infinite recall (2022)

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Re: Spaced repetition can allow for infinite recall (2022)

#41

Post by yanis_t »

szundi wrote: post #32
yanis_t wrote: post #31

I merged spaced repetition with knowledge management app ( ), and I must say it was the biggest personal improvement for me in terms of organising and remembering stuff. As a product though I struggle to make it work. I assume people mostly afraid of their notes and cards stored in the cloud vs local storage, which is understandable. https://www.mindthis.io/

Seems nice. The page is so irritating on iOS that it must dominate your revenue losses though, not fear from cloud. Like portrait screen 4 colums of 2 character wide lines of texts. All video autostarts on fullscreen when gets into view, ehh. Have to ask, have you ever tried this?

Thanks for bringing this to me. The website is optimized for web, so I didn't really tested on mobile devices, but yeah, this looks horrible...

Update: made it look a little bit better.

Re: Spaced repetition can allow for infinite recall (2022)

#42

Post by watwut »

Etheryte wrote: post #38
OskarS wrote: post #35

I don't want to rain on anyone's parade, but: of all the really brilliant people I've ever met, interacted with or learned from, I haven't heard of anyone that used techniques like this. Like, the way they learn things and become brilliant is the exact same way every brilliant person has done it for thousands of years: they read books, they discuss and debate with other brilliant people, they study their subjects and…

Learning isn't only about becoming brilliant. For me personally, spaced repetition is one of the best tools to aid language learning. Classes and such are great for your main progression, but spaced repetition is the way to make the vocabulary actually stick.

Actually consuming content in any form is even better.

Re: Spaced repetition can allow for infinite recall (2022)

#43

Post by Profan »

OskarS wrote: post #35

I don't want to rain on anyone's parade, but: of all the really brilliant people I've ever met, interacted with or learned from, I haven't heard of anyone that used techniques like this. Like, the way they learn things and become brilliant is the exact same way every brilliant person has done it for thousands of years: they read books, they discuss and debate with other brilliant people, they study their subjects and…

How do you think that "working hard" bit works and produces results?

Repetition!

If you're learning a language and trying to learn vocabulary, a new alphabet, etc, anything that involves lots of recall being necessary, spaced repetition is an excellent aid because without the basic shit you can't do any of the rest.

Plus it's supposed to be consistent over a (very long) time, not a "quick fix" so it's actually really the opposite of the "get slim quick" type schemes.

It's probably not especially useful when you're not cramming stuff/trying to build up a base to stand on, which lets you actually get on with the actual meat of the learning.

Re: Spaced repetition can allow for infinite recall (2022)

#44

Post by watwut »

_Algernon_ wrote: post #3
rini17 wrote: post #2

Fine but what to use in practice. Tried Anki and found its algorithm bit infuriating. SuperMemo is better but thoroughly proprietary.

Have you tried Anki since FSRS was introduced? If not, may be worth giving it another shot.

I did. It gave me absurdly long intervals. It kind of assumed that since I can remember some things easily (usually because I learned them outside of Anki), it totally makes sense to assume that about everything.

I tried anki multiple times, ended up disliking it each time. FSRF did not made it better.

Re: Spaced repetition can allow for infinite recall (2022)

#45

Post by exe34 »

StefanBatory wrote: post #23
exe34 wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

what does it mean to have learnt a word if you can't recall it?

sorry, I wasn't clear. Personally, I just went through word lists. When I had them memorised, I'd put them into Anki deck. Because I am going to forget them over time.

I haven't quite convinced myself either way, whether learning a big list and then anki them for recall is better, or having a big list on anki but only introduce two of them a day. personally I find it makes it much more enticing to learn two new phrases each day, rather than trying to remember same 50 phrases all week.

Re: Spaced repetition can allow for infinite recall (2022)

#46

Post by 2c2c2c »

OskarS wrote: post #35

I don't want to rain on anyone's parade, but: of all the really brilliant people I've ever met, interacted with or learned from, I haven't heard of anyone that used techniques like this. Like, the way they learn things and become brilliant is the exact same way every brilliant person has done it for thousands of years: they read books, they discuss and debate with other brilliant people, they study their subjects and…

it's a pretty narrow set of people that want or need to be able to memorize and recall a bunch of facts as efficiently as possible. mostly med school students and language learners, where this stuff obviously works.

Re: Spaced repetition can allow for infinite recall (2022)

#47

Post by exe34 »

mandmandam wrote: post #21
exe34 wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

what does it mean to have learnt a word if you can't recall it?

Ever have a word on 'the tip of your tongue'?

that's fair - but I consider it useless if I can't recall it when I need it for everyday words.

for really rare words that I'll use 5 times in my career, sure, I'll explain it to chat gpt and it'll get it in one go.

Re: Spaced repetition can allow for infinite recall (2022)

#48

Post by colin_jack »

watwut wrote: post #42
Etheryte wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Learning isn't only about becoming brilliant. For me personally, spaced repetition is one of the best tools to aid language learning. Classes and such are great for your main progression, but spaced repetition is the way to make the vocabulary actually stick.

Actually consuming content in any form is even better.

Obviously depends on your memory. I found that in the past I read voraciously, and spend a lot of time tinkering. Which was good and fun but I sometimes found I'd forgotten the stuff by the time it would have been useful, particularly when learning about topics I wasn't using day by day. Anki an SRS partially solves that.

It's a trade-off though, I now read less and tinker less. Do I regret that, you bet. But still Anki/SRS works for me, especially because I often do it at times when I wouldn't be able to effectively read/tinker (perhaps tired, or getting kids to sleep). That's a long way of saying, do what's effective for you, but there's no point of being so dismissive of what others are doing.

Re: Spaced repetition can allow for infinite recall (2022)

#49

Post by colin_jack »

2c2c2c wrote: post #46
OskarS wrote: post #35

I don't want to rain on anyone's parade, but: of all the really brilliant people I've ever met, interacted with or learned from, I haven't heard of anyone that used techniques like this. Like, the way they learn things and become brilliant is the exact same way every brilliant person has done it for thousands of years: they read books, they discuss and debate with other brilliant people, they study their subjects and…

it's a pretty narrow set of people that want or need to be able to memorize and recall a bunch of facts as efficiently as possible. mostly med school students and language learners, where this stuff obviously works.

Working in a fast changing but also wide and deep field like software I think being able to remember quite a few facts can be important.

Re: Spaced repetition can allow for infinite recall (2022)

#50

Post by mcshicks »

yamrzou wrote: post #22

Besides LineByLine ( https://linebyline.app ), does anyone have tips on memorizing long texts using spaced repetition?

I guess it matters how long it is and if you need to know it exactly, and how long you need to retain it. I had to memorize 50 to 100 word phrases and I chained them together with index cards. The first sentence is the cue for the second, the second for the third, etc. Carried them around in my pocket in order and started from first a few times a day until I could do the whole thing. But I only needed to know it exactly for a few weeks usually.
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