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Hashcards: A plain-text spaced repetition system

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Re: Hashcards: A plain-text spaced repetition system

#51

Post by vannucci »

thomascountz wrote: post #49
btilly wrote: post #40

I think that the real power of spaced repetition is not in flashcard applications like this. It is in behavior modification. Let's take a real example to show how this works. August 19, 2025. My wife called me in to help her decide what to do about a dentist that she thought was ripping her off. A couple of quick suggestions later, and she went to being mad at me about not having heard the problem through before tryi…

This is really inspiring. Doing whatever you gotta do to be a better support for your loved ones is commendable. Can you give an example of what you record in your SR system? Is it the anecdote itself? Do you generalize the pattern? Is there a "front" and "back?" A cloze?

Definitely want to talk about this too. I've been thinking of my own daily learning through tools like Anki and trying to devise a sort of "life stack" where I'm adding stuff and refreshing myself on it and this top comment from OP just sort of crystalizes that.

Re: Hashcards: A plain-text spaced repetition system

#52

Post by yellow_lead »

rikafurude21 wrote: post #22
yellow_lead wrote: post #19

I'm happy to see others in the space, but I wish Anki competitors would implement a decent 'import from Anki' feature. Otherwise, I think most existing users of SRS are unlikely to switch (because we use Anki and have thousands of cards there already). The data format of Anki is a bit complicated but at least it's SQLite. I've seen a ton of shared decks and resources on ankiweb, but it's true you can't easily put the…

Isnt a sqldump just a text file? That should be easily shareable on Github

Yes, but for Hashcards they're using markdown, so it's much easier to collaborate on

Re: Hashcards: A plain-text spaced repetition system

#53

Post by thomascountz »

0cf8612b2e1e wrote: post #44
btilly wrote: post #40

I think that the real power of spaced repetition is not in flashcard applications like this. It is in behavior modification. Let's take a real example to show how this works. August 19, 2025. My wife called me in to help her decide what to do about a dentist that she thought was ripping her off. A couple of quick suggestions later, and she went to being mad at me about not having heard the problem through before tryi…

I love this example because the correct, wise approach is so alien to my mind that I do not know how to respond to such situations. I am a professional problem solver, you described a problem, yet you do not want it solved? Just talk about it being annoying, like an immutable facet of the universe? Should I retort about my grievances with gravity making roof repairs a bear?

It's important to remember there's no "right" or "wrong," it's all about connection.

If a stranger says, "my bike tire is flat," in most western cultures, they might very well be asking for your help to reinflate their tire.

If your loved one says the same, well you have a lot more context to fill in their subtext with. If they're displeased with your reasonable attempts to help them—like you'd help a stranger—it might mean that they were asking for something else. Finding out what that "something else" is, and adapting to each other's differences in "what was said" vs "what was heard," is part of what it means to build a connection with someone.

Re: Hashcards: A plain-text spaced repetition system

#54

Post by krychu »

Self-plug. For anyone working in the terminal: https://github.com/krychu/lrn.

A very simple cli tool, consuming basic txt format. You can use it in a second window while waiting for your compilation to finish.

Recently I’ve been also experimenting with defining QA pairs in my note files (in a special section). I then use a custom function in emacs to extract these pairs and push to a file as well as Anki.

Re: Hashcards: A plain-text spaced repetition system

#55

Post by wisty »

btilly wrote: post #40

I think that the real power of spaced repetition is not in flashcard applications like this. It is in behavior modification. Let's take a real example to show how this works. August 19, 2025. My wife called me in to help her decide what to do about a dentist that she thought was ripping her off. A couple of quick suggestions later, and she went to being mad at me about not having heard the problem through before tryi…

> A couple of quick suggestions later, and she went to being mad at me about not having heard the problem through before trying to fix it badly

Sounds like you're not the only one at fault lol.

Do you get mad at your wife if she offers suggestions before emotionally connecting? And would it still be too late even if she realises how "stupid she was"?

Re: Hashcards: A plain-text spaced repetition system

#56

Post by runarberg »

analogpixel wrote: post #21

Does anyone outside of people in school or language learners use these type of tools in any interesting ways?

I tried to use Anki learn chess openings. I think it is a decent usecase, however I quickly gave up because I had to get better at visualizing the moves from algebraic notation (a skill worthy of learning anyway if you want to become good at chess). However I never continued my chess improvement goals to the extent where I picked up Anki again for this purpose.

Re: Hashcards: A plain-text spaced repetition system

#57

Post by leobg »

knowsuchagency wrote: post #26
mstipetic wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes! I have a whole blog post in the works about how they make an awesome LLM memory layer.

Could you link to it? I'd love to read it. This is also my first time learning of recutils

Dito. (Or MeeToo, +1, or whatever the hell people say these days.)

Re: Hashcards: A plain-text spaced repetition system

#58

Post by btilly »

thomascountz wrote: post #49
btilly wrote: post #40

I think that the real power of spaced repetition is not in flashcard applications like this. It is in behavior modification. Let's take a real example to show how this works. August 19, 2025. My wife called me in to help her decide what to do about a dentist that she thought was ripping her off. A couple of quick suggestions later, and she went to being mad at me about not having heard the problem through before tryi…

This is really inspiring. Doing whatever you gotta do to be a better support for your loved ones is commendable. Can you give an example of what you record in your SR system? Is it the anecdote itself? Do you generalize the pattern? Is there a "front" and "back?" A cloze?

My prompt for that is, When did I last dramatically fail Kate at decision support?

Recalling the scene and the details is part of the exercise.

I do the visualization while journaling about it. Here is an example of what that written record looks like.

Aug 19, 2025. She was stressed because she thought that Phoenix’ dentist was ripping her off. A couple of quick suggestions later, and her meltdown was not about how bad I am at decision support!

Kate is able to come to the right decision. She wants someone to listen to her, be there emotionally, and not offer suggestions unless they have a lot of context. But first, second, and third, make her feel listened to.

Note. This is tied to a visualization that causes me to connect to the right emotion at the right time. So I not only won't do the wrong thing, but I'll also be doing the right thing.

Re: Hashcards: A plain-text spaced repetition system

#59

Post by RealityVoid »

0cf8612b2e1e wrote: post #44
btilly wrote: post #40

I think that the real power of spaced repetition is not in flashcard applications like this. It is in behavior modification. Let's take a real example to show how this works. August 19, 2025. My wife called me in to help her decide what to do about a dentist that she thought was ripping her off. A couple of quick suggestions later, and she went to being mad at me about not having heard the problem through before tryi…

I love this example because the correct, wise approach is so alien to my mind that I do not know how to respond to such situations. I am a professional problem solver, you described a problem, yet you do not want it solved? Just talk about it being annoying, like an immutable facet of the universe? Should I retort about my grievances with gravity making roof repairs a bear?

I feel you, I totally do. I get wanting to vent and wanting to be heard but solutions should come first. Honestly, when I hear people annoyed about offering solutions I get their need to engage with them differently but I also kind of believe they have a dysfunction about how they relate to the world.

Re: Hashcards: A plain-text spaced repetition system

#60

Post by btilly »

0cf8612b2e1e wrote: post #44
btilly wrote: post #40

I think that the real power of spaced repetition is not in flashcard applications like this. It is in behavior modification. Let's take a real example to show how this works. August 19, 2025. My wife called me in to help her decide what to do about a dentist that she thought was ripping her off. A couple of quick suggestions later, and she went to being mad at me about not having heard the problem through before tryi…

I love this example because the correct, wise approach is so alien to my mind that I do not know how to respond to such situations. I am a professional problem solver, you described a problem, yet you do not want it solved? Just talk about it being annoying, like an immutable facet of the universe? Should I retort about my grievances with gravity making roof repairs a bear?

You may enjoy, It's not about the nail. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4EDhdAHrOg

What I was doing is very common. Trying to engage logically with what logic can engage with, while failing to recognize that the emotional challenge is what has to be dealt with first. And that once feelings are out of the way, the logical problem will be massively easier to solve.

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