Live data from Hacker News

Anki – Powerful, intelligent flashcards

ankisrs.net

101–110 of 141 posts

Re: Anki – Powerful, intelligent flashcards

#101

Free for the computer and android but $24.99 for iOS? That seems like a strange price scheme.

Seems like a very good scheme IMO. With all the hype about Anki and how good it is lots of people will want to try it out. After finding out that it actually is good they might want to use it more frequent i.e. on the iPhone. And then they'll most likely buy it despite the price.

I know I will, anyway. And since Anki is open source and free I feel that the price will keep him motivated to improve on all things.

Re: Anki – Powerful, intelligent flashcards

#103
post #81
post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anki's deb package is 3MB, Windows installer is 24MB and OSX installer is 30MB. The package in the debian repos is 854K and the installed size is 5.4MB, with 2.7MB in locale files. I imagine the " huge " 20MB+ installer file you are put off by includes a ton of third-party libraries/tools to ease installation for novices.

Thanks for the numbers. It was on OSX. Checking out some different flashcard options I was surprised about the 30 MB size for Anki. - But yeah, 30 is not 'huge' nowadays... I'm likely still spoiled by old Delphi applications.

I imagine the extra cruft includes a ton of third party libraries. I think the tarball was 4 MBs. Just grab the source.

Re: Anki – Powerful, intelligent flashcards

#106

A lot of people point out other software. The whole point is the algorithm [1] which how Anki schedules your cards. It is based on Supermemo's [2], and improved a lot over the years, so I think it's the most optimal from all of the SRS software's out there. Also I think Anki has a very simple UI, not sure how people can find it complicated. You just add cards, and by review you press a button, that's all. Cards are j…

I've been doing the GRE vocabulary decks in Brainscape on my iPhone and I like the algorithm. It seems to be a variant of the Leitner Algoritm with 5 buckets. I'm enjoying it.

Re: Anki – Powerful, intelligent flashcards

#107
post #46

I used Anki for French and am currently using it for Spanish. It's TERRIFIC. It's the best method for brute-force memorization of vocabulary and conjugation. While it's a bit lengthy to set it up, the creation process actually helps with the memorization. Remember to only use photos where you can, dont use english words in it. The whole key is to skipping the "translation" step in your brain. Learn by thinking of the…

This technique might be helpful for the extremely basics, but what is something meaningful you would put on a card for something like hope or dignity that wouldn't be easily confused? I find pictures helpful but usually I use them to illustrate the example sentence and not the word itself. I agree your original language is a crutch but what I've found has made get better faster is native language translations of the…

> I find pictures helpful but usually I use them to illustrate the example sentence and not the word itself.

And this is why you are supposed to create your own flashcards. Everyone learns differently and your self-guided learning is no different.

Personally I use pictured even for abstract stuff, I just try and find a picture that says "hopeful" or "amazing" for me and then I use that as my picture since I figure it'll forge the connection.

Re: Anki – Powerful, intelligent flashcards

#108
post #10

For people already using Anki, if there are any decks you can share, please post them in this thread. It could be useful for people just starting out. :)

I've saw some great examples today from Gabriel Wyner's upcoming book 'Fluent Forever'. They aren't for public distribution yet, but there are a few good posts on his blog.[1]

There is some really valuable advice in the Supermemo website[2]. and Gwern's post on spaced repetition[3], which I posted a link to elsewhere in this thread, is fantastic if you want to take a deep dive.

[1] http://fluent-forever.com/ [2] http://www.supermemo.com/articles/20rules.htm [3] http://www.gwern.net/Spaced%20repetition

Re: Anki – Powerful, intelligent flashcards

#109

A lot of people point out other software. The whole point is the algorithm [1] which how Anki schedules your cards. It is based on Supermemo's [2], and improved a lot over the years, so I think it's the most optimal from all of the SRS software's out there. Also I think Anki has a very simple UI, not sure how people can find it complicated. You just add cards, and by review you press a button, that's all. Cards are j…

Question: are there disadvantages to spaced-repetition or memorizing in general? Could it be that by memorizing new things efficiently you forget older things, or that other abilities deteriorate?

Re: Anki – Powerful, intelligent flashcards

#110
post #105

Anyone enjoying this discussion owes it to themselves to check out Gwern's exhaustive page on spaced repetition. http://www.gwern.net/Spaced%20repetition

There was a discussion about this a couple of months before: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6461936
Post reply on HN