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Anki as Learning Superpower: Computer Science Edition

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Re: Anki as Learning Superpower: Computer Science Edition

#211

Post by eska »

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.

Re: Anki as Learning Superpower: Computer Science Edition

#212

Post by divan »

ImprobableTruth wrote: post #152
divan wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

>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?

Re: Anki as Learning Superpower: Computer Science Edition

#213

Post by divan »

Smithalicious wrote: post #188
divan wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

The android app is a FOSS community effort, while the iOS app is first-party. There is no double standard here, if anything Android users are the ones which are disadvantaged by the Anki developers.

I was comparing iOS app vs desktop app.

Back then when I was using Nokia N900, I made PyQT version of Anki for Maemo platform, but I reused some of the python code of Anki, instead of reimplementing it from scratch. I'm still thinking about creating open standard/ecosystem for flash card and space-repeititon software, but it'll take ton of focus and person-time to do right.

Re: Anki as Learning Superpower: Computer Science Edition

#214

Post by eska »

BeetleB wrote: post #178
sah55 wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is just memorization through brute repetition without the SRS optimization. Less efficient, and more time consuming.

That's a bit harsh. As someone who regularly uses flash cards, creating them really is a bottleneck. It's a lot quicker to handwrite something on a paper. It's not as effective, but it definitely is faster.

Then get better at it. I'd constantly add 3 words real quick while I was in some restaurant's bathroom. Using templates for various kind of information makes it so you're only typing in information, no formating. Also don't forget to calculate in all the work of having to actually store, organize, and carry around all that paper. Suddenly the digital version doesn't sound like more work anymore.

Re: Anki as Learning Superpower: Computer Science Edition

#215

Post by divan »

allenu wrote: post #146
divan wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

May I recommend looking into Flutter?

I'm sure you've heard of it, but not sure people realize how mature it is and sick its internal design is, which allows writing native beautiful UI apps for iOS/Android/Desktop and web from the single codebase. While desktop and web support is still in dev/beta state, I successfully use it in production already and it's total game changer in terms of productivity and fun to code.

SRS app like yours will work on all 6 platforms with near-native performance (web might be a bit slower, but will produce pixel-by-pixel same UI as mobile/desktop) and I don't see any obstacles.

It's not like my backlog is not overloaded, but I would love to join a project if there is a chance to contribute. I want great SRS too badly for too long :)

Re: Anki as Learning Superpower: Computer Science Edition

#216

Post by jbc1 »

ricg wrote: post #96
moralsupply wrote: post #65

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

Shameless plug: I make an SRS app called Flashcard Hero[1] (iOS/macOS/Windows). I strive to keep the app as easy to use as possible. [1]: http://flashcardhero.com

Definitely looks more user friendly than Anki. Could you talk a little about your SRS algorithm? Are you using SM2?

Re: Anki as Learning Superpower: Computer Science Edition

#217

Post by jbc1 »

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…

Could you talk a little about your SRS algorithm as it is now?

Re: Anki as Learning Superpower: Computer Science Edition

#218

Post by ran3000 »

wenc wrote: post #72

Just wondering if anyone has tried combining Anki with handwriting for improved retention? (any personal experiments?) In language learning, memorizing words in a shallow way tends to not be as helpful as memorizing them in a sentence (shallow vs deep encoding). One can try to ankify sentences, but it's too easy to click on the green button and fool oneself that one has mastered the sentence. Anki works great for sni…

Yes, I do this sometimes for math proofs.

The point of writing atomic flashcards is to prevent the loss of resolution reviewing questions about wholes (sentences in your case). Mind that atomic does not mean that it has to be about details, I usually create flashcards for each abstraction, that is, besides asking for details, I also write a question for the full sentence. This is one way to prevent the loss of resolution, but sometimes it is time consuming to write all those flashcards (think about a long proof). Another way to do it, is to write down the answer pen-and-paper, that way you are forced to focus on the details, not just the big picture: no loss of resolution.

Re: Anki as Learning Superpower: Computer Science Edition

#219

Post by Smaug123 »

wendyshu wrote: post #148
BeetleB wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

If I may ask, how do you know it's uncommon for you to forget you knew something?

Re: Anki as Learning Superpower: Computer Science Edition

#220

Post by Smaug123 »

fizixer wrote: post #203
Smaug123 wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

(Author here.) Learning has many components. Even on its own, brute memorisation is a powerful tool. But see e.g. SuperMemo's creator on Incremental Reading ( https://supermemo.guru/wiki/Incremental_reading ) for a more generalised view of how to use spaced repetition for what you might refer to as "actual" understanding.

"learning superpower" = A learning technique so effective so as to be sufficient for all kinds of learning, to the exclusion of all other learning techiques.

Wait, what? How is that even remotely implied? Captain America's superpower is his immense strength, speed, and ability to heal; he can't read/control minds, which is Charles Xavier's thing. Just because you have a superpower doesn't mean you're God.
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