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Using Anki to remember what you read

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Re: Using Anki to remember what you read

#271

Post by yorwba »

ZoomZoomZoom wrote: post #266

I'm using Anki for language learning sparingly (I know it defeats the purpose, but still...) What I haven't figured out it how to automatically create Anki cards from the words I'm looking up in a dictionary. I'm at a point where I rarely stumble upon words I don't understand, and they are usually rare enough to not meet again for a long time, long enough to completely forget them. What I want is something that could…

Does your dictionary have a search history? That's how I add new cards. Every day before reviewing, I check the list of terms I looked up and then create cards for those I think will be useful to remember.

Re: Using Anki to remember what you read

#272

Post by istjohn »

Anki usage is huge in medical school [1]. There are a handful of huge premade decks students drill hours a day.

I think flashcards are hugely underrated for software developers. Memorization is commonly dismissed as unnecesary when we have searchable documentation and Stack Overflow, but the same argument could be had over touch typing. There is enormous value in moving data from disk to L1 cache.

If nothing else, having solid, open source, premade decks for the core web technologies would ease the path into web development for boot campers and other newcomers.

The first step in that direction is creating a text file format similar to Markdown or TOML for creating, editing and sharing flashcards. I created a hacky solution for myself [2], and another project was also shared in these comments [3].

1. https://www.reddit.com/r/medicalschoolanki/ 2. https://github.com/isaiahstjohn/flashbang 3. https://github.com/ashlinchak/mdanki

Re: Using Anki to remember what you read

#273

Post by erezsh »

jldugger wrote: post #243
buserror wrote: post #194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree. In fact, what I find the most interesting part about reading is .... forgetting about it! Basically concepts will sip thru, but learning the details is just a waste of brain cells, in my opinion. Just leave the brain do it's job, don't read as it's a marathon, take breaks, think about that bits you've just read that was interesting, then promptly forget about it. You'll forget the details, but not the backbo…

> don't read as it's a marathon, take breaks, think about that bits you've just read that was interesting, then promptly forget about it. That's basically the spaced repetition model. You need to forget a little bit, so that working memory isn't saving you, and the recall process takes effort. That's what builds long term memory. Spaced repetition systems just extend that process beyond the length of the book, in a t…

I don't see how cards would help me with mathematical ideas. You have to get them on a fundamental level, and then they're hard to forget. I'm more likely to forget the name of the theorem. But space repetition might be useful for formulas.

But I'm not too crazy about spaced repetition. I used it to learn all the capitals in the world, and after about a month I managed to do all of them without error. But after two years of barely using the knowledge, I only remember half.

Of course, I could keep reviewing it every few months to keep it fresh, but that's just not an efficient system, when you think of how many things I'm supposed to (and do) remember.

For me, at least, the best way to remember things is by tying them in as many associations and metaphors as I can, and that gives me a pretty reliable recall. It has some downsides: It's a bit more work than spaced repetition (requires creativity, for example), and it's not that good for unconnected data (but then, are random facts that useful anyway?). But I think that as a long-term method, it's much more solid.

Re: Using Anki to remember what you read

#275

Post by kungtotte »

lawtalkinghuman wrote: post #261
awefiawejfl wrote: post #217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My BS detector went off immediately when I read the link about Zettelkastens, and then I googled "Zettelkasten", and I skimmed through five different articles that were each pages long and talked over and over about how wonderful Zettelkastens are but didn't give any information about how they work or how to implement them practically. That's a pretty reliable indication that the service is the end, not a means to th…

Oh, so it's just a hipsterish new name for a personal wiki.

Kind of, yes, but from my understanding of the original system as devised/practised by Luhmann was that the real value of it laid in the connections between the individual notes and the work of actually filing things away in that web of knowledge.

It's trivial to just write everything interesting down in whatever format, but the idea behind Zettelkasten is that by examining each piece of information before slotting it into its proper place in the grand scheme of things made you re-evaluate old notes and consider how things fit together as a whole. This aided memory and improved understanding of the topics.

My gut feeling says the concept is sound. You're not just archiving information, you're piecing together a complex web of knowledge and relating new information to what you already know, which in turn might spur original thought. That might happen with a wiki, but it's not a given.

(It also pre-dates the concept of a wiki ;P)

Re: Using Anki to remember what you read

#276

Post by kqr »

boneitis wrote: post #173
gwd wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of the issues Anki has, I find, is that if you end up taking a long break for whatever reason, there's no way to "reset". I used Anki to study Chinese for a period of about 10 years. At some point I decided that I wanted to memorize the poker "outs" (probabilities of filling out a hand based on what had currently been dealt). Then I went through a time where I was really busy and didn't study the poker deck for a…

From a different (but really probably the same) angle, this is the frustration I've had with Anki as well. I just want a "dumb" flashcard application that doesn't try to apply "smart" techniques/heuristics. I was just looking for a way to do the same paper card quizzing digitally without having to actually carry decks on my person. Every app I've tried over the years powered under the hood by Anki had this issue. It'…

What's the use case for this dumb mode? Does Anki not have a "cram" mode that just goes through all flashcards with none of the fancy interval logic?

One of the wonderful things about software assisting with spaced repetition is that it automatically selects and remembers efficient intervals. It's crazy how little time is spent per flashcard with this automation.

Re: Using Anki to remember what you read

#277

Post by kqr »

oehtXRwMkIs wrote: post #211
kqr wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is also org-drill that implements spaced repetition in org mode.

I think org-drill is just better overall since it's all stored as plain-text at the end of the day and each card is really editable and accessible. Anki in my experience has a clunky, slow GUI. It can't beat the creation and editing speed from vim keybindings and macros.

The thing I miss with org-drill is being able to do it on the phone. I have considered trying to integrate it into Orgzly but it does seem like a big project, unfortunately.

Re: Using Anki to remember what you read

#278

Post by jbotz »

awefiawejfl wrote: post #217
sequoia wrote: post #162

This article reminds me of posts about "bullet journalling" on sites like Pinterest: the optimization of the productivity process or tool (or in the case of "bullet journal" posts, the beauty of the tool) is the end itself, not a means to an end. The posts are about/by "productivity" or "journalling" enthusiasts and don't map well to people who are simply seeking a bit of an organization or productivity boost, not an…

My BS detector went off immediately when I read the link about Zettelkastens, and then I googled "Zettelkasten", and I skimmed through five different articles that were each pages long and talked over and over about how wonderful Zettelkastens are but didn't give any information about how they work or how to implement them practically. That's a pretty reliable indication that the service is the end, not a means to th…

I think your BS detector has a bug that may cause you to miss out on some good stuff! ;-) Sometimes there are ideas which are really good and very simple, but hard to explain because understanding them requires a shift of perspective which comes more easily from hands-on experience than from verbal explanations.

"Zettelkasten" is more of an attitude toward note-taking than a specific technique... it can be implemented in many seeingly almost unrelated ways, from Luhman's index-card box to personal wikis, etc. The defining characteristic is more in the way you integrate note-taking and note-review into your daily workflow and thinking process.

Re: Using Anki to remember what you read

#279

Post by Spooky23 »

sequoia wrote: post #162

This article reminds me of posts about "bullet journalling" on sites like Pinterest: the optimization of the productivity process or tool (or in the case of "bullet journal" posts, the beauty of the tool) is the end itself, not a means to an end. The posts are about/by "productivity" or "journalling" enthusiasts and don't map well to people who are simply seeking a bit of an organization or productivity boost, not an…

People have different needs and motivations. A friend was a fancy journal keeper, and the “ceremony” around planning and executing the fancy journal stuff was part of the review process of upcoming and past tasks.

Re: Using Anki to remember what you read

#280

Post by dot1x »

rajlego wrote: post #80
throwaway9d0291 wrote: post #20

Some Anki-like alternatives that people may like and not have seen (mostly focused on learning languages): - Memrise - https://www.memrise.com/ - Has a very extensive selection of decks for language learning - Supermemo - https://www.supermemo.com/en - Has a (disputed) claim that its algorithm beats Anki, various pre-made decks - Drops - https://languagedrops.com/ - Mobile-only, has a higher reliance on pictures and…

There is also SuperMemo 18 ( https://super-memo.com/supermemo18.html ) which is from the same people as supermemo.com except it's a desktop app with way more features but also a much higher learning curve. If you use SM and you use anki both for a significant amount of time it's not hard to see that SM leaves you with way less reps. Anki is based on the very first version of the SuperMemo algorithm (from ~1990 or so…

Too bad SM is Windows-only and desktop-only. The beauty of Anki is that you can review anywhere.
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