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Anki – Powerful, intelligent flash cards

apps.ankiweb.net

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Re: Anki – Powerful, intelligent flash cards

#271

Post by samus »

sivers wrote: post #255
arboles wrote: post #245

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting, because the creator of Supermemo wrote that Spaced Repetition doesn't work on children because their brain re-arranges and repurposes structures far too much, making children's forgetting curve far too unpredictable, or at least different from adults. https://supermemo.guru/wiki/SuperMemo_does_not_work_for_kids Spaced repetition flaschard software is all about scheduling the flashcards around predictions…

It's not perfect, but it's better than not doing it. He enjoys it.

That is important. SRS doesn't work for many people because, in short, they don't really enjoy it.

Re: Anki – Powerful, intelligent flash cards

#272

Post by hintymad »

dvfjsdhgfv wrote: post #248
hintymad wrote: post #246

Flash card may be good for memorizing lots of stuff in a short time, but I find using flash card is incredibly boring. If we manage to learn things in long term, and we always should, there's always a more fun, more effective, and more efficient way to remember than paced reminder with flash card. For instance, - A new language: Comprehensive Input. Basically immersive studying with tons of reading, watching, and int…

Yeah I agree. Apart from very specific situations like learning for tests[0] flashcards are not the optimal method. [0] And even then I'd risk saying that you can probably get better results creating a personalized ChatGPT-4 tutoring/examination session on any topic except arithmetic/anything involving computation.

Yeah, even for a test that I need to cram, I’d use Feynman’s method, focus on core concepts, plus solve representative problem sets

Re: Anki – Powerful, intelligent flash cards

#273

Post by mcbishop »

sivers wrote: post #233
packetlost wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's super weird, I wonder if GP just copy-pasted it or if there's some other weird automated business going on.

Yeah sorry, I started writing the comment, then had deja vu, so I looked at my HN history, realized I'd already said it better before, and thought it was worth just pasting the previous one. Not automated.

100% relevant here, and I appreciate you sharing it again. I'm inspired to try this with my 9 year old.

Re: Anki – Powerful, intelligent flash cards

#274

Post by samus »

CuriouslyC wrote: post #170
tyrust wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the opposite of what the commenter is suggesting.

One of the biggest roadblocks to using anki or cards in general is coming up with good cards. Automating that part lets you use anki a lot more, which is a win. If you want to connect with the question you can still manually transcribe the card.

Using Anki is not a goal in itself. It's just a tool to help you cram facts into your brain. Once you have done that, you can and should build associations and knowledge on top of them. Reviews ensure that less-often used facts are not forgotten. Anki is fine for that.

But creating Anki cards is effectively a form of review as well. If you automate that, then you miss out on going through your own notes, engaging with the subject, and subdividing it into self-contained pieces, which is required to come up with good cards.

Re: Anki – Powerful, intelligent flash cards

#275

Post by anigbrowl »

_teyd wrote: post #32
sivers wrote: post #18

My boy is 11 now. We've used Anki with him every day since he was about 5. Examples of things he's memorized, for fun: * every country, recognized by unlabeled shape on the map * spelling * many body parts, names of bones and organs, from illustration * chemical elements, by symbol (Na, Fe, Zn, etc) * unix filesystem commands * numeracy references (km from here to Japan, earth to sun, meters from home to school) * re…

I swear I have read this exact same comment before Edit: oh good I’m not crazy - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38428309

That's marketing for you - now with Genuine People Personalities™.

Re: Anki – Powerful, intelligent flash cards

#276

Post by Swalden123 »

Jtsummers wrote: post #253
Swalden123 wrote: post #237

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is there no way to skip a day? And simply pause?

You can suspend cards and decks, but also you can skip days. It'll create a backlog of cards to review, but that's surmountable. The number can become intimidating (I think my worst was around 2k cards), but there are a few ways to clear it. You can "just" get back into the daily habit, it'll take (by the default numbers, if one deck) # cards/100 days to clear out, more or less (some cards may come up for review agai…

I get skipping days is against the algorithm, but wouldn’t it be better to simply freeze the algorithm for a few days opposed to get a backlog at all? A backlog would break the habit for me making me unlikely to return.

Re: Anki – Powerful, intelligent flash cards

#277

Post by colin_jack »

aoanla wrote: post #90
jan_Inkepa wrote: post #3

Every few years I use Anki heavily for language stuff (German, more recently Latin and Classical Chinese), up to 90 minutes a day, but I can never keep the workload under control, or my habits change, and give it up. I still benefit from a year of training, but it seems the long-tail of spaced repetition doesn't work for me at all. But so long as I get to the point where I can read or watch TV, the considerable effor…

Yeah, I've had the same thing every time I have tried Anki - it's fine for a while, but once you get enough cards added, or just have been memorising a deck for long enough, even missing one session generates a huge unsurmountable backlog. It's bad and consistent enough for me that I just stopped trying to use Anki at all.

FSRS seems to reduce the amount of reviews required, might be worth enabling it and seeing if it helps.

Re: Anki – Powerful, intelligent flash cards

#278

Post by samus »

kebsup wrote: post #82

(Shameless plug at the end) During my Erasmus in Germany, I've tried almost all of the top language learning apps (Duolingo, Babel, Seedlang, Anki...) and none of them have really worked me. What I wanted was: * Learning in context --> A lot of German words do not have direct English/Czech translation, so learning the 1:1 word translation did not work well * Having audio for each card * Intensive pace --> Going throu…

If you are really overwhelmed by the answers, then you could stick to just one or two of them. I agree that having too many can be overwhelming. The SRS algorithm should still work. I don't recommend to use "well", as you won't see the cards again for a very long time.

Re: Anki – Powerful, intelligent flash cards

#279

Post by redcobra762 »

samus wrote: post #274
CuriouslyC wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of the biggest roadblocks to using anki or cards in general is coming up with good cards. Automating that part lets you use anki a lot more, which is a win. If you want to connect with the question you can still manually transcribe the card.

Using Anki is not a goal in itself. It's just a tool to help you cram facts into your brain. Once you have done that, you can and should build associations and knowledge on top of them. Reviews ensure that less-often used facts are not forgotten. Anki is fine for that. But creating Anki cards is effectively a form of review as well. If you automate that, then you miss out on going through your own notes, engaging wit…

> If you automate that, then you miss out on going through your own notes, engaging with the subject, and subdividing it into self-contained pieces

Why wouldn't you get this? You just don't have to do it in order to make Anki cards.

> which is required to come up with good cards

Yes, and ChatGPT does this for you.

This isn't theoretical. I've used this to get As in multiple classes in college. This works.

Re: Anki – Powerful, intelligent flash cards

#280

Post by appplication »

arboles wrote: post #245
sivers wrote: post #18

My boy is 11 now. We've used Anki with him every day since he was about 5. Examples of things he's memorized, for fun: * every country, recognized by unlabeled shape on the map * spelling * many body parts, names of bones and organs, from illustration * chemical elements, by symbol (Na, Fe, Zn, etc) * unix filesystem commands * numeracy references (km from here to Japan, earth to sun, meters from home to school) * re…

Interesting, because the creator of Supermemo wrote that Spaced Repetition doesn't work on children because their brain re-arranges and repurposes structures far too much, making children's forgetting curve far too unpredictable, or at least different from adults. https://supermemo.guru/wiki/SuperMemo_does_not_work_for_kids Spaced repetition flaschard software is all about scheduling the flashcards around predictions…

I think sometimes statements like this probably apply in aggregate, as in you can’t safely say they work in the general case due to too much response variance. But it’s not unrealistic to think it works well for some.
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