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To remember everything you learn, surrender to this algorithm (2008)

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Re: To remember everything you learn, surrender to this algorithm (2008)

#31

Post by SirensOfTitan »

The SuperMemo scheduling algorithm is a lot easier for me to deal with than Anki: if I miss a couple days, it doesn't overwhelm me with a punishing review schedule. With that, I really wish Woz would open source the SM18 algorithm, dealing with the SM UI is really painful. I don't love the Anki UI either, but it's streets ahead of SM in that dimension.

Also, tangentially related: I really love Woz's wiki, which is filled with interesting insights on learning: https://supermemo.guru

Re: To remember everything you learn, surrender to this algorithm (2008)

#32

Post by SirensOfTitan »

SamBam wrote: post #29
Asraelite wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The consensus within the Anki community seems to be that yes, the SuperMemo scheduling algorithm (SM-17) is a bit better than Anki's (SM-2 variant), but not by enough to matter, so you shouldn't worry about it. But when you look into tests people have done to see how much better it is exactly, it's around 30% more efficient. I still use Anki and am grateful for its existence, but this is a huge difference in efficien…

How come Anki cant update it itself? Is SM-17 just a different set of exponential-decay functions from SM-2? Is that even copyrightable? Also, if Anki is open-source, I'm surprised that there is no unofficial port that uses SM-17. But maybe I'm just ignorant of how much work that would involve.

Woz goes into detail about the SM-17 algorithm here: https://supermemo.guru/wiki/Algorithm_SM-17

... he's built these through decades of thinking of and tinkering and working on this singular problem. SM-2 is from 1987 for SM for DOS 1.0, and is fairly simplistic comparatively.

Re: To remember everything you learn, surrender to this algorithm (2008)

#33

Post by Asraelite »

SamBam wrote: post #29
Asraelite wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The consensus within the Anki community seems to be that yes, the SuperMemo scheduling algorithm (SM-17) is a bit better than Anki's (SM-2 variant), but not by enough to matter, so you shouldn't worry about it. But when you look into tests people have done to see how much better it is exactly, it's around 30% more efficient. I still use Anki and am grateful for its existence, but this is a huge difference in efficien…

How come Anki cant update it itself? Is SM-17 just a different set of exponential-decay functions from SM-2? Is that even copyrightable? Also, if Anki is open-source, I'm surprised that there is no unofficial port that uses SM-17. But maybe I'm just ignorant of how much work that would involve.

SM-17 is much more complicated and also closed source. You would have to spend a while reverse-engineering it.

Re: To remember everything you learn, surrender to this algorithm (2008)

#35

Post by SamBam »

nzeribe wrote: post #26
djoldman wrote: post #5

Free app based on the same idea: https://apps.ankiweb.net/ https://github.com/ankitects/anki-manual/

Anki is just a slice of Piotr Wozniak's ideas, and the algorithm it uses isn't as good as that implemented in his own software, SuperMemo. And besides: it doesn't do incremental reading, which is lights-out amazing: https://super-memo.com/supermemo18.html

I'm interested in incremental-reading, but the video he has really doesn't sell it for me [1]

It seems like you skim through an article, extract a few facts, and add them to your memorization schedule. Would it really help you summarize the article, or help you synthesize the arguments and follow the logic leading to a conclusion?

1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DoQoeK53bP8

Re: To remember everything you learn, surrender to this algorithm (2008)

#36

Post by hobo_mark »

david-gpu wrote: post #14
reactspa wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anki is great... however: ... having used it for the last 4 years to try to memorize vocabulary in certain languages (Spanish & French, recently started Chinese), I think it's a base layer ... (much like how Bitcoiners like to talk about BTC's Blockchain). Reasons: 1. I've tired of it. I need a layer that makes me excited to use it. 2. I've found it far-far less useful for learning other things than rote vocabulary m…

In my opinion people often make the mistake of using Anki to memorize one-to-one translations of foreign words. It is more effective to use it to learn the mapping of whole sentences. For every word you want to learn, add a few idiomatic and representative sentences in Anki. You can do the same for every new grammatical concept you want to learn. And don't forget to use Anki's text-to-speech tools to practice listeni…

That's exactly what I do. From videos I use losslesscut [1] to isolate the sentences I want to practice on and then turn those into anki flashcards with some custom tools I wrote.

[1] https://github.com/mifi/lossless-cut

Re: To remember everything you learn, surrender to this algorithm (2008)

#37

Post by dls2016 »

efficax wrote: post #34

Years ago, I used Anki to memorize 3000 difficult words and thus get a perfect verbal score on the GRE. Great stuff!

I used Mnemosyne to memorize baby Rudin, Munkres’ Topology and large swaths of Dummit and Foote. Perfect scores on analysis and topology qualifying exams… good enough on algebra haha.

I had always been reluctant to use memorization but I found it helped immensely. Especially as a returning graduate student.

Re: To remember everything you learn, surrender to this algorithm (2008)

#38

Post by lethologica »

wsinks wrote: post #30
david-gpu wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In my opinion people often make the mistake of using Anki to memorize one-to-one translations of foreign words. It is more effective to use it to learn the mapping of whole sentences. For every word you want to learn, add a few idiomatic and representative sentences in Anki. You can do the same for every new grammatical concept you want to learn. And don't forget to use Anki's text-to-speech tools to practice listeni…

Any chance you've studied either Spanish or Russian and have decks to share? I've never fully gotten started with Anki, but would love to get back into it to use it to expand my vocab with full sentences. I'll also be checking online now that you've spurred my curiosity, just curious if you have ones that you like too.

Keep in mind, the full value from Anki really comes from creating your own decks rather than using preconfigured ones.

Re: To remember everything you learn, surrender to this algorithm (2008)

#39

Post by DennisP »

MarkLowenstein wrote: post #25

Since the early 90s I've used a piano-practice scheme that provides spaced repetition. It greatly reduces the time needed to either (1) learn or (2) memorize pieces. I always feel compelled to cite this poem: You can get a great deal from rehearsal If it just has the proper dispersal You would just be an ass To do it en masse Your remembering would turn out much worsal.

I play piano and it takes me forever to memorize pieces. Could you describe the details of your scheme?

Re: To remember everything you learn, surrender to this algorithm (2008)

#40

Post by tmaly »

Asraelite wrote: post #23
djoldman wrote: post #5

Free app based on the same idea: https://apps.ankiweb.net/ https://github.com/ankitects/anki-manual/

The consensus within the Anki community seems to be that yes, the SuperMemo scheduling algorithm (SM-17) is a bit better than Anki's (SM-2 variant), but not by enough to matter, so you shouldn't worry about it. But when you look into tests people have done to see how much better it is exactly, it's around 30% more efficient. I still use Anki and am grateful for its existence, but this is a huge difference in efficien…

Is there a version of Anki that uses SuperMemo or is there another software that implements it?
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