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I No Longer Tell My Friends about Anki/SuperMemo

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Re: I No Longer Tell My Friends about Anki/SuperMemo

#41

Post by refactor_master »

henrikeh wrote: post #28
keiferski wrote: post #16

SRS is the classic technical user situation. Anki looks like it’s from 1995 and has a massive initial learning curve with specialized vocabulary to learn (Cloze, decks, etc.) When it’s advertised, the copy is overly technical and confusing to the average person. Just look at SuperMemo’s home page, for an example: https://www.supermemo.com/en To get widespread SRS adoption, two things need to happen: 1. The primary so…

I’m always curious about the “Anki should be prettier” comment. I use Anki a lot, so I’m not in the best position to judge its first-hand impression. But, what would you say should change? Both in terms of visuals and interaction? Genuinely asking.

Have you seen the iOS app, for example?

https://apps.apple.com/app/ankimobile-flashcards/id373493387

It looks just as dodgy as “doctors hate this one weird trick”, and costs a ton up front. Why would I believe something like that?

Re: I No Longer Tell My Friends about Anki/SuperMemo

#42

Post by notduncansmith »

teekert wrote: post #21

When I first got into Linux I was like this. I regret it, now I very rarely recommend someone to try it and almost never help them set it up. I guest most people here understand why, tfa is very recognizable to me. Now 20 years later I run all my infrastructure from my basement, no cloud dependency for me, my OS does not spy on me and all tools I need for day to day life are Free... Freedom!!! See I proved them wrong…

I’m sorry you feel like nobody cares. I relate to your message, and I think soon many people will appreciate the benefit of private/wholly-owned infrastructure.

Re: I No Longer Tell My Friends about Anki/SuperMemo

#43

Post by watwut »

jacquesm wrote: post #3
xupybd wrote: post #2

Outside of learning a language are there many times that wrote memorization is useful? I can't think how I would use this in a software development sense. Coding katas come close to this and a useful but I'm not sure flash cards would do the same. Maybe it would be handy to memorize a libraries API but then if I use something enough that memorization would be useful I'll learn it by way of using it.

Traffic signs musical notation geography history chemistry metallurgy physics healthcare ... This is one of those 'what have the Romans done for us' comments. Intelligence + facts = smarts. Facts are to thinking like fuel is to an engine, without facts your thinking will be either useless or wrong. So regardless of how smart you are some degree of access to facts is a requirement and if you can do this without having…

Actually in history less so. Unless you are learning for some kind of odd test where they will demand ton of exact dates, you are better off learning how events related to each other and how they followed.

Hardest parts of physics and chemistry in understanding. Again, you can use flash card memorization here and there, but the first of it is different.

Re: I No Longer Tell My Friends about Anki/SuperMemo

#44

Post by henrikeh »

EE84M3i wrote: post #38
henrikeh wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m always curious about the “Anki should be prettier” comment. I use Anki a lot, so I’m not in the best position to judge its first-hand impression. But, what would you say should change? Both in terms of visuals and interaction? Genuinely asking.

Anki has _way_ too many knobs and options. It is overwhelming, and they are also footguns. The success of WaniKani for example is notable because you can effectively make the exact same thing for free using Anki (and the unofficial decks are available) but it is still quite popular to pay for the managed experience.

I’m sorry for being dense, but I don’t quite understand the issue.

From the workflow of downloading Anki and adding to the default deck, how do the settings and knobs factor into it?

I’m not here to just argue. I am legitimately interested. I just don’t want to assume too much.

Re: I No Longer Tell My Friends about Anki/SuperMemo

#45

Post by istjohn »

xupybd wrote: post #10
jacquesm wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Traffic signs musical notation geography history chemistry metallurgy physics healthcare ... This is one of those 'what have the Romans done for us' comments. Intelligence + facts = smarts. Facts are to thinking like fuel is to an engine, without facts your thinking will be either useless or wrong. So regardless of how smart you are some degree of access to facts is a requirement and if you can do this without having…

I get what you are saying. If I were studying this would be great. But it's been a long time since I have done any formal study. Most of what I learn now days is by doing. I might read a book on a topic but never have an assignment or a test to follow up. I'm attempting to find out if others in my shoes have found a use for memorization like this. If so it might be something worth me trying.

Do you ever find yourself going back to something you used to know well, only to find that you're now a bit rusty? In theory, spaced repetition would allow you to keep that knowledge from getting stale.

I think you'll find you learn new things quicker with judicious use of spaced repetition. As a bonus, you'll never forget those things as long as you maintain the habit. And we're all always learning, so that shouldn't be hard.

I do think the hardest part of spaced repetition use outside of the classroom is choosing what to memorize. In school, those decisions are made for you. I find it easy to bite off too much and start memorizing minutiae of a technology instead of the essential items. But I think it's just another skill to master.

Re: I No Longer Tell My Friends about Anki/SuperMemo

#46

Post by bnralt »

One of the things that's always thrown me off about the LessWrong community (I assume this article is adjacent to it because of the mention of Yudkowsky and the "I too have cognitive biases" confession) is that members supposedly strive to be aware of their own biases, but often seem extremely hostile to people with differing opinions. For instance, the reaction this article to the author's friends disinterest isn't for the author to question their own beliefs, but to complain about their friends not seeing the truth.

I'm often left with the impression that discussion of biases for many ironically becomes a way to reinforce biases. I've even seen people argue as much - "I'm aware of my biases, and you're not, which is why I'm correct, and you're wrong."

Re: I No Longer Tell My Friends about Anki/SuperMemo

#47

Post by henrikeh »

refactor_master wrote: post #41
henrikeh wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m always curious about the “Anki should be prettier” comment. I use Anki a lot, so I’m not in the best position to judge its first-hand impression. But, what would you say should change? Both in terms of visuals and interaction? Genuinely asking.

Have you seen the iOS app, for example? https://apps.apple.com/app/ankimobile-flashcards/id373493387 It looks just as dodgy as “doctors hate this one weird trick”, and costs a ton up front. Why would I believe something like that?

Sorry if I come off as pedantic, but what makes it look dodgy? Is it just the polish and alignment?

I use it daily and I just find it functional, but I’m also very used to it.

Re: I No Longer Tell My Friends about Anki/SuperMemo

#48

Post by mrich »

ryanobjc wrote: post #25
btrask wrote: post #8

I say this with all the kindness that I have... this article/guy is really sad. First of all, if you think you've found the world's ultimate fighting technique, don't try to show it to random people for approval. Use it. Anki yourself in secret until you're a super-saiyan, and then unleash your strength on the quivering masses. Hear the lamentation of their women, until they are begging you for mercy and also to teac…

I read this article and I was “ok memorization, but is that learning??” And even after perusing the supermemo website, and so on I’m still not convinced that this isn’t anything more than memorization for exams. There’s a reason why this is popular in the “rationalist” community: they’re mostly college kids. I have never seen a coworker or other industry professional use any of these tools. Why, because doing isn’t t…

It's a good tool for learning natural languages especially if you cannot practice with native speakers every day.

I agree with you that for knowledge you need everyday it is better to just learn on the job. The relevant knowledge will stick/you can note it down in a cheat sheet if needed. There's just not enough time to learn the full feature set of a programming language, you won't need most of it anyway and you will be a better programmer by reading existing code and writing code yourself, which incidentally is similar to how best to learn a natural language (listening and speaking)

Re: I No Longer Tell My Friends about Anki/SuperMemo

#49

Post by sibeliuss »

There's lots of useful things, and everybody is into their own stuff. Sometimes it intersects with ones own interests, but most of the time you're on your own.

However... think about it like this:

If just one (1) of the dozens of people the author mentioned Anki to took it up and learned a whole new skill, their life would be changed. Thats pretty cool! And reward enough.

Re: I No Longer Tell My Friends about Anki/SuperMemo

#50

Post by istjohn »

xupybd wrote: post #2

Outside of learning a language are there many times that wrote memorization is useful? I can't think how I would use this in a software development sense. Coding katas come close to this and a useful but I'm not sure flash cards would do the same. Maybe it would be handy to memorize a libraries API but then if I use something enough that memorization would be useful I'll learn it by way of using it.

I think we've all found ourselves looking up a command line option for that one bash utility for the upteenth time. Throw it in a flash card and never look it up again. The same with text editor shortcuts, API's, etc.

My shop teacher would tell us to write down when we needed to borrow a tool. If we had to borrow a tool twice, it was time to go and buy it. I think the same rule is useful for spaced repetition. Even if you'd learn it eventually by regular use, once you have it in Anki you'll never forget it, even if you spend a couple years away from that particular technology. When you come back, you'll still have those configuration flags at the tip of your fingers.

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