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Anki as Learning Superpower: Computer Science Edition

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Re: Anki as Learning Superpower: Computer Science Edition

#91

Post by Smaug123 »

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…

If it works for you, then go for it - just do keep an eye on it, and if it stops working then notice early!

Re: Anki as Learning Superpower: Computer Science Edition

#92

Post by Smaug123 »

nmca wrote: post #82

Has anyone got a solid anki deck for probability and linear algebra?

I'd strongly recommend making them yourself. Everyone understands these things differently, and ideally your cards will complement the structures already represented in your own mind. Ideally, a card will shine light on one tiny aspect of the model you already have in your mind; if you're using cards shaped around a different model, and you drop them into place around your own model, the lights may be at strange angles or highlighting big complex things.

Re: Anki as Learning Superpower: Computer Science Edition

#93

Post by marta_morena_28 »

patresh wrote: post #85
Jabbles wrote: post #33

I have used Anki productively, I think it's a great tool, and should be a component of learning in many fields. But I can't help but think it could be a lot better, a lot more efficient, perhaps even 2x more. Anki allows you to customise many aspects of when cards are shown. But presumably those settings can be tuned for a individual, a subject, or even a card. One person probably doesn't have enough data to know wha…

I agree with your comment. As a sidenote concerning your last point, Gabriel Wyner's book "Fluent Forever: How to Learn Any Language Fast and Never Forget It" explains in detail how to build an SRS system to learn a language and it strongly advises against using translation tasks in your SRS. Instead of thinking in the target language, your mind will create strong associations with the words in your original language…

Yeah that works for the first 1000 words perhaps. Then you run out of images to show. Many of the more complicated words simply can't be disambiguated by images.

Learning words by translation is totally fine. The point is not to use this as your ONLY learning method. You use it to SEED words. Once you know like 5000 words, you will be able to read books and also look up words in same-language dictionaries. But still learning more words with translation still should work well as long as you get 90% or so of your language exposure without translation. Learning words is just a tiny part of the task.

Re: Anki as Learning Superpower: Computer Science Edition

#94

Post by germinalphrase »

nuclearnice1 wrote: post #62
Jabbles wrote: post #33

I have used Anki productively, I think it's a great tool, and should be a component of learning in many fields. But I can't help but think it could be a lot better, a lot more efficient, perhaps even 2x more. Anki allows you to customise many aspects of when cards are shown. But presumably those settings can be tuned for a individual, a subject, or even a card. One person probably doesn't have enough data to know wha…

This is a great idea. Thanks for sharing. Just to restate what you said, adding nothing. Imagine you had Anki for a similar cohort studying a coherent single course. You’ll be able to get a sense of what topics confuse everyone and what correlation there are in confusion. If you had trouble with X, then you need extra guidance on A & B.

I’m a teacher. There is a great deal to the profession that does depend on experience, intuition and relationship building; however, better data on what - exactly - my students know/can do would be a great boon. I believe better assessment tools are the key here, but SRS system data would be another useful channel (and does, of course, have an assessment component to it).

Re: Anki as Learning Superpower: Computer Science Edition

#95

Post by mrwebmaster »

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…

I do, but not for language learning, but for mathematical proofs and logic proofs. Example "Prove that the dot product between 2 unit vectors is cos θ".

Re: Anki as Learning Superpower: Computer Science Edition

#97

Post by Smaug123 »

mrwebmaster wrote: post #95
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…

I do, but not for language learning, but for mathematical proofs and logic proofs. Example "Prove that the dot product between 2 unit vectors is cos θ".

For me, this may be too big a card, for what it's worth (depending on how you define the dot product). If it's defined as "|a| |b| cos theta", then fine, but if it's defined as "sum(a_i b_i)", there's definite work involved for me.

Re: Anki as Learning Superpower: Computer Science Edition

#99

Post by tedmcory77 »

JulianWasTaken wrote: post #83
tedmcory77 wrote: post #71

What anki desperately needs (to the point years ago I explored this), is out of app nudges. I know I know, lots of folks dont like nagware, but I've found that for recreational things sometimes life happens and I just forget to go back to certain decks. If it's not tied to a goal I never get back to it.

At least on Android, it definitely has this. Settings > AnkiDroid > Notify when (X number of cards due, etc.)

Nice! I wasn't aware of this (but sadly wont be able to take advantage of it).

Re: Anki as Learning Superpower: Computer Science Edition

#100

Post by josquindesprez »

farresito wrote: post #57
tmountain wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I disagree. Lots of books have quite a few "hapax legomenon", or... words that only appear once. If you're trying to build long-tail vocab, Anki will make sure you get repeated exposure to words that occur infrequently in a particular text. One might argue that these words don't matter as much since they're less common, but once you've mastered all the common vocab in a language, building a broader vocabulary becomes…

I don't disagree with you. Maybe I should have been more precise with the term 'language learning'. If you find yourself in the situation that you propose, I think you are already at native level in the target language. I'm mostly referring to those that try to go from zero to C1 or C2 with it.

My personal experience is that most people in the language learning community have trouble fitting SRS into their long term workflow because they don't stop to think much about the natural spacing of repetition they get in their other learning processes.

The people that popularize things like Anki the hardest are those that built and stuck with their own systems from the start. That's more of a referendum on their personality type than on the utility of their way of using Anki.

My hunch is that most people end up struggling because a lot of the most popular systems end up doing the exact opposite of spaced repetition once you consider the complete universe of foreign language input a learner is getting.

I've found that for me, Anki works really well for the first 1000 words, letting me jumpstart early vocab while most of my other time is spent on basic grammar.

For words 1000-5000 or 10000 in frequency, it's easy to get stuck in a trap I see a lot online: every time you encounter a new word, add it to Anki. This is a great way to burn out. You'll encounter most of these words with a natural spacing as you read native materials, if they're in the higher frequency bands. Doing reviews becomes excruciating, since you're losing the efficiency benefits of using the SRS unless you adjust review frequency based on the native input you consume (a good machine learning side project, perhaps?)

I've had a lot more success using Anki for words off in the long tail that I wouldn't otherwise have a chance to remember.

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