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Anki or at least the concept of assisted spaced repitition is one of those things I wished I had come across much, much earlier in my life. Like thirty or even

Anki or at least the concept of assisted spaced repitition is one of those things I wished I had come across much, much earlier in my life. Like thirty or even fourty years ago. I am pushing fifty now and, ah, the things I have known and forgotten! Now I wonder what’s the use of cramming my head with stuff. No teachers or mates or bosses left to impress. The main reason would be to have something to play with when I am (really) old and my senses have largely abandoned me.

Fnoord 7y ago
The older you become, the more you've forgotten. It is only natural to forget things, especially as they tend to be less or not relevant anymore. I also sometimes feel old, but I can ensure both of us: we're only old when we stop learning. Anki on a mobile phone (with only that as application) is one of the applications I envy current youth about. I really wish I had this back when I went to school, during the commute and breaks. That being said, we did use spaced repetition to learn words.
- misiti3780 7y ago
  I constantly tell everyone I know in college than if I had Anki in undergrad, I would have studied 1/4 as much and had a GPA probably close to 3.8 instead of 3.2 (EE/Math major). If I had kids, I would be trying to get them to use spaced repition as soon as it made sense
EnderViaAnsible 7y ago
As strange as it may sound, this is why I enjoy mysteries-- unexplained things-- very much. I should note that my definition of "mystery" is very broad. Many in my collection are rather mundane examples of unusual problems or unexplained data in different disciplines, many of which themselves are likely to have mundane (but currently unknown) explanations. The flyby anomaly, for instance. The neat thing about mysteries is that because there is no resolution, you can rearrange the pieces many times when thinking about it. These "pieces" naturally lend themselves to the flash card metaphor. Using Anki for them means eventually some clue that you haven't included in your current pet theory pops up again to make you rearrange the pieces. I've also used Anki for workouts: cards per exercise, spaced repetition is normal for training. It's also useful for reinforcing habits. You can also use it to teach yourself positive thinking or other mental exercises. Use the cards to record general "truths" or positive general statements about you, life, your circumstances, etc. One unique nicety of this is that it gives a fortune cookie feeling when you draw a card that is especially relevant to your current mindset, and feels more external than inventing a statement knowingly while in a poor state, which makes it feel more impactful. Really, there are so many things other than rote learning for which Anki is a neat tool!
jeffshek 7y ago
I have a theory that Anki can cut down 50% of the time to master anything. Which means at 50, you have an absurd amount of time to impress the world.
- misiti3780 7y ago
  I have that intuition also - have you ever seen any research to back it up?

Fnoord 7y ago

The older you become, the more you've forgotten. It is only natural to forget things, especially as they tend to be less or not relevant anymore. I also sometimes feel old, but I can ensure both of us: we're only old when we stop learning. Anki on a mobile phone (with only that as application) is one of the applications I envy current youth about. I really wish I had this back when I went to school, during the commute and breaks. That being said, we did use spaced repetition to learn words.

misiti3780 7y ago
I constantly tell everyone I know in college than if I had Anki in undergrad, I would have studied 1/4 as much and had a GPA probably close to 3.8 instead of 3.2 (EE/Math major). If I had kids, I would be trying to get them to use spaced repition as soon as it made sense

EnderViaAnsible 7y ago

As strange as it may sound, this is why I enjoy mysteries-- unexplained things-- very much. I should note that my definition of "mystery" is very broad. Many in my collection are rather mundane examples of unusual problems or unexplained data in different disciplines, many of which themselves are likely to have mundane (but currently unknown) explanations. The flyby anomaly, for instance. The neat thing about mysteries is that because there is no resolution, you can rearrange the pieces many times when thinking about it. These "pieces" naturally lend themselves to the flash card metaphor. Using Anki for them means eventually some clue that you haven't included in your current pet theory pops up again to make you rearrange the pieces. I've also used Anki for workouts: cards per exercise, spaced repetition is normal for training. It's also useful for reinforcing habits. You can also use it to teach yourself positive thinking or other mental exercises. Use the cards to record general "truths" or positive general statements about you, life, your circumstances, etc. One unique nicety of this is that it gives a fortune cookie feeling when you draw a card that is especially relevant to your current mindset, and feels more external than inventing a statement knowingly while in a poor state, which makes it feel more impactful. Really, there are so many things other than rote learning for which Anki is a neat tool!

jeffshek 7y ago

I have a theory that Anki can cut down 50% of the time to master anything. Which means at 50, you have an absurd amount of time to impress the world.

misiti3780 7y ago
I have that intuition also - have you ever seen any research to back it up?