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I haven't used it/had no idea about it until reading this post, but here's my attempt. You aren't stupid, it's just that the genre of projects (spaced-repetiti
by caslon 5y ago
I haven't used it/had no idea about it until reading this post, but here's my attempt.
You aren't stupid, it's just that the genre of projects (spaced-repetition systems) Orbit is in is pretty niche.
It mentions that it more or less wants to be a more generalized version of Anki. Anki is basically an application that goes, "Hey. Here are some flashcards you haven't seen in a while. Do you still know the answers?" The specific timing of these depends on how many times you've gotten them right in the past, with the aim of getting the information into your long-term memory.
Anki is incredibly useful for memorization. However, because of how limited it is, it's only really gained popularity in the medical student space and the language-learning community. It's not really extensible beyond what you'd expect from flashcards that you can embed video in.
What Orbit seems to claim to do is have a very extensible system for spaced-repetition, so that the underlying principles can be used for a wider array of things. However, it doesn't appear to be aiming for mass uptake; rather, it's mostly a research vessel to gain an understanding of the problem domain.
- anotha1 5y agoI'm really stupid and/or lack the attention for this, but thank you for trying!
- redrobein 5y ago> because of how limited it is... What is so limiting about Anki? Anki cards are also fully javascript capable, and anything you can't achieve with just js you can do with their python addon api. From what I've seen the only use case Orbit serves that Anki doesn't is the ability to embed cards on your own pages.
- jkhdigital 5y agoI don’t think it’s the tool itself, rather the technique. I used SRS to learn kanji and it was nothing short of miraculous. I also used it to study extremely efficiently for well-defined examinations (e.g. proficiency exams for some basic college courses). However, I’ve also tried SRS on other subjects with less success. One challenge is that in many knowledge domains, it’s not entirely clear what is worth remembering. Sure, you can purge cards that turn out to be unimportant, but the process of creating the cards in the first place can be awfully time-consuming so it starts to feel less efficient.