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Flash card may be good for memorizing lots of stuff in a short time, but I find using flash card is incredibly boring. If we manage to learn things in long term

Flash card may be good for memorizing lots of stuff in a short time, but I find using flash card is incredibly boring. If we manage to learn things in long term, and we always should, there's always a more fun, more effective, and more efficient way to remember than paced reminder with flash card. For instance, - A new language: Comprehensive Input. Basically immersive studying with tons of reading, watching, and interaction. Given youtube and streaming services and low-cost online tutoring, immersive studying is so affordable now. Language is all about the right intuition in the right context, which flash card can't offer any way. - STEM. This is an easy one. God forbid one should rely on flash card to memorize any STEM topic. STEM is all about intuition and understanding why and making connections. Solving problems, real or designed, is the most effective way. - History and etc. Reading novels and biographies to learn a great deal of historical context, reading engaging books written by scholars to get accessible yet rigorous treatment of a specific topic. Anecdotally, I find alternative-history novels particularly engaging

dvfjsdhgfv 3y ago
Yeah I agree. Apart from very specific situations like learning for tests[0] flashcards are not the optimal method. [0] And even then I'd risk saying that you can probably get better results creating a personalized ChatGPT-4 tutoring/examination session on any topic except arithmetic/anything involving computation.
- hintymad 3y ago
  Yeah, even for a test that I need to cram, I’d use Feynman’s method, focus on core concepts, plus solve representative problem sets
offices 3y ago
>Language is all about the right intuition in the right context Huh? How about the tens of thousands of words you need to be able to recall and recognise in both directions in text and speech? You can't reason past irregular verbs and inconsistent rules about gender. If you're learning a language like Chinese, you need to memorise the characters. If you're learning a romance language, you need to memorise the conjugation and genders. Immersion doesn't replace dedicated study. The words that appear the least - which you're most likely to miss - are the ones with the highest entropy.
- hintymad 3y ago
  I agree with you that one needs dedicated study. I just don’t think Anki card is necessary — it’s great if it works for you, of course. The repetition comes from tons of reading, writing, and listening, and speaking, all intense and dedicated. Essentially, I’m advocating learning like natives. There is an interesting contrast too: Chinese schools used to teach Chinese kids English with an emphasis on mechanical repetition: grammars, memorizing words with Anki-like mechanisms, and etc. The result? Generations of students knew no more than 4000 words after 10 years of learning English, let alone writing or speaking fluently. In the past 20 years or so, though, their elite schools changed course, trying to teach their kids English like teaching them Chinese. The result has been astonishing. For the first time, a generation of Chinese students in even elementary school can use English fluently. I’m also speaking from my own experience: I’m fluent in English, Chinese. Can read novels like Project Hail Mary in Spanish, and N3 in Japanese. I can attest that remembering words has never been a problem with intensive reading. The repetition in reading is just so contextual, natural, and more frequent than using Anki card. Listening and speaking can be a problem precisely because I don’t do them often enough.

dvfjsdhgfv 3y ago

Yeah I agree. Apart from very specific situations like learning for tests[0] flashcards are not the optimal method. [0] And even then I'd risk saying that you can probably get better results creating a personalized ChatGPT-4 tutoring/examination session on any topic except arithmetic/anything involving computation.

hintymad 3y ago
Yeah, even for a test that I need to cram, I’d use Feynman’s method, focus on core concepts, plus solve representative problem sets

offices 3y ago

>Language is all about the right intuition in the right context Huh? How about the tens of thousands of words you need to be able to recall and recognise in both directions in text and speech? You can't reason past irregular verbs and inconsistent rules about gender. If you're learning a language like Chinese, you need to memorise the characters. If you're learning a romance language, you need to memorise the conjugation and genders. Immersion doesn't replace dedicated study. The words that appear the least - which you're most likely to miss - are the ones with the highest entropy.

hintymad 3y ago
I agree with you that one needs dedicated study. I just don’t think Anki card is necessary — it’s great if it works for you, of course. The repetition comes from tons of reading, writing, and listening, and speaking, all intense and dedicated. Essentially, I’m advocating learning like natives. There is an interesting contrast too: Chinese schools used to teach Chinese kids English with an emphasis on mechanical repetition: grammars, memorizing words with Anki-like mechanisms, and etc. The result? Generations of students knew no more than 4000 words after 10 years of learning English, let alone writing or speaking fluently. In the past 20 years or so, though, their elite schools changed course, trying to teach their kids English like teaching them Chinese. The result has been astonishing. For the first time, a generation of Chinese students in even elementary school can use English fluently. I’m also speaking from my own experience: I’m fluent in English, Chinese. Can read novels like Project Hail Mary in Spanish, and N3 in Japanese. I can attest that remembering words has never been a problem with intensive reading. The repetition in reading is just so contextual, natural, and more frequent than using Anki card. Listening and speaking can be a problem precisely because I don’t do them often enough.