1. The best card-creation practice is to divide these itemized lists into separate cards. So ideally, you shouldn't have 5 items on one card anyway. 2. Dates a

1. The best card-creation practice is to divide these itemized lists into separate cards. So ideally, you shouldn't have 5 items on one card anyway. 2. Dates are pretty important to know, so I'm not sure what the issue is here. 3. With language learning, there is no reason why you need to make cards word-word. Personally I use image-word much more often, which correlates more to how we learn our first language. It happens often that you can remember things when doing Anki, while being at a loss when needing the information in the real world. I haven't had that experience at all. But if you have, there is a simple fix: create cards that mimic the situation you'd use the phrase in. For example, have the phrase "a cappuccino, please" matched with a photo of a barista in a coffee shop. Anki does nothing for conceptual understanding. You really need to learn a subject before memorizing it, but in the learning phase Anki is not helpful. I also don't agree with this. Learning the "foundational" aspects of something is critique for understanding it conceptually. For example, knowing the boring geographical details of European borders circa 1900 is key to understanding the subsequent 45 years of geopolitical conflicts. In general, I think most of the critiques of Anki/spaced repetition/flashcards are mostly just critiques of the "typical" way people make cards and use the apps. If you get a little more creative with creating cards, most of these issues go away. That all said, I do agree that Anki is definitely not perfect and could be improved – but more in the sense of making better-designed cards and better practices the default, not something you have to implement manually yourself.