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The elephant in the room that makes or breaks learning GENERALLY is encoding ability. Spaced repetition is far less effective if you don't build meaningful enco

The elephant in the room that makes or breaks learning GENERALLY is encoding ability. Spaced repetition is far less effective if you don't build meaningful encodings for knowledge you are learning. Next up is LEARNING first, then remembering. Grinding trivia is not learning. Combine elaborative encoding + self-explanation + dual coding as your core encoding triad. Use mnemonics selectively for hard-to-remember facts. Embed spaced and interleaved practice into your review schedule via tools like Anki or RemNote.

rahimnathwani 1y ago
"Next up is LEARNING first, then remembering." This is true for many things, but there are exceptions. For example, my son studied the international phonetic alphabet (IPA) using Anki, without any prior exposure. Now, when he uses a dictionary (paper or online), he can verify the pronunciation of an unfamiliar word. Another example: foreign language vocabulary. These are rote facts. There's no meaningful distinction between 'learning' a foreign word and 'remembering' that word. You cannot say you've 'learned' a word if you cannot already 'remember' it.
pessimizer 1y ago
> Next up is LEARNING first, then remembering. Grinding trivia is not learning. You haven't learned anything you can't remember, you've just heard it once. Also, this is horseshit on its face. Sometimes I just need to to remember what dots and dashes in what order mean "J," or how -ar verbs are conjugated in the progressive past. Learning things and remembering them is the same thing. Once you have the facts remembered you can abstract groups of them into parameterized functions, and abstract those parameterized functions, and test how they work in strange contexts, etc. But these are all rewards you get for remembering things. On the other hand, I see no benefit in thing that I "learned" yesterday that I don't remember today. edit: I agree 100% with the prescription, though. But creating lots of spurious associations around pieces of data you want to remember is a temporary measure until you can make more real and useful associations. The process of creating real and useful associations between new information and old knowledge is what I'm referring to when I say "learning." It happens whether you want it to or not. It's a product of the sheer amount of repetition times the salience of the new fact to old knowledge. [edit: although number of sleeps seems to have an effect.]

rahimnathwani 1y ago

"Next up is LEARNING first, then remembering." This is true for many things, but there are exceptions. For example, my son studied the international phonetic alphabet (IPA) using Anki, without any prior exposure. Now, when he uses a dictionary (paper or online), he can verify the pronunciation of an unfamiliar word. Another example: foreign language vocabulary. These are rote facts. There's no meaningful distinction between 'learning' a foreign word and 'remembering' that word. You cannot say you've 'learned' a word if you cannot already 'remember' it.

pessimizer 1y ago

> Next up is LEARNING first, then remembering. Grinding trivia is not learning. You haven't learned anything you can't remember, you've just heard it once. Also, this is horseshit on its face. Sometimes I just need to to remember what dots and dashes in what order mean "J," or how -ar verbs are conjugated in the progressive past. Learning things and remembering them is the same thing. Once you have the facts remembered you can abstract groups of them into parameterized functions, and abstract those parameterized functions, and test how they work in strange contexts, etc. But these are all rewards you get for remembering things. On the other hand, I see no benefit in thing that I "learned" yesterday that I don't remember today. edit: I agree 100% with the prescription, though. But creating lots of spurious associations around pieces of data you want to remember is a temporary measure until you can make more real and useful associations. The process of creating real and useful associations between new information and old knowledge is what I'm referring to when I say "learning." It happens whether you want it to or not. It's a product of the sheer amount of repetition times the salience of the new fact to old knowledge. [edit: although number of sleeps seems to have an effect.]