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Hey HN - a little background, which might be interesting to some. I went through YC twice, the second time with a company called EveryArt. After working on that

Hey HN - a little background, which might be interesting to some. I went through YC twice, the second time with a company called EveryArt. After working on that for two years as a solo founder, I decided to close it down. I moved from San Francisco to Istanbul and started a niche business (actually, just renamed EveryArt, Inc. in fairness to investors) that has done well enough to support me. I started teaching myself objective C in January to eventually build CleverDeck, which was motivated out of dissatisfaction with the available spaced repetition apps available (Anki, Memrise, etc.) I'll be hanging around if you have any questions. Thanks!

lordlarm 12y ago
What especially were you dissatisfied with using Anki and Memrise? And how do CleverDeck do them better?
- jmcannon 12y ago
  There's a lot to talk about, much of which I wrote about in detail here: http://cleverdeck.com/blog http://cleverdeck.com/blog But to name the big two: 1. I just wanted something I could pull out of my pocket and tell me what to learn. Of course I want to be able to customize it (and you can in CleverDeck), but I found myself spending so much time in the others creating and managing different lists. With CleverDeck, the app is the list. If I don't have time to add words that I'm encountering in the wild, then the app will pull from a default ordering that's sorted by "usefulness." 2. I didn't really like the user experience of others. Too many confidence levels led to cognitive fatigue; I had to tap through menus to find which lists had which number of cards I needed to review. With this, just open it and swipe. It just tells me when cards come up for me to review, and automatically presents 10 new cards the next day (or whatever I have the setting adjusted to).
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
- beering 12y ago
  It seems like a slicker UI specifically for language learning, as well as "curated" decks for each language. I doubt anyone can replicate everything that Anki can do, but there's probably some gains to be had by cutting out complexity.
  - qznc 12y ago
    I use Anki for everything except language learning. It helps me remember books I've read, people, certain numbers, facts, etc. I am really grateful for a lot of the complex features Anki has.
- jurassic 12y ago
  My main beef with Anki is the developer's unwillingness to open up the API. Card creation is currently a pretty unpleasant experience, but I can't currently build a browser extension without doing a lot of hacky bullshit because the the developer won't expose any public endpoints.
  - Blahah 12y ago
    AnkiMobile developer here. Are you referring to the mobile app or the desktop app? Because the desktop has API endpoints you can hook into with extensions [0]. If you're talking about the mobile app, I believe we originally decided not to provide an extension API because Apple forbids it. [0]: http://ankisrs.net/docs/addons.html http://ankisrs.net/docs/addons.html
    - jurassic 12y ago
      I am talking about a REST API that hooks into your AnkiWeb infrastructure. I believe I asked about this in one of the google groups and was told you aren't interested in doing that because of the additional load it could put on the service. I would love to put together something like the Evernote webclipper for creating cards right here in the browser without doing this awkward alt+tab+click+click+click+etc dance to create cards on the desktop client. I admire the work you and others have done on Anki and its extensions, but if I'm going to use Anki as my primary learning tool it needs to be delightful and effortless to create/delete cards as needed.
      - Blahah 12y ago
        Ah OK, in that case I can see both sides. From Damien's perspective, AnkiWeb is a free service, so development/support time and server load have to be considered for any new feature. From the user perspective, web clipping tools would be really nice. Is there anything to prevent interacting between the desktop app API and a web clipping browser plugin, in the same way that the Zotero connector plugin does with the Zotero app API for example?
  - metaleks 12y ago
gwintrob 12y ago
CleverDeck looks great and I've been looking for something to use alongside Duolingo. Do you have plans to expand from vocab to grammar? Duolingo can be too flexible and I'd love some more rigorous lessons on conjugation, etc.
- jmcannon 12y ago
  Thanks! Right now, we just want to make the best piece of technology possible for learning thousands of words. I don't think grammar is learned very well through flashcards (though, every word does have an example sentence, so you could pick up on some through pattern recognition). But, for sure, CleverDeck is just one tool in a language learner's toolbox. I have DuoLingo on my phone. It's great. But not ideal for learning tons of vocab.
  - gwintrob 12y ago
    Awesome. Please add German!
    - louthy 12y ago
      Yes, German would be great!
      - jalanb 12y ago
        Für mich auch!
joshdance 12y ago
What was your niche business? How expensive is Istanbul to live in?
- jmcannon 12y ago
  I'm a Turkish teacher! I make podcasts to help people learn Turkish. Supplemental material costs a monthly subscription. It's here: http://turkishteatime.com http://turkishteatime.com Istanbul doesn't generally feel much cheaper than San Francisco, except for rent. I pay $500 to live in a gorgeous apartment with a sea view in downtown Istanbul. That has really added up over time.
  - will_lam 12y ago
    Wow, that would be a great case study over at bootstrappers.io ... Would love to read about your bootstrapping / lifestyle business experiences.
    - akbar501 12y ago
      Absolutely. As another story to back this up, I moved to India when I was bootstrapping my first business. I got down to $2/day for food, and found free rent. This low personal burn rate massively extended the amount of runway available. Of course, Bangalore is no longer low cost, but there are plenty of places that still are.
  - jczhang 12y ago
    "Except for rent." I LOL'd.
  - gerhardi 12y ago
    Off topic: I recall talking about this last year and I believe we have met quite randomly over some beers when I was travelling in Istanbul in July 2013! Good luck for your business!
  - brusch64 12y ago
    Isn't the cost of living there (eating) cheaper than in San Francisco ? I am from Austria (Western Europe) and have been in Istanbul some weeks ago. If you are not going to eat at tourist traps I had the feeling that eating was cheaper than in Austria. Buying clothes and shoes was cheaper than in Austria too - so I guess the cost of living there is less than in Austria. Beer and alcohol is / can be pretty expensive - but other than that I thoughts it is pretty cheap there (as a tourist)
will_lam 12y ago
I find the Anki software to be perfect for my purposes of spaced repetition learning. I've invested a lot of time in creating my decks. Because I don't want to recreate those decks again, is there anyway to import those decks I've already created onto CleverDeck?
- jmcannon 12y ago
  Not right now - I'm sorry. If Anki is perfect for you and you've made all your decks, that's great! Keep using it! If you ever decide to learn another language, we'll be here with a bunch of content ready for you :)

lordlarm 12y ago

What especially were you dissatisfied with using Anki and Memrise? And how do CleverDeck do them better?

jmcannon 12y ago
There's a lot to talk about, much of which I wrote about in detail here: http://cleverdeck.com/blog http://cleverdeck.com/blog But to name the big two: 1. I just wanted something I could pull out of my pocket and tell me what to learn. Of course I want to be able to customize it (and you can in CleverDeck), but I found myself spending so much time in the others creating and managing different lists. With CleverDeck, the app is the list. If I don't have time to add words that I'm encountering in the wild, then the app will pull from a default ordering that's sorted by "usefulness." 2. I didn't really like the user experience of others. Too many confidence levels led to cognitive fatigue; I had to tap through menus to find which lists had which number of cards I needed to review. With this, just open it and swipe. It just tells me when cards come up for me to review, and automatically presents 10 new cards the next day (or whatever I have the setting adjusted to).
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
beering 12y ago
It seems like a slicker UI specifically for language learning, as well as "curated" decks for each language. I doubt anyone can replicate everything that Anki can do, but there's probably some gains to be had by cutting out complexity.
- qznc 12y ago
  I use Anki for everything except language learning. It helps me remember books I've read, people, certain numbers, facts, etc. I am really grateful for a lot of the complex features Anki has.
jurassic 12y ago
My main beef with Anki is the developer's unwillingness to open up the API. Card creation is currently a pretty unpleasant experience, but I can't currently build a browser extension without doing a lot of hacky bullshit because the the developer won't expose any public endpoints.
- Blahah 12y ago
  AnkiMobile developer here. Are you referring to the mobile app or the desktop app? Because the desktop has API endpoints you can hook into with extensions [0]. If you're talking about the mobile app, I believe we originally decided not to provide an extension API because Apple forbids it. [0]: http://ankisrs.net/docs/addons.html http://ankisrs.net/docs/addons.html
  - jurassic 12y ago
    I am talking about a REST API that hooks into your AnkiWeb infrastructure. I believe I asked about this in one of the google groups and was told you aren't interested in doing that because of the additional load it could put on the service. I would love to put together something like the Evernote webclipper for creating cards right here in the browser without doing this awkward alt+tab+click+click+click+etc dance to create cards on the desktop client. I admire the work you and others have done on Anki and its extensions, but if I'm going to use Anki as my primary learning tool it needs to be delightful and effortless to create/delete cards as needed.
    - Blahah 12y ago
      Ah OK, in that case I can see both sides. From Damien's perspective, AnkiWeb is a free service, so development/support time and server load have to be considered for any new feature. From the user perspective, web clipping tools would be really nice. Is there anything to prevent interacting between the desktop app API and a web clipping browser plugin, in the same way that the Zotero connector plugin does with the Zotero app API for example?
- metaleks 12y ago

gwintrob 12y ago

CleverDeck looks great and I've been looking for something to use alongside Duolingo. Do you have plans to expand from vocab to grammar? Duolingo can be too flexible and I'd love some more rigorous lessons on conjugation, etc.

jmcannon 12y ago
Thanks! Right now, we just want to make the best piece of technology possible for learning thousands of words. I don't think grammar is learned very well through flashcards (though, every word does have an example sentence, so you could pick up on some through pattern recognition). But, for sure, CleverDeck is just one tool in a language learner's toolbox. I have DuoLingo on my phone. It's great. But not ideal for learning tons of vocab.
- gwintrob 12y ago
  Awesome. Please add German!
  - louthy 12y ago
    Yes, German would be great!
    - jalanb 12y ago
      Für mich auch!

joshdance 12y ago

What was your niche business? How expensive is Istanbul to live in?

jmcannon 12y ago
I'm a Turkish teacher! I make podcasts to help people learn Turkish. Supplemental material costs a monthly subscription. It's here: http://turkishteatime.com http://turkishteatime.com Istanbul doesn't generally feel much cheaper than San Francisco, except for rent. I pay $500 to live in a gorgeous apartment with a sea view in downtown Istanbul. That has really added up over time.
- will_lam 12y ago
  Wow, that would be a great case study over at bootstrappers.io ... Would love to read about your bootstrapping / lifestyle business experiences.
  - akbar501 12y ago
    Absolutely. As another story to back this up, I moved to India when I was bootstrapping my first business. I got down to $2/day for food, and found free rent. This low personal burn rate massively extended the amount of runway available. Of course, Bangalore is no longer low cost, but there are plenty of places that still are.
- jczhang 12y ago
  "Except for rent." I LOL'd.
- gerhardi 12y ago
  Off topic: I recall talking about this last year and I believe we have met quite randomly over some beers when I was travelling in Istanbul in July 2013! Good luck for your business!
- brusch64 12y ago
  Isn't the cost of living there (eating) cheaper than in San Francisco ? I am from Austria (Western Europe) and have been in Istanbul some weeks ago. If you are not going to eat at tourist traps I had the feeling that eating was cheaper than in Austria. Buying clothes and shoes was cheaper than in Austria too - so I guess the cost of living there is less than in Austria. Beer and alcohol is / can be pretty expensive - but other than that I thoughts it is pretty cheap there (as a tourist)

will_lam 12y ago

I find the Anki software to be perfect for my purposes of spaced repetition learning. I've invested a lot of time in creating my decks. Because I don't want to recreate those decks again, is there anyway to import those decks I've already created onto CleverDeck?

jmcannon 12y ago
Not right now - I'm sorry. If Anki is perfect for you and you've made all your decks, that's great! Keep using it! If you ever decide to learn another language, we'll be here with a bunch of content ready for you :)