There have been many moments in life where I’d see something bad happen, or someone who just needed help, but not do anything about it. This would always make me feel somewhat bad about myself.
I added a card to my Anki deck which said: “If you see someone who needs help, help them”. A few months later, I witnessed a car crash (Nobody was hurt, but there was gasoline pouring onto the ground). Part of me said “keep driving, someone else will take care of it, I have things to do”, but I heard in my head: “If you see someone needs help, help them”. And without even taking a moment to debate what I’d do, I hit the brakes, pulled over, and ran to the cars. Thankfully, no-one was hurt, but I called 9-1-1 and made sure everyone involved was okay.
There have been a few other similar situations since then, and that voice that I programmed into my head has always ensured that I did what I knew was right.
Interesting idea, I will try this. I’d generally been skeptical of the worth of adding rules like that to SuperMemo and memorizing them since there’s a difference between knowing and doing but I think a lot of the ones I’ve memorized have become such a natural part of my thought process that I fail to explicitly recall them as being from a card.
I think my experience with cards like this has been of a distinct character compared to cards I use for, e.g., languages. Whereas when I’m quizzed on the meaning of a foreign word, I say the answer, then immediately move on to the next card, when I see a card which is a sentence or rule, and where the “correct” answer is already obvious, I pause for a few seconds, and reflect on what that rule means, why I added the card in the first place, and maybe think of some examples of when I’ve successfully applied the rule, or failed to act accordingly.
I think the benefit SRS provides to this framework isn’t that it helps me remember something new that I risk forgetting, but rather, it schedules timely opportunities to refect on principles I chose to live life by, and ensure that I always have the principle in the back of my mind. It elevates a saying from a platitude to something meaningful to me.
There have been many moments in life where I’d see something bad happen, or someone who just needed help, but not do anything about it. This would always make me feel somewhat bad about myself.
I added a card to my Anki deck which said: “If you see someone who needs help, help them”. A few months later, I witnessed a car crash (Nobody was hurt, but there was gasoline pouring onto the ground). Part of me said “keep driving, someone else will take care of it, I have things to do”, but I heard in my head: “If you see someone needs help, help them”. And without even taking a moment to debate what I’d do, I hit the brakes, pulled over, and ran to the cars. Thankfully, no-one was hurt, but I called 9-1-1 and made sure everyone involved was okay.
There have been a few other similar situations since then, and that voice that I programmed into my head has always ensured that I did what I knew was right.
Interesting idea, I will try this. I’d generally been skeptical of the worth of adding rules like that to SuperMemo and memorizing them since there’s a difference between knowing and doing but I think a lot of the ones I’ve memorized have become such a natural part of my thought process that I fail to explicitly recall them as being from a card.
I think my experience with cards like this has been of a distinct character compared to cards I use for, e.g., languages. Whereas when I’m quizzed on the meaning of a foreign word, I say the answer, then immediately move on to the next card, when I see a card which is a sentence or rule, and where the “correct” answer is already obvious, I pause for a few seconds, and reflect on what that rule means, why I added the card in the first place, and maybe think of some examples of when I’ve successfully applied the rule, or failed to act accordingly.
I think the benefit SRS provides to this framework isn’t that it helps me remember something new that I risk forgetting, but rather, it schedules timely opportunities to refect on principles I chose to live life by, and ensure that I always have the principle in the back of my mind. It elevates a saying from a platitude to something meaningful to me.