I’ve tried multiple times to develop an Anki habit and failed every time. Probably mainly because I tried too much at once. But it’s very frustrating. One of the big issues is that I don’t know how to prioritize what I need to memorize versus what I don’t. When I read a book with the flashcard mindset I want to memorize everything. And obviously that’s absurd.
I think people who want to learn efficiently (learning what you need in less time) in relation to their specific goal, they should watch the following videos (all by the same guy):
Flashcards are good as one tool in the belt, but too many students become dependent on them and cripple their ability to learn things more deeply in less time.
Flashcards in general should be reserved for things that do require memorization, but a lot less things do than some think if you just properly encode things in the first place. Flashcards focus more on memorization of isolated facts rather than understanding things more relationally (which is more efficient for encoding).
I mostly reserve flashcards for remembering some code syntax (because it’s useful for coding interviews) and some specific facts I can’t remember after 3 normal active recall revisions. When I do them, I usually just set a rule like “do 3 flashcards every bathroom break” or when waiting in line. I rarely sit down and do a whole bunch.
I’ve tried multiple times to develop an Anki habit and failed every time. Probably mainly because I tried too much at once. But it’s very frustrating. One of the big issues is that I don’t know how to prioritize what I need to memorize versus what I don’t. When I read a book with the flashcard mindset I want to memorize everything. And obviously that’s absurd.
It’s a common thing that people who want to learn efficiently come across. I cover some of my thoughts on efficient learning in this shortform thread: https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/jXjeYYPXipAtA2zmj/jacquesthibs-s-shortform?commentId=hQmoiHnf4q8z8H59r.
I think people who want to learn efficiently (learning what you need in less time) in relation to their specific goal, they should watch the following videos (all by the same guy):
https://youtu.be/uhUq72eTdiU
https://youtu.be/q7lY-FytO3U
https://youtu.be/ckPVBw_CBJk
https://youtu.be/KuI_eD1VbqU
TLDR:
Flashcards are good as one tool in the belt, but too many students become dependent on them and cripple their ability to learn things more deeply in less time.
Flashcards in general should be reserved for things that do require memorization, but a lot less things do than some think if you just properly encode things in the first place. Flashcards focus more on memorization of isolated facts rather than understanding things more relationally (which is more efficient for encoding).
I mostly reserve flashcards for remembering some code syntax (because it’s useful for coding interviews) and some specific facts I can’t remember after 3 normal active recall revisions. When I do them, I usually just set a rule like “do 3 flashcards every bathroom break” or when waiting in line. I rarely sit down and do a whole bunch.