[danial]

I only record facts that I read in non-fiction (the mark-as-Q method from the article). I highlight them in Kindle while reading ebooks. I then transfer them into Anki flashcards after I'm done reading it.

I don't highlight analysis and commentary. I don't highlight how the author reached a certain conclusion, just the end result.

Some examples of what I am highlighting while reading On Intelligence by Jeff Hawkins:

"This is the neocortex, a thin sheet of neural tissue that envelops most of the older parts of the brain."

"the neocortex is about 2 millimeters thick and has six layers,"

"Stretched flat, the human neocortical sheet is roughly the size of a large dinner napkin. The cortical sheets of other mammals are smaller: the rat’s is the size of a postage stamp; the monkey’s is about the size of a business-letter envelope."

I wish there was a good way to transfer these highlights from my Kindle into Anki flashcards automatically (if someone knows a way to do this, I'm happy to hear from you). It feels like a chore right now, so I often forget to do it.

[emilga]

Just a suggestion:

If you download Kindle Mate (kmate.me), you can import your Kindle highlights to your PC and export them as a text file. Then you could make a script that parses this file line by line and saves it as a csv-file. Then use Anki csv-import.

EDIT: fixed the link.

[danial]

Thanks for the tip. Unfortunately, kmate.me is PC only and I'm on a mac.

[repsak]

I don't own a kindle but it looks like it's possible to download your highlights.

You could then bulk import them, possibly after some minor formatting manually or with a script

https://apps.ankiweb.net/docs/manual.html#importing-text-fil...

You would still have to go trough them and add cloze delitions.

If it's possible to add notes to your highlights you might be able to specify delitions there and then parse them.

I might actually do this myself for fun :)

[danial]

That's right. Adding to Anki is more straightforward than downloading from Kindle.

There are two ways to download my Kindle highlights. Either I can scrape it from read.amazon.com, or I can mount the device as a usb disk and parse the notes file from there. Neither is ideal for set-and-forget automation.

Keep me posted on your progress if you decide to tackle this problem.

[wst_]

> I wish there was a good way to transfer these highlights from my Kindle into Anki flashcards automatically

Wouldn't the result be actually opposite from anticipated? It's exactly writing about the stuff by yourself a way for remembering it. It won't stick if you just automate the process. Or rather it will, for long enough to deceive you into thinking you know it, but you'd probably forget it after a while anyway. Writing anything by yourself, or ideally handwriting, makes it stick. At least it works for me. I spoke with some friends of mine and this system seems to work for them, either.

[danial]

That's a good point. I'm not sure because I haven't been doing it regularly enough because of the friction of adding cards into the system.

I do want to note that once the cards are added to Anki, it will force you to review the card at the right times automatically to keep retention high. This is assuming you have a system that forces you to review Anki content daily. I am not sure how big of a difference it will make to keep retention high if you're not adding cards manually.