[Smaug123]

I'm afraid I feel this is kind of missing the point. I assert that you will spend the time coming up with how to remember a thing; the question is whether you choose to do that at card construction time (easiest, because you've got all the context available to you of the thing you're trying to remember), or ad-hoc during review time.

Creating a card is not just writing down some text (or, worse, copy-and-pasting it so that you remove all your agency entirely); rather, it's focusing a spotlight on a specific small aspect of your enormous mental model, determining how you can remember that particular aspect, and then writing down a card that will trigger you to illuminate that same spotlight in the future. Reviewing a card is not just dredging some detail from your memory; rather, it's remembering the reason you remember that card, and then re-activating the spotlight.

Writing and reviewing flashcards is a much more active process than many people think, and I am very wary of anything that purports to remove some of that activity, because the activity is what helps you remember!

[deagler]

You're completely right. Having an understanding of the topic is important. In fact it's stressed on our "Making flashcards" guide: https://zorbi.cards/making-good-flashcards

It's mostly the convenience of always having the ability to create a spaced-repetition flashcard there in your browser.

Our primary use cases are studying for exams and language learning. Hopefully that sheds some more light on how the Chrome extension / Notion integration are used.

[Al-Khwarizmi]

I guess it depends on how you use the system. I know you learn more if you make your own flashcards carefully, but sometimes the perfect is the enemy of the good. I am using Anki to learn Chinese vocabulary with a huge preconstructed deck that I downloaded, I've been doing this slow but steady for over two years, and it's working wonderfully, at least IMHO.

Of course it's hard to know whether other alternatives could have worked even better, but this way I devote 30 minutes a day which can be on the bus, in bed, etc. and make progress. If I had to spend the time and involvement of making the cards myself (which requires not only more time, but in practice a more dedicated setting with a PC and keyboard, etc., as I'm not going to make flashcards with my phone on the bus even if it's technically possible) I would probably have quit a long time ago.

So work on making the creation of flashcards easier seems like something that could be of interest at least to some people.

[ThouYS]

This! Writing your flashcard makes you think the subject through, and sometimes you need to try a few times until you get a good flashcard. This is the learning experience, the rest is just preventing you from forgetting it.