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by ramblerman 1073 days ago
A daily anki habit. The habit to check my cards, but also to add new ones. It's perhaps not a skill exactly, but it feels like a superpower nonetheless.

I started creating flashcards when I began studying spanish for my wife. --- a very common introduction to flashcards is via language learning.

But these days I put anything into a card that I feel is useful. It could be an actual event (like recently) with the russian attempted putsch. I might create a card like:

----

On {{c1::June 2023}}, {{c2::Yevgeny Prigozhin}} the leader of {{c3::Wagner}} group staged a rebellion by marching his troups towards Moscow after taking {{c4::Rostov-on-don}}.

Within hours a treaty was brokered by {{c5::Belarus}} president {{c6::Alexander Lukashenko}}

----

these facts are all salient after reading about such an important event, in the moment. But now when I talk about this event years from now, it will spring to mind. I will also be forced to think about it from time to time, and remember the crazy (big) things that happened.

I'll also use flashcards these days to study a new API, or learn a domain model in a new company.

Important is to prune and actively delete cards that no longer make sense. So I suppose the skill is realizing how to use anki. It is a bit of a living entity.

It's a habit/skill I've honed for over 10 years now.

Some recommended reading for those wanting to add flashcards into their lives.

1. https://cognitivemedium.com/srs-mathematics

2. http://augmentingcognition.com/ltm.html

3. https://andymatuschak.org/prompts/

4. https://www.supermemo.com/en/blog/twenty-rules-of-formulatin...

1 comments

I wish I was better about this. I still use anki for my online masters program classes, but as soon as the class is over I stop and forget about +80% of what I had learned.

Out of curiosity how many cards are you re/viewing per day?

About 60 per day.

If you are serious about anki and start developing a big library I would recommend as well using: https://github.com/open-spaced-repetition/fsrs4anki/tree/mai...

It's a scheduler that's pretty well thought out, and can spread your reviews so they are a bit more balanced.

But as I mentioned (and I think this is where the skill comes in) I prune my cards every day. I'm not afraid to delete cards, I think it's crucial, interests change, circumstances change. So just drop what now seems superfluous.