[lb4r]

For note-taking specifically, I've tried everything from plain old pen and paper to more modern solutions like Evernote and emacs (if you can call that modern), but nothing I've come across really beats Anki.

Although its main selling point is as a program for flashcards with spaced repetition, it comes with pretty much all the features of a good note-taking app, like tags, easy to organize, synchronization across devices (you can set up your own server), good interface for searching through your notes (which are stored in an Sqlite db if that matters), and yes, LaTeX. Not only that, it's also highly extendable with third-party plugins, so if there are features that you miss chances are there's a plugin for it. In other words, you can use it perfectly fine just taking notes. However, where it really shines is in all of this in combination the spaced repetition algorithm, which is now on steroids with FSRS[1][2]. The downside is that for this to be effective for the things you want to memorize, you'll have to write your notes to be suitable for a flashcard, but if you do it consistently you'll soon notice that you can store most of your notes in your head. Needless to say, any student would benefit greatly from this. Now, if that's too much work, you can still just use the scheduling to have it remind you of your notes. Either way, even as someone who sometimes goes out of his way to shoehorn everything into Emacs, I can't see a reason not to use anki for note-taking.

Edit: I should probably mention that I primarily use Anki on my desktop. The smartphone app might not be as good, though I wouldn't know because I haven't given it a good try yet.

[1]https://github.com/open-spaced-repetition/fsrs4anki/blob/mai...

[2]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqRLqVRyIzc

[hiAndrewQuinn]

I use Anki the exact same way. After a lifetime of learning I have accepted that I will never read over anything I write for myself voluntarily - so my two options are:

1. Write an article so good I can publish it and look it over myself later on online. I did this last year with https://andrew-quinn.me/fzf/, for example.

2. Create Anki cards out of the material. Use the builtin Card Browser or even https://datasette.io/ on the underlying SQLite database in a pinch to search for my notes any time I have to.

[tiny_sal]

If your interested, I’m creating a free Anki clone with a focus on code snippets and LaTeX support: https://pohtia.com

I find Anki’s UI so clunky for technical notes!

[adius]

That looks really nice! However, for me a flashcard app is one of the apps where I don't want to use commercial offerings if the source code isn't available as well. It involves just too much set up time to have it vanish one day.

[tiny_sal]

Thank you!

I totally agree with the idea of having it all vanish. I’m still building it out, but I’m working towards an ‘eject button’ where you can download all of your notes into a CSV and get out of dodge if you choose!

[alwayslikethis]

This won't really help. The point of an SRS is the scheduling information. Even then, you may not have a compatible system to make use of the scheduling info. The switching cost is immense, and I would personally need an ironclad guarantee that the tool cannot be taken from me, such as by having the source code. Never going to be using a non-self hosted SaaS for this, sorry. There is a lot to dislike about Anki but the good thing is it will be only taken from my cold dead hands.

[hiAndrewQuinn]

I'll give it a test run :) I probably will not be a convert, but I love seeing people spin up new SRSes. It's a surprisingly vast design space, and Anki is pretty maximalist within it.

Pohtia also means to ponder in Finnish, not just Norwegian, fun fact!

[tiny_sal]

Oops! Hahaha!

And thank you for the encouragement!

[tiny_sal]

* you're

[ngcc_hk]

Very surprising… never thought this this way. How can you guy even thought of this. Using anki for language learning and latex, vim … how can this even occur to your mind … really wonder.

[hiAndrewQuinn]

I actually did use Anki for Vim, lol. I started by putting the tips in Practical Vim in, then a few easy Vim Golf questions to remember how to do some advanced maneuvers.

[rsanek]

I use this approach also and it has served me well now for many years. What I really like is that you can break out of the classic 'flashcards' mindset and don't even necessarily need to have it 'test' you for anything all that difficult. Often times, I want the note to mostly capture my thinking and be available for later reference, so I cloze out a simple word that I'll always recall. Then it's not hard to go through during my reviews, and even if I don't remember exactly what it said without prompting, I'll know I can find the note with a quick search.

[abdullahkhalids]

I have never heard of Anki used for live notes in class. I find that surprising because Anki cards are said to be good if you use them to capture quanta of understanding. While you can make cards on whatever facts or understanding statements made explicitly in class, I find it hard to believe that you would be able to create those novel long range understanding cards during class.

And you can't create those cards for existing cards. You need more comprehensive notes (like your class notes) to create those cards.

[lervag]

I use both Vim (with wiki.vim, a plugin I've made based on Vimwiki) and Anki. I find the combination is very powerful!

I keep a journal for work related stuff and a wiki/personal knowledge base for everything (both work and personal). I use Anki to memorize things I believe may be useful to have readily available and I use my wiki as an extended "long-term memory", sort of.

[scrapcode]

I'm interested in learning this workflow... are there any YT examples that you know of? I just can't see how it would work in my head. Are you using the "Add" screen to constantly add cards using hotkeys?

[lb4r]

My workflow will probably seem a bit clunky since I try to make the notes as good as possible. That can mean spending anywhere from 10 seconds to 3 minutes writing a note if I intend to memorize it. And yes, this is all through the "Add" screen.

Obviously, if you're in class, you can't really spend that long on a single note. So in class I would usually just take notes (in Anki) without thinking about it too much, then rewrite them when I got home.

When browsing the web, I'll usually take screenshots (not bookmarks! though there are benefits to those too) when I see something interesting if I don't feel like putting it into Anki immediately. Then once or twice a week I'll go through my screenshots folder and either make proper flashcards or one-sided notes (which sometimes just means dragging the screenshot to the add window and pressing "add") of the stuff in there.

When watching a tutorial, I'll pause often and take my time writing notes if I feel like it's important. Otherwise I'll just take screenshots and decide later what I'll do with it, like above.

When it comes to tags, I'm hesitant to recommend the following because it's probably not "objectively" the best practice, but I organize my notes mainly by decks, and I don't bother at all with tagging them. I just found that it was too much of a hassle having to tag every card with multiple tags.

The key is really about finding joy in making the cards. I agree that the "Add" window isn't the most joyful experience, but I can live with it. Oh and I'll sometimes play around with stable diffusion to generate images to help me remember some of the stuff. Of course this will make creating cards take even longer, but it certainly adds to the fun!

The pitfall to watch out for with Anki is that it can become very time-consuming and feel like a burden when you have too many reviews. This might be something everyone has to figure out for themselves by trial and error, but if you're just using it to take notes without trying to memorize them, it's not something to worry about.

While I don't know of any Youtube videos dealing with this very specific thing, I think The Anking[1] has some of the higher-quality videos when it comes to Anki in general.

Either way, I'd love to hear about other people's workflows.

[1]https://www.youtube.com/@AnKingMed/videos

[lying4fun]

I’m speculating there could be a more ergonomic workflow combining the vim-latex flow from op and this comment(and the reply). I know you can import anki decks like a .txt(?)(or similar), so I’m imaginig a ‘flow where you live write notes in the ~.txt file and later just import it to anki. It might be a hassle to set it up all but seems way better than using the Add interface, and also I prefer latex over screenshots (but I get that ss is just more convenient for some situations)

[ar_lan]

I love Anki, but my main gripe is the UI is just so bad. That said I truly believe I would not have graduated from college without it, and I'm forever grateful.