Anki: yay or nay?
Instead of killing this collection maybe it’s a good exercise to develop my critical reasoning by finding arguments against using Anki and/or SRS for long-term memory retention, and anything else, if any.
It's tempting instead to use Anki to stockpile knowledge against some future day, to think “Oh, I should learn about the geography of Africa, or learn about World War II, or [...]”. These are goals which, for me, are intellectually appealing, but which I'm not emotionally invested in. I've tried this a bunch of times. It tends to generate cold and... See more
Nielsen Michael • Augmenting Long-Term Memory
This confidence, in turn, makes the initial act of understanding more pleasurable, since you believe you're learning something for the long haul, not something you'll forget in a day or a week.
Nielsen Michael • Augmenting Long-Term Memory
If I'm particularly concerned about the quality of the analysis, I may add one or more questions about what makes such work difficult, e.g.: “What's one challenge in determining the age of Nobel winners at the time of their discovery, as discussed in Jones 2011?” Good answers include: the difficulty of figuring out which paper contained the... See more
Nielsen Michael • Augmenting Long-Term Memory
Framing good questions is a great way to stimulate and prompt thinking rather than just consumption.
I’m all in on Anki and SRS actually. So this collection was a bit of an over reaction :😏
It's notable that I was reading the AlphaGo paper in support of a creative project of my own, namely, writing an article for Quanta Magazine. This is important: I find Anki works much better when used in service to some personal creative project.
Nielsen Michael • Augmenting Long-Term Memory
What you get from deep engagement with important papers is more significant than any single fact or technique: you get a sense for what a powerful result in the field looks like. It helps you imbibe the healthiest norms and standards of the field. It helps you internalize how to ask good questions in the field, and how to put techniques together.... See more