Open Thread for January 17 - 23 2014

niceguyanon

If it's worth saying, but not worth its own post (even in Discussion), then it goes here.

The LW survey shows that most LW people who used spaced repetition like Anki quit using it after some time. I would be very interested in the causes.

[pollid:581]

I've always had a lot of trouble with memorization of arbitrary facts. I was trying to memorize the amino acids. I tried spaced repetition (there was a pre-made anki deck) and I stuck with it on and off for a few weeks, but the information didn't seem to really stick. I kept getting things wrong, and wasn't able to progress to longer repetitions.

What did end up working fairly effectively was videos like this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gq-rWb0fmzQ

I watched 4 or 5 different videos of this type and took notes. This particular video creates visual a... (read more)

0Emile12y

I ran a similarish survey http://lesswrong.com/lw/ith/open_thread_october_13_19_2013/9w7m but didn't go into as much detail, so I'm looking forward to seeing the results on this one.

0Emily12y

I've used it for several-month periods on several occasions to prepare for exams. In each case, once the exams are done, I would certainly like to have some broad recollection of their content (especially a feel for what sort of knowledge exists in the relevant field and how I might go about seeking it out again) but I don't care about it at the detailed level that I needed for the exams, and therefore that I put into Anki. (Anki works best for detailed stuff anyway, I find.) I'd quite like to pick up a more long-term Anki habit where I only add stuff that I do want to know long-term, but haven't got round to it I guess. I'm not sure where would be a good place to start without a specific goal.