LESSWRONG
LW

All of Eric 'Siggy' Scott's Comments + Replies

Lessons I've Learned from Self-Teaching
Eric 'Siggy' Scott180

"are there examples of people becoming very successful due to Anki?"

It's hard to answer that kind of question, because there are plenty of examples of people becoming successful without SRS, and people who use SRS don't only use SRS.

Personally, I use Anki for professional development (so not to pass exams, but for long-term mastery).  My biggest topics are math, algorithms (ex. machine learning research topics), and programming.

It's got a number of advantages.  Sometimes it helps by keeping technical details (like trig identities or programming s... (read more)

Reply
2Adam Zerner
Hm, I seem to have different experiences than you have had. My experience as a programmer (from myself and from talking to others) is that you pick up syntax pretty quickly. For a new language there's a learning curve. Perhaps SRS would help with that, although that doesn't seem too useful. Eg. I use JavaScript every day and rarely use Python. I could use SRS for Python. Alternatively, I could wait until I need to use Python, take a few days getting familiar with the syntax, and then be fine, which seems better. Perhaps my memory is failing me, but I can't recall doing SRS over and over again ever cementing a deep conceptual intuition for me. I think looking at the same thing from different angles is often helpful, but with SRS, a given card is largely looking at the concept from one angle. Here's an example. I'm learning functional programming right now. In functional programming, operators like + and * are just functions. Instead of 2 + 3 you can do (+) 2 3 just like you'd do add 2 3. Similarly, you could call functions using infix notations by using backticks like this 2 `add` 3 and it behaves like an operator. This really cemented for me what an operator is in such a way that I don't think SRS ever could, and it did so much faster. It sounds like your point is moreso that it's hard to be as productive without SRS, but I'd like to note that there are other ways you can use a spare 15 minutes to learn rather than SRS.
Lessons I've Learned from Self-Teaching
Eric 'Siggy' Scott30

Why "instead?"

I find that all of those activities enhance my SRS experience, and my SRS experience (sometimes dramatically) enhances all of those activities!

Particularly since I use SRS to capture concepts, intuitions, and rich relationships, not just isolated facts.  Rote memorization doesn't work very well with SRS anyway--as with everything, it works best when used to understand a topic in its full intuitive glory.

Reply
Lessons I've Learned from Self-Teaching
Eric 'Siggy' Scott20

Not the OP, but got a few opinions there:

  1. Algorithms can be Ankified with the same strategies that work for other subjects: chunk the basic intuition into a short overview card, use diagrams, and hit the "basic idea" of how it works before adding more details cards for particular tricks & minutia.  As always, most cards should take <15 seconds to review (including time spent reading the card).
  2. Personally, I avoid burnout a few ways: 
    A) pair Anki with activities like taking a daily 1-mile walk or doing dishes (iOS voice commands help with the
... (read more)
Reply
Lessons I've Learned from Self-Teaching
Eric 'Siggy' Scott30

Anki's value depends a lot on how you use it.

If you use it for rote memorization, without grokking concepts deeply---then what you get is rote memorization.  Think of memorizing capitals without learning anything else about states and nations.

But if you work hard to identify conceptual landmarks and add good questions to tie it all together (more like a high quality PowerPoint presentation), then it can be amazing and facilitate retention of rich intuitions for years.  Think of memorizing major topographic landmarks on a map and a bit of history,... (read more)

Reply
Lessons I've Learned from Self-Teaching
Eric 'Siggy' Scott30

Fantastic insights!  I especially like how you've articulated the value of using "easy" books to connect concept to the "real world."  I've certainly run into the problem of trying to Ankify a big dense book, and getting bogged down with it.

Incidentally I'm also working through the Book of Why and Causality by Pearl.  Great progression (starting with one, then returning to the other).

I've been using Anki for math and computing for several years now, and one word of warning is that your big, dense cards (i.e. screen-shotted definitions) are t... (read more)

Reply