
Show HN: A tool for your learning, like Anki and WorkFlowy in one - SunghoYahng
https://learnobit-36a54.web.app/
======
SunghoYahng
Hey. For the past 2 years, I have been working on LearnObit
([https://learnobit.com](https://learnobit.com)).

When I first started to learn coding, I used Anki and the old tried-and-tested
Spaced Repetition algorithm, but it wasn't suitable for more complex, general
topics like Mathematics or Physics. Because of that, Spaced Repetition has
always been widely overlooked despite its proven effectiveness in learning.

I wanted to unlock this effectiveness for a wider audience by building
LearnObit, a tool that combines tree-structure note-taking tools with Spaced
Repetition so that you can apply it to more than just simple fact pairs.

And now it even has the feature to export data to Anki, so you can leave with
your data when you decide not to use it! (Of course I don't want anyone to use
it, but I couldn't help it, because people wouldn't start using it without
this in the first place...)

Anyway, I'll be here anytime if you have any questions for me. Thanks for your
time.

~~~
fny
Just a general recommendation: for math/physics/CS it's far more useful to
work through problems than memorize facts. I'll use linear algebra as an
example since that shows up often in your cards.

Say you want to learn about eigenvectors and eigenvalues. Instead of writing
the definition, you might have a card which asks the following:

"Create a matrix whose eigenvectors or eigenvalues are always equal."

This will force you to do two things. First, you will learn from creating the
card since you're forced to synthesize the information rather than copy.
Second, your recall will force you to work through this newly created problem.

Another general strategy is to just pick a problem from a book that uses the
concept. If you ever get the problem wrong, you oblige yourself to solving an
additional related problem from the same book (i.e. find the basis of one of
the following matrices).

I guarantee you will learn 10x more effectively.

Also beware of falling victim to spending more time on building tools than
learning... I've found that pencil and paper go a lot farther than people give
credit.

~~~
currymj
there is some truth to this but some areas of math do really benefit from just
raw memorization. At a certain point, remembering the definitions and the
statements of theorems may not be so trivial, and having them in your head
makes it much easier to solve problems.

~~~
SunghoYahng
I agree here. Actually, in most cases, it was enough to know only the
definitions. I could come up with applications from definitions on the spot.
The thing to watch out for is to get used to the way to solve problems and
forget the definitions. I think this is a more frequent occurrence (especially
when preparing for the exam.) Then the one will get trouble if they need other
applications.

------
danhanlon
I think rather than having a playground, you should just put some sample nodes
/ lists in the Organizing section that people can delete later if they want
to. As an example Notion ([https://www.notion.so/](https://www.notion.so/))
populates your workspace with examples from the start, with mock data filled
in. That way you can click around with existing data, see how it works, and
delete it if you don't want it.

I'm trying to see how the memorize function works and because I have no
entries in Organising it won't work. I see there's examples in Playground but
I can't see what they look like when trying to Memorize. I spent a few minutes
trying to work out if it's possible which was pretty frustrating, and it looks
like it isn't, and if it is possible then I have no idea how to do it. Having
to invest time into creating realistic mock questions is a pain when there are
some right there but just out of reach. The Playground is essentially just
Workflowy and doesn't let you experience the rest of the app, it's not a good
experience.

That being said, I really like this idea as this reflects how I used to
organise a lot of my notes. I'll definitely give it a shot and look forward to
see how it progresses.

~~~
SunghoYahng
Thanks for the advice. I didn't know that people would want to see how things
actually appear in the Memorizing part. What you suggested (putting data that
can be deleted into the Organizing part) sounds very good.

------
fudged71
Do you have any plans for bidirectional linking like with Roam Research? It
seems like both projects are going towards a similar end goal

~~~
ericax
Shameless plug: for bidirectional linking, check out Obsidian! We're in
private beta: [https://obsidian.md](https://obsidian.md)

Spaced repetition might also be supported in the future, but it's not as high
priority as links. We also have a graph view for link relationship. Oh, and
one thing different from Roam is that Obsidian reads your local folder, so you
don't need to put stuff in the cloud, and you own your data 100% (if that's
your thing).

------
ken
I love the idea of combining an outliner and an SRS. I don't love the idea of
needing a new special editor for them, and a new siloed data store for them.

Now, if this were an SRS that read my existing data (like from Notes.app, org-
mode, OmniOutliner, or Excel) and presented it as an SRS, that would be very
cool.

------
ebiester
I tried to use the "Tell me anything" button in anonymous mode, but it didn't
work.

Organizing made sense, but I really wanted to see how the spaced repetition
worked from one of the examples, and couldn't figure out how to do that. then,
I tried making some tests in organization, and I got "Some error occured" with
a few options to refresh. However, I couldn't see the space repetition module.
The console had the error ReferenceError: "Intercom is not defined"

I like the idea conceptually, but I found it hard to translate the
organization to memorization without seeing an example. I think a video or
tutorial front and center is really what I want.

~~~
SunghoYahng
It is an error. Sorry for having such an experience. I was surprised to hear
it. I don't know why such an error occurred. Anyway, thank you for letting me
know.

------
opan
I liked the sound of an anki alternative, but it'd have to still be free
software and also not need webengine/electron to be a big improvement, imo.
I'm not seeing a link to source here after a quick glance...

------
Gepsens
Hey dude; nice stuff. Just letting you know I can't auth with Google from the
desktop version.

As a side comment, did you use anything outside of pure js on that Electron
app ? It seems pretty neat and fast.

~~~
SunghoYahng
Ah, thank you. For electorn, I use this service:
[https://www.todesktop.com/](https://www.todesktop.com/)

~~~
davej
Hi Sungho, Dave from ToDesktop here. Great to see people using ToDesktop on
HN. :)

edit: Sungho, we've fixed that Google auth issue. It was an Electron-wide
issue. If you rebuild the app then Google auth should work again.

~~~
_xerxes_
This is why I love HN. I get to see wonderful new ideas and great tools being
developed and also feel a sense of community when the creators that enable the
creators also get involved!

I know this is a low quality/value comment to the overall discussion, but I
could not help myself!

------
sgummaluri
There's a typo on the About Pricing page that says 'I will likely do this
thorugh a subscription model'

Should have been 'through' a subscription model. Like others already pointed
out, allowing to play around the app without having to create an account is
great. Good work. Cheers!

~~~
SunghoYahng
Corrected immediately. Thank you!

------
ellyagg
Feels like more and more there's a ton of smart people converging on ideas. I
wrote a flashcard web app with WF as the filesystem. Right now it's very
powerful as a personal use system, and I've considered making it public.

~~~
SunghoYahng
I am embarrassed by too much competition. Honestly, although LearnObit is the
most promising of all similar products.

------
FailMore
It could be cool to take all the FAQs you have in separate blog posts and make
them into a 'tree' format, so that I can learn about your product while
learning about your product... if that makes sense

~~~
SunghoYahng
I think 'Guidance' of Playground is doing that

------
john4532452
There is a gpl version software polar bookshelf exists and its quite good
[https://getpolarized.io/](https://getpolarized.io/)

~~~
SunghoYahng
This is completely different from LearnObit. If that is an SR tool, it would
be a combination of learning resources and SR functions, but LO is a note-
taking tool combined with SR function, sort of. Anyway, thank you for showing
me an interesting example. I planned to add a viewer for learning resources to
LO.

------
crucialfelix
I had the same idea: roam with anki.

My own journal data app (old and broke) had a reread feature that was
instrumental in reactivating my learning and progress.

Looking forward to trying this on desktop!

~~~
chrisweekly
Spaced repetition and Roam:
[https://youtu.be/J6a-anGLyBE](https://youtu.be/J6a-anGLyBE)

------
moioci
Since nobody's pointed it out, I'll just say that "Obit" makes me think of
"obituary," which may not be an association you want to have.

~~~
SunghoYahng
I didn't know the meaning of obit at first. My intention was to reduce
"orbit". (and LearnObit-Rabbit, Learn oh beat, Learn a bit) I think the
meaning of obit fits well with the overall mood of LearnObit, so now I think
it's good. Some weirdness is good.

~~~
cmateidata
Hey I think your software is infected.

~~~
SunghoYahng
What do you mean?

------
SunghoYahng
If anyone still sees this: My product was featured on HN. Now what? I no
longer have communities to post to.

------
Horita
Thank you for creating this and posting this on reddit.com/r/anki.

What are your future goals with LearnObit?

~~~
SunghoYahng
It's nice to see you on Reddit and see you here again.

For now, I will focus on functions as a basic SR program for the time being.
So the next big updates are: The feature to manage contents through a tree
structure, the feature to divide media such as images into multiple parts to
make it questions, and of course mobile app.

And, actually, I have more ambitious goals than just the SR program. My goal
for this is to build an integrated learning environment. In my opinion, the
ability to hold personal knowledge can be small but right entry point for
bigger things.

Specifically, the first is a ML-powered learning resource viewer. If you can
simply view multiple formats (pdf, video, etc) in one place and make it work
with LO on the spot, that would be good. But it can go further than that. Now,
text readers are all bad, because I think they aren't taking full advantage of
the digital interactivity. They are just putting paper books on the screen. I
want to build a viewer that allows users to interact with texts using ML (like
IDE for reading).

The second is a finder of learning resources. Now, the learning resources are
quite scattered, and I think it would be nice to be able to manage various
learning resources in one place. I think that way, I can build an app like
Netflix for learning resources.

And like any other edtech software, I may be able to make it possible for
users to collaborate with others in this app. But I don't have many ideas for
this part yet.

~~~
DelightOne
Hoho! Lofty goals, I hope you are successful.

How ML fits into all of this is not clear though. How does that work?

~~~
SunghoYahng
I am thinking of various functions. For example, when a concept is introduced
and later, when the concept appears again, one can immediately see what it was
when it is first introduced. That's why I said it's like an IDE.

~~~
DelightOne
So you create a backlink by detecting that a concept here refers to a prior
concept? Hmm thats interesting. But can't this also be done with a simple word
comparison, or am I missing something?

What can ML be used for that is not otherwise in scope?

------
ran3824692
What license?

------
ron22
Any plans on making a video demo?

~~~
SunghoYahng
Yes I have plans because everyone says it would be better if there are video
demos here. I wonder if product tours are not enough.

~~~
m_a_g
Product tours may be enough for people with Anki and WorkFlowy experience,
however, I have no experience with them and, I still have no idea what your
product does. A demo video would be great.

~~~
SunghoYahng
Okay... Thank you for telling me about your experience.

------
tomerbd
which UI technologies did you use if I may ask?

~~~
poxrud
I'm not the author but from looking at the source it is the blueprint UI
tookit for react.

------
cmateidata
I think you software is infected.

~~~
SunghoYahng
What do you mean?

