

Using flash cards to improve your programming skills - evjan
http://peterevjan.com/posts/slides-using-flash-cards-to-memorise-almost-anything/

======
ukoki
If anyone wants to try this method, check out
[http://cardflashapp.com/](http://cardflashapp.com/) which I hope to make into
a simpler alternative to ANKI (still very much a work in progress though)

~~~
evjan
Cool!

What parts of Anki do you hope to simplify?

~~~
ukoki
Hi evjan, just saw your reply. Here's a few ways I want to improve on Anki: \-
"just works" deck importing from various formats (including Anki) \- Card
formatting with Markdown \- Better deck sharing, forking and subscribing.
Commenting on decks and collaborative shared deck creation. (I'm considering
piggybacking on Github for this feature set) \- Slicker, more user-friendly UI
\- Progress-updates and study-reminder emails \- Better sense of progression
and achievement through charts and study-session summaries.

Most important however is creating something you don't need to install on your
computer, looks good, and that "just works".

------
jacques_chester
I and I think everyone else heard of spaced repetition software from that
Wired article in ... 2007, was it?

Here's my favourite writeup so far:

[http://www.jackkinsella.ie/2011/12/05/janki-
method.html](http://www.jackkinsella.ie/2011/12/05/janki-method.html)

My main problem is having a fixed time to do the reviews.

The second "problem" is that repetition just helps you to remember. Until you
understand what you're memorising, it's useless. (This is the first thing
you're told, but I'll tell you again).

So the truly hard work -- wrestling with material until you _get_ it -- is
still there. You just get to cut down on how often you'll have to do it in
future.

~~~
evjan
You're probably right. If Wired wrote about it 6 years ago there's probably no
point in repeating it, in spite of people telling me it was interesting and
something new to them. Maybe they were lying to be nice to me.

But thanks for the link, I found that useful. Even though it repeated stuff
from the Wired article.

Remembering stuff is only the beginning, yes. But you need it nonetheless.

~~~
jacques_chester
I think you should be more sarcastic, that _definitely_ belongs on HN and in
_no way_ makes you seem unnecessarily defensive.

Edit:

OK, I'm not being constructive either. But here's the thing about good ideas:
you are not the first to have them. I am not the first to have them. I even
wrote a disclaimer on my website about this exact problem.

Cracking the shits because the first comment -- on a site with thousands of
people who read widely -- is about someone else who's had the same idea is
kinda pointless, don't you think?

When I read the _Wired_ article, I had the same idea too. I later wrote a
research proposal on testing it on freshman comp sci students. After that I
read Jack Kinsella's article. After Jack Kinsella came Derek Sivers, who at
least had the grace to say "oh neat, this Jack Kinsella article is good too"
and link to it.

My original comment was more about how ideas can be traced back to common
beginnings, how a blooming garden can sometimes come from a single seed. But I
guess you felt it was a personal attack, a swift kick in the guts from another
faceless HN boo-parade. Well I'm sorry you feel that way.

~~~
evjan
Apology accepted.

The tone in the first part of your original comment was condescending and you
needed to be told so. Maybe you thought your statement hinted at "how ideas
can be traced back to common beginnings", but you did come across as a boo-
parader. There was nothing blooming about that.

And no, I never think it is pointless telling people they are rude. Otherwise,
rude people think their behaviour is accepted.

The rest of your original comment was constructive and I enjoyed that.

I refer to Anki in the preso and I hope it doesn't seem like I am trying to
claim that I invented spaced repetition.

