
Show HN: Spaced-repetition flashcards linked to your learning materials - dhandel
https://www.iDoRecall.com/
======
dhandel
Hi HN friends,

iDoRecall cofounder and 67 y/o entrepreneur here. Today’s version of iDR is a
total rewrite of our MVP. iDR began as a digital solution enabling the
cognitive science strategies that I used to graduate #1 in my med school class
back in the analog 70s [1]. iDR takes spaced-repetition flashcards beyond the
bounds of well-known solutions. Barbara Oakley, Ph.D., creator of Coursera’s
Learning How to Learn [2], uses iDR for her own lifelong learning. Recently
she became our Chief Learning Science advisor.

Upload your learning content into iDR: PDFs, Word files, PowerPoints, images
and many other file types. Add videos hosted on YouTube, Vimeo and other sites
to your iDR library. Read, watch and listen to your content on iDR.

Create flashcards (we call them “recalls”) that are linked directly to the
concepts, facts, formulae or whatever you want to remember in your learning
materials.

When you practice memory retrieval with your recalls, if you struggle with the
answer, you’re one click away from seeing the exact spot in your content where
you created the recall so that you can quickly refresh your memory in the
original context where you learned it. Stop wasting time rereading. Read once.
Watch once. Listen once. Abstract and curate what you want to remember into
recalls and use spaced-repetition memory retrieval to remember everything you
learn. Rereading, highlighting and rereading highlight have been proven
suboptimal tactics for remembering what you’ve learned [3].

Metacognition training wheels, Pomodoro timer and project management tools for
learners included. Create study groups with classmates and collaborate sharing
recalls and content. Teachers can create classes in the app.

We have reference docs on our self-hosted Notion [4] and helpful videos on our
YouTube channel [5]. I write about learning on Medium and Better Humans [6].
Please let me know if there is any way that I can be helpful to you.

[1] Medium/Better Humans [https://bit.ly/32RNRVR](https://bit.ly/32RNRVR) [2]
[https://www.coursera.org/learn/learning-how-to-
learn](https://www.coursera.org/learn/learning-how-to-learn) [3]
[https://makeitstick.net/](https://makeitstick.net/) [4]
[https://learn.idorecall.com/LEARN-
iDoRecall-96fd209b3b294337...](https://learn.idorecall.com/LEARN-
iDoRecall-96fd209b3b294337bebde697f1b1d79b) [5]
[https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdsHy47vKKsEylCoT-
JT6tA](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdsHy47vKKsEylCoT-JT6tA) [6]
[https://medium.com/@iDoRecall](https://medium.com/@iDoRecall)

~~~
gingerlime
Hey David, looks really impressive. And so nice to see some older
enterpreneurs out there!

Strange that there’s just another spaced repetition show HN just next to this
one. What are the odds?

I’m a co-founder of Kenhub[0] and we use some spaced repetition techniques in
our quizzes. But it’s quite different still. The bigger difference for us is
that we create and curate the content. I’m wondering if there’s some
opportunity for collaboration. See contact details in my profile if you’d like
to chat some time.

[0] [https://www.kenhub.com](https://www.kenhub.com)

~~~
dhandel
Thanks for the kind words. I just sent an email.

------
jameskraus
Nifty. As an Anki user, I see this as a feature I really wish Anki had. This
is an area where I am more than willing to spend money for an excellent
product (which Anki strangely fails to capitalize on). Good luck, I hope this
grows.

Obligatory HN cynacism: I don't think I'll end up using it due to the massive
investment I've already made in Anki + switching friction. Plus, it's not open
source, so if the service ever went away I would be crushed (which is really
important to me since some of my cards have 10y+ intervals).

~~~
dhandel
Thanks James, You can export Anki Flashcards and import them into iDR as
recalls. The catch for now is that only .txt format exports work for the time
being. Also, in a few weeks we'll offer self-serve export of all of your
recalls in a CSV file which then be uploaded into Anki or Quizlet.

~~~
mumblemumble
Thanks for the update. This is an important feature for me, too, for a
different reason. I've discovered that, with Anki, oftentimes the fastest way
for me to bulk edit a deck is to export it, manipulate it with a Python
script, and then re-import it.

------
kovek
This is awesome!! I would like this to be my portal to the web. My current
portal to the web is my browser, but it doesn’t allow me to create
notes/cards/recalls on youtube videos I watch or on articles I read.

I think it would be good if the main content appears on the center (I see pdfs
showing on the right side of the screen).

~~~
dhandel
Thanks for the encouragement. Shortly we will be improving the layout and
making the document viewer much wider.

------
hombre_fatal
I do like the feature where the flashcards are linked to the place in source
material where they came from.

Something I didn't like about anything less trivial in Ankhi was that there
was a lot of overheard in trying to write a card knowing that I would never
reconcile it with its source again. So I would encumber it with context.

------
soared
> An internal error has occurred. Please contact technical support to resolve
> that issue

FYI - I tried logging in with facebook.

~~~
dhandel
Thanks. We’ll sort that out.

------
gnicholas
Does this work with DRMd content like digital textbooks?

~~~
dhandel
No, it doesn't. Even when we add an EPUB reader in the coming months, it won't
open DRM protected files. Unfortunately Amazon and Apple don't offer APIs for
their ebook readers. The only solution is copy|paste or screengrabs... very
suboptimal.

------
aaronmyatt
Do you plan to enable linking cards to web content?

My biggest desire is to create flash cards directly linked to software
documentation.

~~~
markalexander
Having spent a lot of time making a similar tool this is pretty difficult. Two
issues: (1) highlighting and annotating across (partial) XML with rendered
output is very hard without some understanding of the rendering, you can't
really just say that a particular highlight is a fixed bounding box or
interval; and (2) obviously, web content can change, so even if you could do
the above what happens to your annotation highlight from character 5 to 10
when the document shifts?

Personally, I gave up and just converted the web page in question to PDF, and
annotated from there. Then you get easy document position markers and no
changes over time. I would also be very interested in a system that could do
proper webpages natively, though.

------
s9w
Holy webdesign jesus, this one has cookie popups, chat popups, auto-changing
black text on dark background, slow animations that get triggered by
scrolling.

All I want is really Anki with manual intervals. Life would be so good :|

~~~
Kelamir
You could try using steps(new cards part) for setting up your own intervals. I
don't know how much it is fit for your purposes though. What do you not like
about Anki's current scheduling, s9w?

~~~
s9w
I think the entire theory about the intervals is overcomplicated and too much
of an overgeneralization at the same time. If users could just have buttons
with "110% of last interval", "+2 days", "1 week" that would be the best way.
I've written a web app like that many years ago but js development has since
outpaced my motivation to keep up.

Steps is just manual entry of the first intervals, right? That's very static.

~~~
Kelamir
> Steps is just manual entry of the first intervals, right? That's very
> static.

You can choose as many steps as you want, so if all your cards have a single
card setting, you can choose the schedule you like once and for all. But I
don't know if using Steps in this manner is any good. Just an option.

