Spaced repetition can allow for infinite recall (2022)

Wozniak estimates that you actually get a maximum of~300,000 based on his decades of data, so it seems the simplified model misses some effect and so converges to the wrong total: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;supermemo.guru&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;How_much_knowledge_can_human_brain_hold" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;supermemo.guru&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;How_much_knowledge_can_human_bra...</a>

I have been wondering about this in the context of being ready for work in the age of LLM‘s. What nobody can deny is that they memorize information at a superhuman level, so it might reduce the value of having done that myself. On the other hand, “couldn’t you just google that“has been an erroneous retort to the value of space repetition for decades, during which I’ve gotten a lot of value out of doing. has been a erroneous retort to the value of space repetition for decades, during which I’ve gotten a lot of value out of doing it.

FSRS is a really clever iteration on Anki&#x27;s SM2 algorithm. I&#x27;ve been playing around with various spaced repetition implementations lately - there&#x27;s a great collection of open source libraries at github.com&#x2F;open-spaced-repetition. I ended up using their typescript bindings for a vocabulary builder I&#x27;m working on (deft.so) and it&#x27;s been surprisingly straightforward to implement.

Besides LineByLine (<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;linebyline.app" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;linebyline.app</a>), does anyone have tips on memorizing long texts using spaced repetition?

I also made a theoretical calculation like this a couple of years ago [1]. I didn&#x27;t answer the question &quot;Can you memorize an infinite number of facts?&quot; but rather the question &quot;If you add a constant number of cards to Anki each day, what does your daily review load look like in the limit?&quot;<p>[1]: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;issarice.com&#x2F;long-run-anki-review-load" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;issarice.com&#x2F;long-run-anki-review-load</a>

I wrote a kanji learning app around Anki’s Flexable Spaced Repetition (FSRS) algorithm <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;shodoku.app" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;shodoku.app</a><p>My design principal is that I don’t need to be limited to few words, a sentence, and maybe a picture for each flash card. Instead each flashcard can be the all the relevant parts of the whole dictionary related to the kanji that you are learning.<p>Another design principal (where I deviate from Wankikani) is that drawing the kanji helps remembering it. So my app has two sided cards, one for drawing and one for reading. Both reading and writing practice include every word in the dictionary + example sentences that contains that kanji.<p>My third design principal is that I can learn vocabulary <i>at the same time</i> as I learn the meaning and the writing of the kanji (in fact, I like to learn a few vocab words <i>instead of</i> memorizing the different readings). So you can bookmark vocab words you want to learn along the kanji, and the next time the SRS system picks the kanji up for review, these words pop up at the top, to help you recall.<p>Note that the app is still in development, so use at your own risk, although I am actively using it for my kanji-studies. I still have a couple of features missing before I can call it done enough.

Discussed at the time:<p><i>Spaced repetition can allow for infinite recall</i> - <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=32381206">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=32381206</a> - Aug 2022 (169 comments)

I made a well-received native iOS&#x2F;macOS app for mining Japanese web and ebook content (Mokuro manga up next) into Anki or my own companion flashcard app: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;reader.manabi.io" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;reader.manabi.io</a><p>I&#x27;m now working on flashcard auto-reviews while reading, so that if you read words&#x2F;kanji that you have cards for, it&#x27;ll automatically mark those cards as reviewed rather than ask you to recall them shortly after you just had to recall during your reading.<p>I hope this helps people replace more SRS time with actual reading (or listening)

I&#x27;ve done the whole spaced repetition and Anki thing, realized that if it&#x27;s boring, you won&#x27;t learn as well, and you won&#x27;t stick with it in the long term, once you miss a week and suddenly you have 863 reps to get through to catch up. Instead, read stuff you&#x27;re interested, apply it in your work, learn mostly Just In Time for when you need it. Learn by doing.

Am I missing something here? Because I fail to understand how something like this is susceptible of a priori proof or disproof. Seems pretty obviously an empirical matter.

I merged spaced repetition with knowledge management app (<i>), and I must say it was the biggest personal improvement for me in terms of organising and remembering stuff.<p>As a product though I struggle to make it work. I assume people mostly afraid of their notes and cards stored in the cloud vs local storage, which is understandable.<p></i> <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.mindthis.io&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.mindthis.io&#x2F;</a>

The redundant nature of mass scale internet content operates on spaced repetition I think. If you doom scroll HN for example, over time you’ll know more about random things. WSB might be a better example. I didn’t realize how many stock ticker prices and movements over the last few years are now embedded in my mind, without deliberately trying.<p>This is the 1000th time you’ll have read the same thing. The hivemind naturally regurgitates the same information at a predictable cadence. We’re due for a few Rust posts on HN, for example.<p>If you stay tapped in, you will always be learning from this organic body.

Anyone had any experience using spaced repetition for reinforcing math learning?

I don&#x27;t want to rain on anyone&#x27;s parade, but: of all the really brilliant people I&#x27;ve ever met, interacted with or learned from, I haven&#x27;t heard of anyone that used techniques like this. Like, the way they learn things and become brilliant is the exact same way every brilliant person has done it for thousands of years: they read books, they discuss and debate with other brilliant people, they study their subjects and work hard. Like, true intelligence is very rarely about rote memorization of facts, it&#x27;s about making new connections, being creative, and working really hard. There are no shortcuts, you have to put in the work. Aristotle, Leibniz, Einstein or whatever brilliant person you can think of didn&#x27;t become who they are using cue-cards.<p>Spaced repetition always seemed like those schemes to get you fit or slim in 30 days that never work. There is exactly one way to get physically healthy, and it&#x27;s super-unfun: diet and exercise. Same thing with your mind, you have to exercise it and feed it appropriately for months and years. Spend the time you would spend on spaced repetition reading books or watching lectures and doing exercises instead.

Related:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;hn.algolia.com&#x2F;?dateRange=all&amp;page=0&amp;prefix=true&amp;query=%22spaced%20repetition%22&amp;sort=byPopularity&amp;type=story" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;hn.algolia.com&#x2F;?dateRange=all&amp;page=0&amp;prefix=true&amp;que...</a>

Fine but what to use in practice. Tried Anki and found its algorithm bit infuriating. SuperMemo is better but thoroughly proprietary.

Hilbert&#x27;s memory palace.

Spaced repetition is an excellent technique, but it shouldn&#x27;t be the only tool in your learning toolbox.<p>I found that spaced repetition really works as advertised, with software like Anki. However, it is not really suited at learning large amount of facts and concepts. If it took an hour to review your deck, it&#x27;s not a good use of your time unless the cards are really high value.<p>For example, if I want to learn electronics, my time would be better spent on fiddling with circuits and learning through mistakes of implementation. The nice thing is that concepts are interrelated to each other, not discrete and decontextualized that usually happened with utilizing spaced repetition. You get much better value from learning through experimentation and retain it better.<p>Don&#x27;t get me wrong, spaced repetition still apply. However, if you can learn something that will last a lifetime, you don&#x27;t have to repeat it for a long time if ever.

This is putting the cart before the horse. No matter how you slice and dice your equations, everyone intuitively understands you can&#x27;t really store infinite data in your brain. Trying to claim otherwise is simply academic sophistry. No matter how hard you write your proof, it won&#x27;t make information theory, basic physics, etc go away.