←back to thread

Spaced repetition systems have gotten better

(domenic.me)
655 points domenicd | 3 comments | 18 May 25 11:42 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
Show context
bearjaws ◴[18 May 25 12:34 UTC] No.44020922[source]▶
Spaced repetition has been all the rage for 20 years now.

Dozens of apps, thousands of lectures, and it turns out its not really a silver bullet.

There's nothing really wrong with it, it's just that people tend to fall off the same way they do on any other education pattern.

A couple years ago I was thinking "If Google and Apple really cared about kids they would make a spaced repetition unlock system", where by you have to make note cards every week and then have to answer correctly to get into your phone. (obviously requires some bypass system, other rules, etc)

You could probably jury rig it with a popup that comes up after you unlock, but people would never install it anyway.

replies(11): >>44020936 #>>44020982 #>>44021067 #>>44021102 #>>44021143 #>>44021340 #>>44021407 #>>44022192 #>>44022229 #>>44022370 #>>44022435 #
Alex-Programs ◴[18 May 25 13:09 UTC] No.44021143[source]▶
Spaced repetition is time-optimised, but it isn't self-discipline optimised, nor motivation-optimised. If you're limited by time, it's very efficient, but it drains motivation. If you're anywhere close to being limited by motivation (or, failing that, self-discipline), it just causes burnout and failure.

I credit Anki to my success at GCSEs and A Levels despite having a head injury, and I also credit it to me burning out so hard I took a gap year!

And I'm enjoying the gap year, but Anki made it a near necessity.

replies(5): >>44021387 #>>44021413 #>>44021433 #>>44022280 #>>44022636 #
1. InkCanon ◴[18 May 25 13:45 UTC] No.44021387[source]▶
There was an interesting post here awhile back about autonomy and motivation. The gist was people's motivation is proportional to their autonomy. This is quite intuitive, you can see people are really motivated when they have autonomy (think kids with Minecraft, musicians with instruments). One terrible thing about Anki is that it probably is horrible for autonomy. Quite possibly using anki actually has a negative effect on motivation.
replies(1): >>44022323 #
2. url00 ◴[18 May 25 16:05 UTC] No.44022323[source]▶
That sounds very interesting! Do you still have a link to that post?
replies(1): >>44023464 #
3. Tomte ◴[18 May 25 18:44 UTC] No.44023464[source]▶
Look up Deci/Ryan, self determination theory.