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documenting project mnemosyne

project begin date: March 07, 2021
project end date: Indefinite
completion rate: 80%
success rate: 70%
remarks: work in progress

1. Intro

I began actively working on ways to improve my memory when I realized I could not learn anything properly and longterm without a kind of external structure—somewhere to "put" the many concepts I was learning, and something to help revisit them. The precise history of events escape me but reading Andy Matuschak's article inspired me to actually begin work on the project I had been postponing.

The idea of human memory augmentation is a very broad and interesting one. Methods for improving memory can be medical as with the use of Nootropics. Or creative as with the use of Mnemonics. Or even technological as with the use of systems that afford spaced repetition. The methods are various and the history is rich.

The history of improving memory with technology goes back a long way. From Douglas Engelbart in Augmenting Human Intellect (1962) to Ted Nelson in Complex information processing: a file structure for the complex, the changing and the indeterminate (1965) to Tim Berners-Lee in Information Management: a Proposal (1989) to Piotr Wozniak and so on. If interested in a brief overview of this history, read Michael Nielsen's big and brilliant essay, Augmenting Long-term Memory

What is Spaced Repetition?

Modern personal memory systems exploit the fact that if a piece of information is assimilated and then periodically retrieved/recalled at expanding intervals, then that information is likely to be assimilated for long-term, spanning years. This 'process' of 'recalling at ever expanding intervals' is termed spaced repetition. See Spaced Repetition for Efficient Learning by Gwern for an indepth and almost academic look into the concept--The essayish article is also as briglliant as Michael Nielsen's.

This particular 'essay', on the other hand, is an index into the various thoughts I had while involved with the project of exploiting this fact. It should not be read as a thorough guide but a personal and impressionistic take (and experiment) on SRS systems.

There are now many technologies (apps and softwares and routines) that seriously expand on the idea of spaced repetition. One of them is Anki. It is an app. There is a mobile version and a desktop version. Another is Orbit currently in development by Andy Matuschak. This will really bring about big and important changes to the SRS space. Yet another is Space, Mnemosyne, SuperMemo, and so on.

For various reasons that will be explained in this essay, I chose to work with Anki--The mobile and desktop client.

What is Anki?

Anki is basically a todo-app on steroids. This, though, is an oversimplification. Anki helps schedule 'tasks' which are displayed as flashcards to the user. A task in this sense is the actual act of repeatedly recalling something. If, for example, you need to remember the name of an obscure animal you just discovered, you can create a 'task' that has a picture of the animal and regularly asks you—daily or weekly or specified by some deterministic formula—what its name is. Your job then is to provide the name by trying to recall it. A task is not limited to recall though. It could be a physical action you must perform such as an exercise. (We want to think about the concept of SRS systems unrestrictedly)

Project's Aims

  • Master using SRS (aka. Anki) to remember bits of information;
  • Improve speed of recall;
  • Actively keep track of thoughts;
  • Learn how to think about a good number of chunked information simultaneously so that relationships between the various information can be easily drawn-out;
  • Use SRS to help make it easier to take-up MOOCs;
  • Make subject of learning integral to one's personality;
  • Gain introductory experience behind the basic insights that the field, Memory Augmentation with Technology builds upon.

(It is important to note that the bulk of the work on this project was actually in the observation of my 'user-experience' while learning a few topics through various information media, saving created prompts (for the media) to Anki, and noticing what could be done for a better streamlined experience. This is not an actual Design Project because specific research, conception, prototyping and engineering of some proposed SRS was never carried out. The outcome of the project is chiefly an introductory experience of the basic insights/principles that the field of Memory Augmentation builds upon)

2. How I use Anki

When you newly install the Anki desktop client, this is what you see:

anki-new-desktop

The decks are like folders you use to separate groups of notes. In the image above, there is one deck and it is the ‘default’ deck.

A note is basically a question and answer pair. You provide both the question and the answer where, during review sessions, the answer is hidden and you are meant to recall it.

You provide a question. Like so: anki-card-example-image-to-concept

And an answer. Like so: anki-card-example-image-to-concept-answer

The above images were grabbed from my review session days ago. Depending on how easy it was to recall an answer, you choose from the Again, Hard, Good, Easy options which specify when next you want to see that question-note. See using anki feedback to make ideas salient

I could go on and give step-by-step instructions on how to create a card, how to create decks (and so on) but that's ineffective. There is an online Anki manual that documents how to use Anki in detail. What I'd do instead is give principles on how best to create a question/answer note and how best to organize Anki decks. (If interested in reading only parts of the Manual that are immediately useful, see Getting started with Anki - the bare minimum.)

After 1+ year of many organic changes, this is the current look of my Anki decks. It is unlike the deck in a newly installed Anki app. It has become stable for now:

anki-current

I find that, on one level, separating decks into ‘Buffer’ and ‘Limbo’ helps differentiate the nature of things I'm learning. I named the first ‘Buffer’ because the deck represents the group of notes I made for things I'm currently learning. ‘Limbo’ on the other hand represents the group of things I plan on—but haven't started—learning. The separation is important because Anki (and other space repetition softwares) are essentially a stream of urgent todos. It is a stream because the various notes in the Buffer deck are always systematically moved into my attention-space. But if there are "notes/courses" you plan learning but don't have the time for yet, then they should go into Limbo. Limbo is where nothing happens. The notes there are not in my attention space yet. See SRS is not a bucket SRS is a pipe.

The subdecks in the Buffer deck are separated by months because that way, I can decide to focus on just the notes I created when I learnt a specific thing for that month. It is also like a journal. I can reimagine the headspace I was in that month. See how should anki decks be organized.

Principles for thinking about Anki and other SRS systems

Principles for writing good Anki notes

See A gallery of various personal notes

3. Attempts at using Anki for various information media

Using Anki to read the bitcoin paper (Private)

Using Anki to learn a course (Private)

Using Anki to remember movies

Using Anki to master exercises and movement (Private)

Using Anki to read books (Private)

Using Anki to read articles (Private)

Using Anki to learn history (Private)

Using Anki to learn novels/stories (Private)

Using Anki to learn a language

Using Anki to learn drawing.

Using Anki to learn music

Using Anki to watch youtube videos

4. Conclusions

  • What was my initial want/hope for my SRS system with Anki?
  • Did I achieve that want?
    • One thing I wanted to achieve was to be able to think about a good number of chunked information simultaneously so that I could easily draw-out relationships between the various information.
      • So that, for example, when one thinks about coming up with a solution for an algorithm design problem, you are easily reminded of similar problems and an idea for a solution becomes close at hand.
      • E.g., it will be nice to be able to easily see how solutions to the following problems on binary trees are related. Doing this involves being able to think about the chunked detail of each solution simultaneously:
      • Given binary tree determine if there is a path with nodes that sum to a target number.
      • Given binary search tree, determine if a target exists in one of the nodes and return that node.
      • Given preorder traversal of BST in an array, return a root to the constructed BST
      • Given root of binary tree, return its diameter.
      • Given root of binary tree, return a root to the inverted binary tree.
      • Given the root of a binary tree, return its maximum depth.
    • I also wanted the things I was learning to become a part of me, integral to my personality.
    • Well, now I know that there is an important difference between recall and speed of recall. I initially hoped that using Anki could help me not just "remember" things but also remember things fast. Perhaps a better word is recall. I wanted to be able to recall things fast. So that I could look at, say, the title of a leetcode question and quickly remember what was being asked and the various solutions that can be implemented. And a test of "quickly remembering" is if I can state the problem out loud fluently without having to think too hard--i.e., trying to reimagine what the problem and solution must've been about.
    • Yes, there were a few successes, but I find that this 'speed of recall' is probably difficult to improve? It seems like it's an inherent quality of your natural memory? I'm not so sure.
  • It is also sometimes difficult to keep up with the daily work that has to go into review sessions especially when you are busy with other things. This makes you lazy. So, you don't use Anki to fulfill its function. See Anki Laziness
  • what is the opportunity cost of incorporating anki review sessions into your daily life? (Private) (what have i unconsciously lost by using anki?)

5. Miscellaneous notes

6. Philosophying

  • Is infinite memory desirable?
  • Is long-term memory desirable? What even are the benefits?
  • Can a case be made for forgetting?
  • Can a case be made for forgetfulness?
  • What might the future of SRS systems look like?
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