Michael Nielsen

> I think specifically I would second guess myself for the syntax of the cards I was creating - and if there was another better way to do it.

This kind of perfectionism has also been bothering me. ("I need to write the card perfectly, or else it's not even worth doing or even actively harmful.") But there's a couple of points worth remembering to change this belief:

1) If a card is bad, you will notice it when reviewing. It will be difficult to remember (i.e. you will fail the card often compared to other cards); it will be annoying to review (there's a general sense of "ugh" and/or confusion when you see the card); it will be unexpectedly time consuming to review, etc.

2) Bad cards can always be refactored. You can suspend the card (where the card is still in the database, but removed from the learning queue); reword; or split into multiple cards.

Michael Nielsen [0] gives an example of a card which asked for the syntax for creating a symbolic link in Linux. He always messed up the order of the filname/linkname, so he created an additional card that explicitly asked for the order of the filname/linkename in the ln-command.

3) The only way of learning how to make good cards is by just starting making cards, and then noticing which ones don't work.

When a card doesn't stick, it's useful to ask yourself what doesn't work and why. Is the back side surprising when you reveal it? If so, maybe rewrite the card to add more context to the front to make it clearer what you're…

Multimedia and HyperText: The Internet and Beyond, by Jakob Nielsen, SunSoft (1995).

https://books.google.nl/books?id=KgZXCCfP0rQC&pg=PA469&lpg=PA469&dq=%22NaviText+SAM%22&source=bl&ots=OIpk-ZClGi&sig=ACfU3U3Yj2_iAht2rueCrn-CVuWw1I8K1w&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwinsb6kp7D1AhUP-6QKHaKXDvMQ6AF6BAgTEAM#v=onepage&q&f=false

https://www.amazon.de/-/en/Jakob-Nielsen/dp/0125184085/ref=sr_1_1?crid=360LNDHJNLLLT&keywords=Multimedia+and+HyperText%3A+The+Internet+and+Beyond&qid=1642133996&sprefix=multimedia+and+hypertext+the+internet+and+beyond%2Caps%2C77&sr=8-1

I hadn't come across this book before, but I popped for the Kindle edition, and found an excerpt about HyperTIES. It also goes into fascinating detail about many other early hypermedia systems. Jakob Nielsen writes deep well-researched books and articles about usability and user interface design, and he gives excellent talks and keynotes! (He's aka "guru of Web page usability", "king of usability", and "usability Pope", but definitely not "usability Godfather"! ;) )

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jakob_Nielsen_(usability_consultant)

https://www.nngroup.com/people/jakob-nielsen/

His raises important points about Hyperties' design being focused on ease-of-use by museum visitors and ease-of-authoring by museum curators and historians, the simple consistent keyboard interface, configurable link colors, and the definition window at the bottom of the screen that previews descriptions of link targets in context before you even visit…

I'm reading a lot and have done so for many years. It is one of the great sources of joy and richness in my life. Choosing a book is more difficult than it might seem. It sounds like you haven't encountered many great books yet. Humanity has produced about 130.000.000 books and roughly 4k are added each day.

If you are an avid reader consuming one book per week from age 20 to 80, you'll get through a little more than 3000 books. Few people make it this far. 60 years of reading don't cover the output of a single day of publishing.

There are many more great books than any single person can hope to get through in a lifetime.

Regarding the reading speed: As you read more, you will get better. With enough practice, reading becomes a fully-immersive and effortless experience (though the ideas in the book might stun you!). Your eyes and your mind get more accustomed to the practice, for example through a better knowledge of vocabulary.

Forgetting is a real issue that I struggle with as well. Spaced repetition is helping a lot of people [0].

Paul Graham (pg) makes some great points about how reading shapes the mind (so even if you don't remember all the facts, the act of reading still changes who you are) [1]

I suggest you look learning strategies to process text more efficiently and to aid retention. There is a well-rated course called "Learning how to learn" on Coursera. [2]

Since selecting books is such hard work, you can benefit from the reading lists of others, here's…

A poor workman blames their tools.

My notes are basically like Smeegol's precious ring, and to burn them is unfathomable. But initially these notes they were garbage, I initially got into all these PKM systems and used a stripped down Zettelkasten, but then realised that I was focused on creating the system not the outcome. My wonderfully linked notes were never being seen, the notes I was taking was not connected to my current focuses. They were virtually all "maybe I'll use this in the next 10 years" type notes.

I changed my goal away from following a system to focusing on getting meaningful changes in understanding from notes. This means having the ability to recall information, not rely on a second brain. I spent a fair chunk of time reducing my inputs to notes which are focused on my current goals: metacognition, mental health and business. If the note does not fall in these category it is not noted, I still read things for pleasure just noteless. The value of applying what I read in the short-term outweighs notes for possible futures. As possible futures are everchanging and so the likely value of these notes are heavily weighted down. I do have troves of notes which will be transformed when I need them, but these notes have a very high chance of being seen and are related to my goals, but not applicable currently. I delayed transforming these troves until I am applying them, as I will get the most value out of my notes when they are being applied Not someday…

Books do work if you know how to be a good reader (I'm taking a course right now on "How to Read a Book" based on the Mortimer Adler book).

The key to learning from a book is to interact with it kinesthetically and through metacognition. Skimming, outlining, writing notes in the margins, questioning, are all part of analytical reading. Furthermore, there's syntopical reading which tries to fit things into a larger tree and seeing how things interrelate through comparative reading. It's all really hard work, but the goal is deep comprehension (the kind that enables synthesis of new ideas).

Memory is not the goal, though having a good memory helps when one is diving into a new book or journal paper. A memory aid like Anki can help one get up to speed quickly when there are lots of new vocabulary and concepts. [1] But memory alone will not lead to comprehension -- one needs to converse with the text as if one were picking the brain of someone who is our better. (if the author is not our better, best to just read the book cursorily, extract a few points and discard -- no need to do a deep reading)

That said, having Anki as a memory aid can lower the activation needed to read the literature say of a new unfamiliar field.

Another way to lower the activation to reading the literature is the "land and expand strategy" [2] where you read stories about thing you're trying to read rather than starting with the thing itself.

[1] http://augmentingcognition.com/ltm.html

[2]…

A daily anki habit. The habit to check my cards, but also to add new ones. It's perhaps not a skill exactly, but it feels like a superpower nonetheless.

I started creating flashcards when I began studying spanish for my wife. --- a very common introduction to flashcards is via language learning.

But these days I put anything into a card that I feel is useful. It could be an actual event (like recently) with the russian attempted putsch. I might create a card like:

----

On
{
{c1::June 2023}},
{
{c2::Yevgeny Prigozhin}} the leader of
{
{c3::Wagner}} group staged a rebellion by marching his troups towards Moscow after taking
{
{c4::Rostov-on-don}}.

Within hours a treaty was brokered by
{
{c5::Belarus}} president
{
{c6::Alexander Lukashenko}}

----

these facts are all salient after reading about such an important event, in the moment. But now when I talk about this event years from now, it will spring to mind. I will also be forced to think about it from time to time, and remember the crazy (big) things that happened.

I'll also use flashcards these days to study a new API, or learn a domain model in a new company.

Important is to prune and actively delete cards that no longer make sense. So I suppose the skill is realizing how to use anki. It is a bit of a living entity.

It's a habit/skill I've honed for over 10 years now.

Some recommended reading for those wanting to add flashcards into their lives.

1. https://cognitivemedium.com/srs-mathematics

2.…