These are some scattered notes on how to write effective flashcards.

  • Prompts should be built iteratively, revised over time, and connected with other concepts
  • Learning to write good prompts is like learning to write good sentences. Each of these skills sometimes seems trivial, but each can be developed to a virtuosic level.
  • If you find yourself reviewing something you don’t care about anymore, you should act
  • Another way to approach this advice is to think about its reverse: what material should you write prompts about? When are these systems worth using?
  • The best way to begin is to use these systems to help you do something that really matters to you—for example, as a lever to more deeply understand ideas connected to your core creative work
  • Prompts are good for knowing stuff as you’re building things
  • Think of knowing syntax while coding. They stay with you over time as you use it.
  • Prompts can trigger other ideas and prompt you to dig into deeper subjects.
  • Good prompts start from ideas and can be connected to knowledge graphs.
  • You can use prompts to memorize quotes and poems you enjoy
  • You can add more content to each card besides the answer (e.g., images)
  • 10 simple cards easily remembered > 1 complex card
  • The longer the time you need to remember knowledge, the more you benefit from simplifying your items
  • We want a minimum amount of information to be retrieved from memory in a single repetition! We want answer to be as short as imaginably possible
  • Well-employed images will greatly reduce your learning time in areas such as anatomy, geography, geometry, chemistry, history, and many more
  • Use mnemonic techniques (e.g., FACE acronym for notes in the piano)
  • Avoid sets (e.g., list of items you need to remember)
  • Use reference labels to simplify knowledge (Title, Author, etc)
  • Prioritize knowledge, learn the basics first and build upon it
  • Add sources to your cards; use reliable sources

How to remember poems

A poem that is hard to remember

  • Q: The credit belongs … (Teddy Roosevelt)
  • A: The credit belongs to the man who’s actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat; a man who knows the great enthusiasm and the great devotions, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who in the end knows the triumph of high achievement, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat

A poem split into easy items

  • Q: The credit belongs … (Teddy Roosevelt)
  • A: to the man who’s actually in the arena
  • Q: The credit belongs to the man who’s actually in the arena …
  • A: whose face is marred by dust and sweat (a man who knows the great enthusiasm)
  • Q: whose face is marred by dust and sweat … (The credit belongs)
  • A: a man who knows the great enthusiasm and the great devotions (who spends himself in a worthy cause)
  • Q: a man who knows the great enthusiasm and the great devotions … (The credit belongs)
  • A: who spends himself in a worthy cause (who in the end knows the triumph of high achievement)
  • Q: who spends himself in a worthy cause … (The credit belongs)
  • A: who in the end knows the triumph of high achievement (so that his place shall never be), etc. etc.

How to split sentences properly

Ill-formulated knowledge – Complex and wordy

  • Q: What are the characteristics of the Dead Sea?
  • A: Salt lake located on the border between Israel and Jordan. Its shoreline is the lowest point on the Earth’s surface, averaging 396 m below sea level. It is 74 km long. It is seven times as salty (30% by volume) as the ocean. Its density keeps swimmers afloat. Only simple organisms can live in its saline waters

Well-formulated knowledge – Simple and specific

  • Q: Where is the Dead Sea located?
  • A: on the border between Israel and Jordan
  • Q: What is the lowest point on the Earth’s surface?
  • A: The Dead Sea shoreline
  • Q: What is the average level on which the Dead Sea is located?
  • A: 400 meters (below sea level)
  • Q: How long is the Dead Sea?
  • A: 70 km
  • Q: How much saltier is the Dead Sea than the oceans?
  • A: 7 times
  • Q: What is the volume content of salt in the Dead Sea?
  • A: 30%
  • Q: Why can the Dead Sea keep swimmers afloat?
  • A: due to high salt content
  • Q: Why is the Dead Sea called Dead?
  • A: because only simple organisms can live in it
  • Q: Why only simple organisms can live in the Dead Sea?
  • A: because of high salt content

References:

  • https://www.supermemo.com/en/blog/twenty-rules-of-formulating-knowledge
  • https://gwern.net/spaced-repetition