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Drake Thomas

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I use spaced repetition systems (specifically Anki) for a variety of purposes, and they form a fairly core part of my intellectual environment. Unlike every other such person on the internet, though, I don't think you should obviously use them - if you're like me you probably should, but for many people it might be a bad call! The rest of this page dives into what I see as the pros and cons, and some less standard use cases for spaced repetition that I've found helpful. Spaced repetition software, or SRS, refers to any of a variety of applications for creating flashcard-adjacent content and reviewing these cards over longer and longer intervals as you get to know them better. My impression of the scientific literature is that this is pretty reliably shown to be the best way to establish long-term recall of a body of knowledge, and my ancedotal experience is that it works quite well. To a first approximation, if you want to learn things that can fit in flashcard form, spaced repetition

Drake Thomas Consider Using Spaced Repetition Introduction / TLDR I use spaced repetition systems (specifically Anki) for a variety of purposes, and they form a fairly core part of my intellectual environment. Unlike every other such person on the internet, though, I don't think you should obviously use them - if you're like me you probably should, but for many people it might be a bad call! The rest of this page dives into what I see as the pros and cons, and some less standard use cases for spaced repetition that I've found helpful. What is this thing? Spaced repetition software, or SRS, ref

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