5 ANKI MISTAKES

AND HOW TO AVOID THEM

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INTRODUCTION

I first learned about Anki and spaced repetition two years ago. I
was excited. The possibilities! To learn faster. To forget nothing.
No more struggling with tests. No more wondering what a book
that Id already read was about. No more forgetting a piece of
code, a command line flag, or the order of function arguments.
And that was only the beginning of my ambition. The party tricks,
oh god, the party tricks! I could learn to recite the presidents
backward. Women would throw themselves at melike invasive
Asian Carp leaping into a boat motoring down the Mississippi.
Id have women and prestigethe prestige! Id be the next Isaac
Newton, connecting concepts across disparate fields. But
smarter. Like Isaac Newton if Isaac Newton had known about Adderall. Slicing through philosophical quandaries. No problem too
big! The Millennium Prize would be a tiny step on my giant journey.
Today, Im still excited about Anki. Ive memorized 11,688 virtual
flashcards, as of this writing. I know more now than Ive ever
known before.
Sure, some of my expectations didnt pan out. I havent made progress on those Millennium problems and, most of the time,
women dont throw themselves at me.
But some of it has. I have a couple party tricks, and an arsenal of
anecdotes that borders on annoying. Perversely, writing is harder
these days because theres so much I could tell you.
Like about Kim Peek, the guy who could read two pages at a timeone with each eye, and had perfect recall of every book he
read.
But Ill have to save that for a future email.
I do sometimes make connections across subjectsits a rush. I
like to think that I think more interesting thoughts, that I more often have something novel and relevant to inject into a discussion.
Listen: I made a lot of mistakes. I fucked up a lot of cards. I
mean, I dont know if Id say the experience was hard won. I
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didnt exactly go through a world war or an amputation.

But Ive spent a lot of time on a lot of reviews.
So here I am, writing. Still excited about Anki. Im
going to tell you about 5 mistakes that I routinely
see beginners makeand that I made, and what
you can do to avoid them.

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1. NOT THINKING
OF CARDS AS
CUES.

When I first got into Anki, I had this naive model of how my own
memory worked.
That model did not survive experimental testing.
Example: I believed that, once something had been memorized,
it could be recalled whenever I needed to know it.
This is not at all the case. Not even close. I mean, were talking
distance between planets not even close. Distance between me
and my exes close.
You know. Not close.
Memory limitation #1: You can only recall a subset of relevant
things that you know at any time.
You can verify this fact yourself. Sit down and sketch up a grocery list. Spend 15 minutes and try to make it exhaustive. Try to
remember everything that you need.
Then, come back to this list, say, tomorrow morning. I guarantee
that youll realize that youve missed a few things.
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Listen: This naive conception of memory leads

to at least one substantial failure modememorizing things only one way.
Heres the problem: when you memorize something, your brain doesnt strip that something of
its context. Its not just an abstract entity floating
around in your head.
No, its deeply entwined with that context.
Say youre trying to learn a new vocabulary
word, like bellicose. To do so, you write example
sentences, getting a feel for it.
Except each of your example sentences has to
do with hippo wrestling. Stuff like, The bellicose
hippo thought he had the upper-hand, until I unleashed my signature move: the hungry hungry
headlock.

Dont do that. Or, rather, dont do only that.

Think about what it means to know a word.
You need to understand both its definition, and
you need to know when to use it. That means
you need to associate the word with the definition and vice versa.
If you just memorize hagiography->definition,
youll recall the definition whenever you see the
word hagiography.
But when youre in a situation where you want to
say adulatory writing about another person,
youll be pulling your hair, thinking: what was that
word again?
Treat flashcards as behavioral cues. Memorize backwards and forwards.

Now, the word bellicose and the idea of hippo

wrestling are linked in your mind. Whenever you
think of one, youll think of the other.
Takeaway: Think of Anki cards as cues for certain thoughts. On the face-up side, you put the
cue. On the other side, place the thought you
want to have.
Each card is cementing a connection between
two things.
Back to the vocab example.
You want to absorb some new word. Like hagiography.
A beginner will make one card: hagiography on
the cue side, and the definition on the other side.
In this case, adulatory writing about another person.

2. USING
MULTIPLE DECKS.

It springs upon us, unbidden, while were doing whatever. (And

by whatever, I mean showering, because thats where it usually
strikes.)
The world shifts beneath us. In the restructuring that follows,
something heretofore unseen is obvious. Two separateappearing things are revealed to be one. A unificationlike the
triggering of a fusion bomb.
Eureka! Two phenomena are just elaborations on one concept.
Insight! Im talking about insight.
If you think back to your last aha! moment, youll find that it fits
into a broader pattern. Its when you realize that two things that
you thought were unrelated actually have an intimate connection.
And its not just any two things. Its going to be two things that
youd been thinking about recently.
Example: I had one Anki card on the structure of the naive fibonacci algorithm. The computation is in the shape of a tree, which
implies that the algorithm is exponential.
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I also had a card about a concept called a pedigree collapse. The basic idea is that, if you chart
everyones family tree, eventually you run out of
enough people on Earth. The chart collapsesthe whole thing gets more incestuous.
After thinking about both of these things, I had a
eureka moment. The pedigree collapse is a necessary fact of exponential growtha family tree
looks just like the calculation of that naive Fibonacci algorithm.
These two facts about the world are intimately
connected! They can both be represented in the
same way.
My point: Insight is the process of connecting
two things that dont seem connected. A necessary (but not sufficient) condition for insight is the
activation of both concepts in memory during a
short-enough time periodsay an hour.

Not just once in a blue moon, either, but each

day youre going to be reviewing dozens of otherwise unconnected facts.
Each ripe for insight.
Heres how to fix this if you have multiple
decks:
1.

On Ankis main screen, click browse.

2.

Navigate to a deck, select all your cards,

then click change deck near the top of the
program.

3.

Combine two decks.

4.

Repeat until everything is combined.

This production of insight is facilitated by the pairing of unnatural things. Its impaired by categorizing information by subject.
If you think about biology as biology and physics
as physics, youll miss all the ideas that can
transfer between the two. The most fertile ground
for insight!
So: Dont categorize your flashcards into different decks.
Mix them all together! Anki is a perfect vehicle
for the creation of insight, a creative catalyst. The
cards are naturally shuffled such that, as long as
you adopt a 1-deck system, unnatural concepts
will end up paired.

3. USING
FOUND DECKS.

Im not a bird.
But if I were a bird, Im pretty sure that Id be the kinda bird that
has to make his own nest.
Just imagine how annoying the alternative would be. Youd find
some other birds nest and set up camp.
And everything would be okayat least until you started sneezing
and itching all over. Because this nest is made out of hay.
Hay, of all things! What kind of birdbrain makes a nest out of hay!
Or, at least, thats how I imagine it.
Listen: Anki decks are like that bird nest, but even more so.
If you download someones premade deck and try to use it,
youre gonna have a bad time. It just doesnt work.
For two reasons:
1. Making your own cards is an integral part of the learning
processand if you dont learn before you review, its horrible.
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Worse than a slog, its the hideous trek back to

civilization after surviving a plane crash.
2. Your brain is weird. Its uniqueshaped by
some part genetics and some part experience. You need a nest that befits such a brain.
The takeaway: Always make your own decks.
Customize them to you. As much as possible.
That brings me to my next point.

4. NOT
REFERRING TO
PERSONAL
MEMORIES.

When first starting with Anki, there is this impulse to write flashcard questions as if you were writing a classroom test. Such
cards tend not to rely on any specific knowledge that you yourself posses, but instead are suitable for some generic person
that would want to learn these things.
This is understandable. After all, for more than 10 years of your
life youve been conditioned to associate learning with education;
knowledge with tests.
So you end up with this concept of what a question ought to look
like, and its modeled after what you saw in school.
Dont do this.
Think, instead, about everything you know as a spiders web.
When memorizing something new, your sole job is to connect
that concept to all the relevant things you know.
If you just memorize a definition, for instance, thats like connecting something to the outside of your web.

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You want to do the opposite. Push new concepts

as deeply into the middle of your web as possible.
Connect it to everything.
Listen: Your memory is a messy place. You dont
have a biology category in your head. There is
no mental organ specifically for biology, nor one
specific to math.
So dont act like you do. Connect everything:
math, embarrassing moments from adolescence,
sexual fantasies. Everything.
How? Connect new Anki cards to as many of
your memories as possible. Heres a secret.
When learning a new concept, ask yourself,
What does this remind me of? and make a flashcard out of that connection.
Use your emotions. Dreg up personal memories,
and for the love of Zeus use those. If the word lugubrious reminds you of the time your pet rabbit
died, create a card like, This word describes
how I felt after Bugs died.
Your memory is a spiders web. Connect everything. Make it personal.

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5. FOCUSING ON
MEMORIZATION,
AND NOT
KNOWLEDGE.

In the public discourse, theres this sort of dichotomy about education. The argument is over whether children ought to learn via
rote memorization or by, you know, actually understanding how
things work.
This leads to very confused new Anki users.
See, theres one problem with the debate. You need both. The
goal of all learning is to affect long-term memory.
At least the platonic idea of learning. If youre cramming for a test
so that you can get a job that will not have anything to do with
what youve learned in college, it might be perfectly rational to forget everything.
But, if youre learning a language, or a new skill, you want to retain it over the long-term. You want to build up your knowledge
brick by brickconfident that youre not going to forget the basics.

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of course, this is not to imply that Im arguing for

rote memorization. My position could be
summed up as: First understand, then memorize.
My point: Anki is not a memorization tool. Its a
learning tool. When youre racking your brain, trying to figure out what you should memorize, your
brain jumps to dumb examples.
Stuff like, I could remember capitals or presidents or the periodic table.
Thats because youre thinking in terms of memorization.
Listen: Dont go about your Anki usage this way.
Dont memorize. Learn.
Dont ask, What should I memorize? Ask yourself, Whats interesting? and start there.

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SUMMING IT UP

1.

Anki cards are cues. Let how you want to use the knowledge in the world shape your cues. Memorize definitions
from word->definition and from definition->word.

2.

Dont use multiple decks. Insight is the product of serendipitous pairing of two seemingly unrelated ideas. Mix all your
cards together.

3.

Make your own decks. Your mind is uniquethere is no one

size fits all.

4.

Refer to personal memories. Memory is like a spider-web.

The more personal the connection with a new idea, the better.

5.

Dont think in terms of memorization. Think in terms of

learning and interest. Dont ask, What should I memorize?
Ask, What am I interested in? and start making cards out of
that.

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FURTHER
READING

For more on creating good Anki cards, check out Supermemos

Twenty rules of formulating knowledge.
For an introduction to the science of spaced repetition, see
Gwerns excellent introduction.
For a broader overview of promising learning techniques from
cognitive science, this is the best introduction.
If you want a better handle on how your memory works, I recommend this book.

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