Building Spaced Repetition Flash Cards

01/17/15

So, I've wanted to get into the habit of spaced repetition for pure knowledge information, and by "pure knowledge", I mean knowledge that isn't particularly tied to a set of tasks or processes. Vocabulary, array initialization, system argument access, alphabets, syntax, etc. The things that if you don't use them regularly they just quietly sneak out of your brain, and you have to go find them when you need them.

Spaced repetition is supposedly a means to keep that stuff quickly assessible in the brain. I've known about the concept since college, but I never properly tried it out. I think I have all the infrastructure that adding some folders and flashcards shouldn't be a significant increase in the day-to-day.

So, I will add the following folders to my ' tickler:

• daily flashcards
• every other day flashcards
• weekly flashcards
• monthly flashcards
• bimonthly flashcards
• half-yearly flashcards
• yearly flashcards

And I'll probably keep an hourly flashcards folder in my backpack or in my notebook or on my person somehow. Of course, no plans survive contact with the enemy, so I'll make the folders only as I need to use them, delete folders as they are no longer useful, and add folders as necessary.

Once I get a feeling for the paper version, I will work towards a simple online tool for similar usage, I think.