victorlf
Joined 12 years ago
Karma
170
Submissions
32
Member since
Jul 8
Blog: https://thediligentdeveloper.com
Working on: https://python.cards
View on Hacker NewsRecent submissions
Comment · 2 years ago
This is the basic idea behind https://python.cards, the site I'm building to learn Python with spaced repetition.
The hard thing is building the deck. With pre-built decks I expect to greatly reduce the effort required while getting most of the benefits of spaced repetition learning.
Comment · 2 years ago
It seems the tricky part is motivation. Very few people get excited by card-reviewing itself. The method shines when there is external pressure, such as exams.
I think a sense of community can help provide this motivation (like a group of people all learning at the same time), but it's still tricky.
Comment · 2 years ago
Anki is unbeatable for acing any test with a bounded number of questions [1]. It's been successfully used by some top TV show contestants to remember thousands of words [2].
I've been using it recently to remember recipes and cooking facts, such as the time it takes to boil X vegetable, or the ingredients for some dish.
Apart from language learning and medicine, there's a lack of pre-built decks that you can use to learn topics. I'm building Python.cards [3] to apply spaced repetition to learn Python with pre-built decks, daily reminders, etc. to make it the most convenient.
[1] https://www.thediligentdeveloper.com/spaced-repetition-reall...
[2] https://www.esquire.com/es/tecnologia/a36913467/pasapalabra-...
Comment · 2 years ago
Author here. I created this framework to organize my thoughts and the advice I've given to more junior developers over the years on how to become a better developer.
I'd love to know if you find it useful or miss something.
Comment · 2 years ago
Author here. I created this framework to organize my thoughts and the advice I've given to more junior developers over the years on how to become a better developer.
I'd love to know if you find it useful or miss something.
Comment · 2 years ago
Thanks for the tip! I'll try to fix it.
Comment · 2 years ago
Probably not terrible, but serving a different purpose.
I recommend this interview with Duolingo's founder Luis von Ahn: https://www.npr.org/2020/05/22/860884062/recaptcha-and-duoli...
Comment · 2 years ago
It's weird you didn't find the sign-up box to the waitlist, this is how it should look like: https://imgur.com/a/0ZIbz4p, I actually got some sign-ups from this comment!
Anyway, I can sign you up manually if you wish.
Comment · 2 years ago
Thanks! I definitely will add more examples to the landing page, currently I'm working hard on the decks: pathlib in depth, a tour of the stdlib and Norvig's tricks (a collection of tricks from the Pytydes of Peter Norvig).
I believe the hardest part of using spaced repetition to learn programming is creating good decks, it's a ton of work.
About open sourcing the web app, I might do it. It's a Django app, and I've published some videos while coding it (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCyWUj9r0soytotuuh2JnPrw), so it's no secret.
Comment · 2 years ago
Very interesting. According to the benchmarks, with this algorithm, users can review 20-30% fewer cards than with the classic Anki algorithm.
Just a few days ago, I published a Python implementation of the classic SM-2 algorithm that I use for https://python.cards, but I may switch to FSRS. https://github.com/vlopezferrando/simple-spaced-repetition
Comment · 2 years ago
You may be interested in rust.cards, which I'm also working on :D
Comment · 2 years ago
Many reasons, most of them hypothesis. For one, the book "The programmer's brain" says that spaced repetition is the best way to learn the syntax, idioms, caveats of a programming language, but it's hard to find a product that offers this.
I don't suggest you should learn Python _only_ with python.cards. I assume every python.cards user will be doing some online course, or working with Python, and my decks will just boost their knowledge of the language.
I think a lot of people program in Python but programming in Python is not their main occupation. These people struggle to accumulate knowledge, because they may encounter concepts or APIs only from time to time, and by that time they already forgot.
Also, I want to cover some "unorthodox" topics for which spaced repetition may be specially well suited. For example, I'm building a deck called "A tour of the standard library", where you can learn all the modules that are available, just so you know what is out there, without going deep into it.
Another idea is to have decks to learn all the built-in exceptions by heart, or the nomenclature. I think this helps build a mental model of the width and depth of the language so you can better integrate all the knowledge you find while coding, searching online, or reading code.