I like how the "Skip" feature you describe increases the (emotional) signal-to-noise ratio of your flashcards. We flipped this around when developing Traverse: you create tons of flashcards, but only cards for which you activate the "Remember" switch are scheduled for repetition
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Interesting. Why default to having them off? Is it because most “units” in your system aren’t actually flashcards? I watched the video on your web site, and most of the items seem more like notes?
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Indeed it is. You'd take notes as in any note taking app, or even by importing whole articles or other sources, and you turn a very select emotionally resonating set into flashcards
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Only once you turn it into a flashcard do you change the title into a question (and possibly adjust the content to work better as a flashcard rather than just a note)
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It lowers the barrier to writing flashcards. Based on the research you and Michael Nielsen did on writing good cards, does it strike you as a reasonable balance or do you see obvious problems?
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I'm not sure. Incremental formalization is likely a good approach, but I find that refinement is often messier than the atomized blocks in this interface suggest. A note often wants to become 10+ questions; questions may draw on several notes; etc.
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This is part of why my approach to this type of incremental formalization has been very plaintext-centric: it's relatively easy to work at multiple levels of abstraction by smushing text blocks around.
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The real challenge there would be to make moving text blocks around cards in a graph as frictionless and intuitive as within a single document. You'd have to be able to instantly see how it changes hierarchy and flow of your cards
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Right. My approach has been to collapse the hierarchy one level, embedding prompts within larger units of plaintext which themselves are connected in a graph.
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Yeah I noticed how your notes show different levels of hierarchy side-by-side. It's very smooth, no cognitive load. Where do the prompts themselves (with their review history) live? Does it require a second medium (eg. Anki) to do the actual reviews?
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Conceptually, the prompts “live” in the plaintext; one reviews using a separate client built for that purpose (and which tracks history). For me, reviewing is a very different context/stance from writing/editing/thinking. I’m likely to do it while in between things, on my phone.
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Interesting, we took an integrative approach instead (to jot down any amazing thoughts you have while on your phone).
Btw would love to walk you through the app, much inspired by your research (sent you a DM)