People who learn about spaced repetition are always tempted to look for existing decks to memorize, but I think this is a false efficiency. In order to memorize a deck of material, you are going to be dedicating a non-trivial portion of your life to memorizing its content. The time spent actually creating the cards is substantially less than the time spent quizzing for almost any material. I’m not completely against pre-existing decks, but I think people just need to keep perspective.
One of the biggest lessons SRS will teach you is humility: the amount you will ever be able to learn is extremely finite. Use it wisely.
The time is so limited, and yet even the inefficient use of time is better than wasting it completely. Using someone else’s Anki deck may be a way to overcome akrasia. It could make a difference between starting to learn a topic now or postponing it to unspecified “later”.
This said, I personally prefer making my own cards. On the other hand, it is probably not efficient. I just enjoy the feeling of control over the deck. I could probably get the same level of control more efficiently by starting with someone else’s deck and then editing anything I don’t agree with.
People who learn about spaced repetition are always tempted to look for existing decks to memorize, but I think this is a false efficiency. In order to memorize a deck of material, you are going to be dedicating a non-trivial portion of your life to memorizing its content. The time spent actually creating the cards is substantially less than the time spent quizzing for almost any material. I’m not completely against pre-existing decks, but I think people just need to keep perspective.
One of the biggest lessons SRS will teach you is humility: the amount you will ever be able to learn is extremely finite. Use it wisely.
The time is so limited, and yet even the inefficient use of time is better than wasting it completely. Using someone else’s Anki deck may be a way to overcome akrasia. It could make a difference between starting to learn a topic now or postponing it to unspecified “later”.
This said, I personally prefer making my own cards. On the other hand, it is probably not efficient. I just enjoy the feeling of control over the deck. I could probably get the same level of control more efficiently by starting with someone else’s deck and then editing anything I don’t agree with.