I’m rather distracted, forgetful and impulsive – just as most humans. People use different gadgets to focus on what matters: bullet journals, to do-lists and pocket-sized notebooks. I’m currently exploring an alternative: Anki.

Anki has many use cases beyond cramming for exams. We use our memory all the time, and whatever is memory-dependent is potentially ankifiable. I’ve been experimenting with ways to use Anki for procedural knowledge, and for the formation of mental habits specifically.

Examples #

Here are some examples of how others have used Anki to ‘develop a certain mentality’. I know this is a pretty vague goal, but I hope the examples will clarify.

To build a more accurate world model, you could e.g. use Anki to memorise geography facts. My friend Erik leads a group ankifying statistics from Our World in Data. If you want to make Fermi estimates on the fly, you need some data stored in your head.

Similarly, an aspiring superforecaster might memorise forecasting tips and tricks. In Superforecasting, Philip Tetlock characterises the forecasting methods of superforecasters:

In their methods of forecasting they [superforecasters] tend to be:

• Pragmatic: Not wedded to any idea or agenda
• Analytical: Capable of stepping back from the tip-of-your-nose perspective and considering other views
• Dragon-eyed: Value diverse views and synthesize them into their own
• Probabilistic: Judge using many grades of maybe
• Thoughtful updaters: When facts change, they change their minds
• Good intuitive psychologists: Aware of the value of checking thinking for cognitive and emotional biases

One way of translating this to Anki cards is by having a top-level card with front ‘Methods of superforecasters’ and back ‘PAD ProT Go’ (some acronym which is memorable to me), possibly adding cards decoding the acronym (e.g. front: ‘PAD Prot Go - first P’; back: ‘Pragmatic’).

Apparently people (presumably Christians) have ankified parts of the Bible too, as a way to build character.

Why would this work? #

I find Anki quite effective for building mental habits. Here’s my pop psych theory as to why.

Anki review sessions serve as periodic reminders. For example, suppose I want to make more data-driven judgements. Reviewing my Anki deck becomes like an affirmation of faith: each time I open the app, it’s like saying: ‘I’m doing this so I can make decisions grounded in actual data’. I find spaced repetition practise pretty boring, and I guess my subconscious motivational talk helps reinforce the habit.

And when it comes to adopting a certain mentality – being data-driven, making accurate forecasts or, well, being a good Christian – the main bottleneck might be forgetfulness. If only it occurred to you to compare against that baseline, to give probabilistic intervals rather than yes-no answers, or to think of the fifth commandment…

Maybe our schooling system is also supporting evidence that Anki can be used to build mental habits. I assume the ultimate goal of education is to instill certain mental habits. Memorisation is a key part of the humanist education program, tried and tested since the 1500s.

Conclusions #

Erik’s project is called ‘Anki The World’ – I suppose a natural summary of this post is ‘Anki Your Life’. Both students and non-students have a lot to gain from building a consistent spaced repetition habit.