ebisu

On the scheduling end, I'm surprised the article didn't mention https://github.com/fasiha/ebisu which uses Bayesian statistics. When I was studying Japanese, I was thinking how it's always best to learn words in sentences and that it would be good if the sentences for a particular word were random. Extending that, the sentences could be picked such that the other words are words scheduled for today meaning much more bang for buck per learning hour.

Yeah my current approach for programmatic Anki notes is genanki + using a stable ID as the first field of cards to allow for updates. Great point about ephemeral sentences -- something for me to think about creating an auto-suspension add-on for (I've seen the same issues about memorizing structure). What did you use for scheduling? I've seen ebisu [0] used before but found it difficult to grok. I can say as I've used FSRS [1] within Anki I've started to like its decisions alot. I think the main thing that keeps me from rolling my own Anki is mobile support. I had an Android app once and having to keep up-to-date with all the changing App Store requirements was annoying as hell. Eventually they took down the app for some compliance thing. [0] https://github.com/fasiha/ebisu [1] https://github.com/open-spaced-repetition/fsrs4anki

I really wish something like https://github.com/fasiha/ebisu becomes the norm. That is, the idea of fitting the cards to your time (by prioritising) rather than you having to do everything there software wants. The only bit missing is some algorithm deciding how often to introduce new cards based on your historical data.

It seems from the description that FSRS still puts an exact review date on each card? This feature was pretty much the reason why I stopped using Anki. I'm not in college and not doing exams, I just want to practice when I feel like it, maybe with large breaks between sessions, and not feel like there's a backlog building up. I think Anki is a great app, I just wish there was an algorithm that would just randomly sample cards (with probability proportional to how urgently you need to review it) rather than put a review date on them. Something like https://github.com/fasiha/ebisu but available as an Anki plugin (if that supports custom algorithms on mobile yet?) or a similar app with an open format for cards.

It should be noted that Ebisu currently has a severe flaw that causes it to massively underestimate how well you know a card[1]. The author has been working on a rewrite to fix the issue for a year and a half, and is currently asking for comments on the new API for Ebisu v3 which should fix this issue[2]. (The author argues this never would've caused to you to get suboptimal reviews if you use it in the "just give me a few reviews now" mode, but I'm not personally convinced.) All of that being said, I am a fan of the Bayesian approach Ebisu uses (and Ebisu v3 would allow you to eliminate the awful way SM2/Anki deal with ease factors). Thankfully the v3 Anki scheduler will be pluggable so you'll be able to use Ebisu v3 with Anki on every Anki platform. :D [1]: https://github.com/fasiha/ebisu/issues/43 [2]: https://github.com/fasiha/ebisu/i

I wish that Anki would do some opt-in data gathering and open-source the resulting data. Some really amazing stuff could be done with that! Duolingo open-sourced a data set and a model for learning the best time to present ideas for review; however, the model seems to be extremely limited and I could not get it to work at all. I think the best open source solution here is Ebisu: https://github.com/fasiha/ebisu. It uses a custom statistical model which incorporates the idea of memory half-life, which is supported by learning research.