I retire cards once they reach an interval of 6 months (manually, not with the old add-on).
With SM-2 it is very easy to calculate how many times I’ll see a freshly graduated card (if always answered Good); and I can easily adjust this number of times using the Interval modifier.
Not so with the blackbox FSRS …
Hence my question:
If I had a low Desired retention value (say 70%), could I nevertheless be sure 100% to see a freshly graduated card at least once before my retirement deadline (which I might adjust at any time, say, from 6 to 3 months) ?
P.S.
For anyone interested in the reasoning behind retirement:
For an even easier approach, try the FSRS Visualizer. For instance, the answer to your question with the default parameters is – yes, you’ll definitely see the card at least once post-graduation [based on a 6mo-interval retirement]. But you’ll only see it twice if the first grade you give the card is Again or Hard.
There is no need to retire cards. Using FSRS, if you set your DR to 80%, then it will show you the cards when you have an 80% chance of recalling the information. This is regardless of how often you see it outside of Anki. If you are likely to remember it for 12 years due to seeing it outside of Anki, then it will give you a 12 yr interval.
(You might need to re-optimize the parameters and reschedule the cards based on the re-optimization if you are ever answering your cards any amount of value that is not very close to your set DR.)
In general I do not recommend listening to Matt vs Japan. I don’t know why he would recommend this. I can only assume that he does not understand FSRS, or perhaps he made that advice before FSRS was implemented in Anki.
