I think most of us agree that flash cards apps like anki with all the benefits that they have have some fundamental issue and that is losing the bigger picture. Flashcard apps turn information into such a little piece of data that through time and process of learning it will be hard to connect this information together and see everything as a whole.
But some add ons like ‘‘hjp-bilink: a manual link tool, for chain the cards together| hjp-bilink: 手工双链插件’’
Help to reduce the plain of this problem by linking cards together. But unfortunately this method only works on anki desktop not Android and it is prone to breaking upon anki updates. So is it possible to integrate this feature into anki and ankidroid?
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https://docs.ankidroid.org/help.html
I could live without linking *), but we all are different.
*) the beauty with tags is that you suddenly find connections you didn’t expect and learn rather than having fixed links done by others.
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I think that fixed links solve a use case within Anki that tags do not.
If you use custom note types in order to provide different cards a mechanism to link 2 notes together for the purposes of scheduling would improve Anki.
An example of that is learning languages, where (for example) you may have a note type for nouns, and another for verbs. You may wish to learn both a noun and a verb using the same word root (especially when at the very beginner stage) - but for maximum benefit of the FRS algorithm it would be best for cards from both note types not to be shown during the same session. That requires a link between the 2 note types that the scheduler understands.
PS. using a single note type for all word types is not feasible
Anki is wonderful for its intended method of memorizing by repeatedly banging something into your head. However, memorization is actually done by association of ideas. I think linking cards together has to be an integral part of any learning or knowledge base. If Anki allowed linking it could soon compete with other Zettelkasten apps like Obsidian and Notion with the added advantage of excellent spaced repetition.
I get you and share your thoughts. In fact, this is a feature that has been suggested now and then both here and in the subreddit forum over time.
I believe the main obstacle to effectively implementing this feature is the fact that Anki uses a relational database (SQLite3, if I’m not mistaken) while the kind of database that supports linking entries is called graph database.
Graph databases are perfect to store the kind of knowledge that have complex retionships, change and grow over time, can be ambiguous, etc., in other words, it’s perfect to store knowledge graphs.
I remember reading in the book Peak, by Professor Anders Ericsson, that the proccess of learning corresponds to the proccess of creating effective mental representations, i.e. structures, patterns, details, etc., then applying deliberate prectice to keep it in your long term memory (that’s what Anki does).
Let me quote the book:
A mental representation is a mental structure that corresponds to an object, an idea, a collection of information, or anything else, concrete or abstract, that the brain is thinking about. (…) A key fact about such mental representations is that they are very “domain specific,” that is, they apply only to the skill for which they were developed. (…) The thing all mental representations have in common is that they make it possible to process large amounts of information quickly, despite the limitations of short-term memory. Indeed, one could define a mental representation as a conceptual structure designed to sidestep the usual restrictions that short-term memory places on mental processing. (…) So everyone has and uses mental representations. What sets expert performers apart from everyone
else is the quality and quantity of their mental representations. Through years of practice, they develop highly complex and sophisticated representations of the various situations they are likely to encounter in their fields—such as the vast number of arrangements of chess pieces that can appear during games. These representations allow them to make faster, more accurate decisions and respond more quickly and effectively in a given situation. This, more than anything else, explains the difference in performance between novices and experts.
So, mental representations and knowledge graphs are correlate concepts and I know that there are softwares that are good at storing mental representations (e.g. Obsidian), while Anki and similar softwares are good at promoting deliberate practice. I believe, though, that a software that combined the efficacy of SRS with the power of knowledge graphs would be a game changer and become as relevant as Wikipedia is (in fact, Wikpedia itself can be structured as a huge knowledge graph).
I’ve read posts about work arounds some Anki users have developed to deal with this limitation before, such as creating custom note types or developing add-ons to cross-reference cards, but I believe we all agree that these are sub-optimal solutions. If Anki supported knowledge graphs natively the users would be able to do powerful things like, for example, training the ability to recognize patterns (instead of one element at time) or to identify multiple ways to respond to complex real-life situations.
I don’t believe Anki will go trough such a change in the near future, though, as it’d mean rewriting the source code from scratch or at least the part that has to do with the scheduler.
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very pathetic,
in many times i have told the solution, but no body cares.
ok, let them re-invent the wheels themselves.
i just need some popcorns.
even more pathetic is some political correctness taliban murdering other’s freedom of speech.
An attitude like that does not help to sell your case.
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i want to add that plugin works ONLY in windows, must be install version, cant even the portable anki version that one could DIY
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honestly, GPT4 empowred me much, for anki, i yelled that the browser should also change the main window’s deck; no body agree. yet i could use < 1 day to write a python addon to do that; I have DOZENs of such application cases for mindmanager, python, javascript (tooltip to show URL in anki’s reviewer), among others. Yes, it used up some time, but if you DID want that to happen, if overall it WILL save you time in the long run, it WORTH to do it that way.
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as a fans of FOSS, it is very very sad to have 1000+ foss notepad.exe but no a reasonable good one. notepad++ is the most close answer but it’s written by someone who want to be independent from it’s motherland (according to UN), the author DID put politics into the program… nightmare. i mean foss runs this way – almost never will be perfect.
Thank you gbrl.sc for your detailed and supportive reply.
I am not knowledgeable about the difference between a relational database and a graph database. I thought that Notion was basically a relational database, and a Notion database can also have self relations, i.e. pointers to other entries in the same list. So I don’t understand any restriction. Would you mind trying to explain it to me?
Hey, thank you so much for such a great explanation.
Can you please mention the add-ons people have build for cross-referencing cards?
I too have built one on my own but couldn’t publish it because it is not polished enough to be published yet and I will surely be publishing it soon.