Anki

I’m experimenting with a different way of using Anki.

In the past I used it as a memorization tool for language learning. Anki is very good for that. This is a little different.

My anki lexicon is a mental sculpting tool.

The Mental Windwaker

Memorization is of course a big part of that. But another aspect is training the way my mind thinks.

For example, if I want to train my mind to employ second-order thinking more often, I can add a snippet about the topic into my anki deck. It’s not a definition that I need to memorize - I already know what it means.

It’s more of a cue to run my mind through certain processes, light up certain neurons, and strengthen their pathways. It’s very simple, but the potential is exciting.

In this way, I can easily shape my brain with intention. The world already shapes our minds with the chaotic winds of events totally out of our control.
But using Anki in this way lets me take just a little control of those winds.

The Knowledge Repo

It also serves as an overall knowledge repository.Think of how innefficiently we learn sometimes. I know when I learn something in code, such as a solution to a bug, that learning is usually something I will need again in the future.
But unless that problem occurs regularly I tend to foget a large percnt of those solutions right after I use them the first time.

In coding, that can result in hours of struggling over something that I’ve already solved in the past.

Instead, if I add that knowledge as a quick and sloppy Anki card the first time I learn it, then just a few seconds of review every now and then will lock it in, saving me time in the future and accelerating my mastery of the topic.