I find everything fails eventually anki, Zettelkasten, markdown, text files, obsidian, one note, wiki, notion etc.
You need to very clearly define what you want and you should know how your brain works. Some people want loose links to job memories, some people think slower but more deeply. Some people get math better than biology, and so on and so on.
You should have a good idea how you learn and what you are good/bad at. Then develop a system that works with YOUR brain. Also you must emotionally accept you aren't going to get it right the first couple times.
Very good point. Just like I only learned how to properly study in the last 2-3 years of university (which was quite a 'perfomance' increase, i.e. time spent studying decreased quite a lot yet grades went up; partially driven by the topics being more interesting, but still..) I tried a bunch of things. Only to figure out that the exact tool used doesn't matter a lot, it just needs to be easy enough to work with and preferrably plain text - I settled with Obsidian in the end because it's simply pretty good at what it does, and FF Simple Tab Groups for links used often.
What did matter is that I needed to use the tool consistently and not be like 'oh let's quickly add a text file with a note on my desktop' or 'oh here's a shiny new tool let's take some notes in it and paste some bookmarks in it'. That, and figuring out categories: not too much, not too little.
Stinos - I'm curious what techniques you learned that made such a difference in your studying. I still struggle and believe it's technical, so am grateful for your sharing any details you can!
Unfortunately a) this happened like 20 years ago and I don't remember all details b) I'm not very good at explaining things especially not when it comes to explaining thought processes. Which in any case is a very personal thing, so it's not because it works for me that it works for you. Could be, or not. Basically the point I was trying to make earlier :)
Anyway here's an attempt: key for me was first getting a proper, deep understanding of how something works. At that point I would just spend time doing that alone, not caring about how, not caring about spending extra time on reading on tangential topics which wouldn't even be part of the exam. Just internalize the principle. Can't explain how that works, sorry.
After accomplishing that, I'd just read through the text once or twice more to pick up some details. Or in case of math for instance to go over some proof again to make sure the individual steps are also clear. Turned out that's then enough to almost completely memorize the whole thing. I.e., as opposed to just starting with the idea of memorizing everything through merely repetition.
I'd visualize the principle of why that meomrization works as a tree: the phase where the understanding is built is like a leafless tree in winter where it's not too hard to remember the location of the main branches. Once that is done, it's easier to 'hook' details onto that: the smaller branches attached to the bigger ones. And then the leaves onto that. Same tree, same shape, just more detail.
Whereas when I was younger studying would often basically be the counterpart: starting by memorizing the location of one single leaf, then another one, and so on. Often never seeing the shape of the whole tree in the end, and obviously also often forgetting the location of many leaves.
Stinos - you rock. This rings true for me and is very helpful! Thank you.
Going to keep this handy.
I've had a gripe with fragmented learning and memorization approaches. They just don't work for me long term. Many methods rely on silly imagery to make something memorable.
I do think visualization is key, but using it as a part of deep understanding rings true on a deeper level. Rather than using visualization for a false scaffolding, the way you are using it, the imagery becomes a true working model and seems much faster for the intuition to work with rather than translating the pieces to reconstruct meaning, the meaning is inherent in the image.
you can use any of those tools with the wrong technique and get zero effect, or any with the right technique and get the full effect.
at the end of the day the tool is irrelevant, except in the sense that you stuck with it because you enjoyed using that tool with the right technique.
in my case, I've stuck with anki with great results. but only after i started writing my own notes and developed my personal system for them. but it's true it never used to work too well when i downloaded other people's stuff.
I don’t think this is true. I’ve been using a folder full of text files for 10+ years now and still use it basically the same way I did when I started (now with Ulysses rather than NValt, but few technique changes).
For me this is because I just slotted it in as the answer to the mental question “where should I write this down?” I don’t take notes because I think taking notes is good, I take notes because I want to remember things or be able to find them later.
You need to very clearly define what you want and you should know how your brain works. Some people want loose links to job memories, some people think slower but more deeply. Some people get math better than biology, and so on and so on.
You should have a good idea how you learn and what you are good/bad at. Then develop a system that works with YOUR brain. Also you must emotionally accept you aren't going to get it right the first couple times.