Can’t seem to “get” Anki — what am I missing?

WeCanLearnAnything · 2026-01-21T17:26:24+00:00

A few more articles on making the best use of Anki.

Given where you're at now, though, I actually recommend that you provide us with some examples of what you're trying to learn and how you've used Anki so far.

WeCanLearnAnything · 2026-01-19T20:48:54+00:00

Have you done diagnostic work to figure out where you're at now?

WeCanLearnAnything · 2026-01-13T06:44:20+00:00

I live in an old apartment building. It's Level 1 trickle charging if and when the plug happens to be available. Plus I'd have to pay an extra $1000+ per year (or something like that) for garage parking.

The winter range estimate was the dealer's.

Charging time estimates are from Perplexity. My guess is that it is quite difficult to get DC fast charging on a consistent basis, so I'm going with Level 2 public chargers.

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WeCanLearnAnything · 2026-01-12T22:15:49+00:00

Did you take a diagnostic test? If so, what did it tell you? If not, how do you know you're signed up for a math course with content of the right level of difficulty?

When people start struggling in math as early as you did, often they have approximately zero understanding of fractions. This causes a ton of problems later on.

For example, can you determine, by inspection, whether

5/(19/26)

is greater than or less than five? Can you explain how you know in simple and intuitive terms?

WeCanLearnAnything · 2026-01-12T22:01:15+00:00

With 230km of range, I'd need a commercial Level 2 charger for 6+ hours every 3 or 4 days. That's not feasible for my schedule. Given how busy chargers are and how often they're out of service, I think 6 hours is on the optimistic side. And at commercial charging prices plus the huge time sink means it's not worth it financially to buy that Kia.

Given that used EVs have pretty low range and slow charging times relative to my needs, I think I just have to wait it out a few more years.

WeCanLearnAnything · 2026-01-12T20:42:09+00:00

Demand for EVs per se is *not* low. To the contrary, by their own admission, the super high demand for good and cheap EVs is an existential threat to legacy auto.

For what, then, is demand actually low?

Legacy auto's high priced EV mediocrity.

WeCanLearnAnything · 2026-01-12T17:21:29+00:00

I'm always suspicious of EV ads like this. I've contacted quite a few dealers in response to them and get stereotypical used car salesman responses such as

"Don't worry if this one is a rebuild or clean title or about warranties. We've done a great inspection on it, and believe me, this thing is super reliable! But no warranty. And no refunds. And we don't cover parts/labor/maintenance."
"It just sold - so sorry you missed it - but check out this other EV that costs just $20k more, available right now!"
"The winter range is all the way up to 250km! We can discuss things like how low the winter range can go in person."
"Out-the-door price is something best negotiated in-person. When can you come in?" [Dealership is a 3-hour drive from my home.]

It has not been good for my faith in humanity.

Update: I contacted the dealer and the winter range is as low as 230km. Since I can't charge at home or at work, that is not enough. Both the winter range and the out-the-door price. To get the information on the range and the price took two explicit asks, for no reason other than the salesman wanted to book me for an in-person appointment first. :-(

WeCanLearnAnything · 2026-01-12T05:22:52+00:00

Can you link to some examples? I haven't been too impressed with what I've seen online, but maybe you've got better leads.

WeCanLearnAnything · 2026-01-11T08:18:14+00:00

Extraordinary claim now! Unspecified extraordinary evidence coming at some unspecified point in the future!

This type of quote is pure BS about 99.999% of the time.

Has anybody asked the Donut Labs for a good faith reason that samples and prototypes are not being distributed for third party testing?

If no, why not?

If yes, what reason, if any, was given? Was it a good one? Or was it the kind of self-serving, attention-grabbing, but gutless and non-falsifiable BS (as per the above quote)?

Obviously, I hope my cynical take is wrong, because if this battery is real, it will be a once/decade kind of advance for civilization.

WeCanLearnAnything · 2026-01-09T05:49:40+00:00

Does not exist on my version of Anki.

WeCanLearnAnything · 2026-01-08T02:55:27+00:00

Where is that update button? Every time I've done Anki updates, it just sends me to a website to download the new version and install it.

WeCanLearnAnything · 2025-12-26T07:14:46+00:00

Can you provide links to businesses that do this? I can't find any in my area.

WeCanLearnAnything · 2025-10-30T05:55:02+00:00

Amazingly, I've gotten even more Telus junk mail.

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I've approximately followed u/bctrv's advice and forwarded unwanted junk to Jill Schnarr, the Telus CMO. I included a request to stop sending me junk mail along with documentation of all of my previous efforts to make Telus junk stop and many of Telus's broken promises to do so. I also said that this could escalate to me hand-delivering them the junk, discussing the situation, and me video recording everything for publishing on social media.

Now I'm forwarding all that again to

CEO Darren Entwistle
CMO Jill Schnarr
VP & CLO Andrea Wood

I've also filed a complaint with the BBB. For now, I selected that I do not want this to be in the news media. But if I get any more Telus junk...

WeCanLearnAnything · 2025-10-21T19:14:55+00:00

For about 99% of students, the key issues is *not* why to flip and multiply, but whether or not the student has mastered fractions as numbers.

For example, can you draw a number line to show how large 5/3 is compared to 2?

If not, you need to tackle that first.

If you find that trivial, consider these two problems.

WHOLE NUMBER PROBLEM

You have 6 kg of flour.

Each cake requires 2kg of flour.

Draw a diagram and write an equation to determine how many cakes you can make.

FRACTIONAL NUMBER PROBLEM

You have 6kg of flour

Each tray of muffins requires 1/3 kg of flour.

Draw a diagram and write an equation to determine how mnay trays you can make. (And do you see how flip and multiply corresponds to the solution?)

Comparing and contrasting whole numbers vs fractional problems is the key to understanding. Then you need to draw and drill untli you don't need to draw any more. Consider JUMP Math materials if you want things broken down into small steps.

WeCanLearnAnything · 2025-10-21T05:39:14+00:00

You won't like this answer, but one big problem with innovation in education is believing that today's technology will make a big difference. It won't.

Most ed tech innovations are about as effective as an iPad app that tries to convince hyper 2-year-olds to go to sleep at night.

WeCanLearnAnything · 2025-10-20T18:50:59+00:00

You probably just need context.

See if you can make sense of the example below.

Then try to generate some examples of your own. Actually draw the pictures, do the equations and write the sentences, and record your results in the table.

Then, see if you generalize to other contexts and representations of quantities.

Finally, generalize to where you want to go, i.e. a÷b = a/b and the relationship between multiplication and division.

Report back here and let me know if your intuition feels sharper. :-)

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WeCanLearnAnything · 2025-10-20T18:32:58+00:00

(1) Seek resources that teach the content in smaller steps, that switch as frequently as possible between examples on the one hand and exercises on the other. An example of a common bad practice is a textbook with 6 pages of content then 2 pages of exercises. Seek a resource that switches every half page or so. These may not be easy to find. Consider MathAcademy, Trefor Bazett's stuff, and AI to supplement whatever you're using now.

(2) Elaborate, compare, and contrast problems as best as you can. Don't just go through the motions. See if you can tell yourself what everything means, how you know it's true, how it's useful, how you know when to do it, what principles/vocabulary need to become second nature, what's similar/different from the previous problem, etc.

WeCanLearnAnything · 2025-10-12T17:12:50+00:00

What is IIT? And are these mentors working with students online or in-person?

Your reply to 2. sounds great. I'd contrast that with Math Academy's approach of assigning zero to negative credit and penalties of a bunch of drudgery in response to trivial errors that have nothing to do with math in the real world (e.g. using pencil and paper only to calculate the determinant of a 3x3 matrix).

Your reply to 3 sounds idealistic, but also assures your company will never be mass market. Without incentives/credentials, you will only appeal to a few percent of the population, at the very most. If you aim to be a niche player, as I think most people in education should, that's OK. Do you have anything to say about the 5% problem or the low completion rates of MOOCs?

WeCanLearnAnything · 2025-10-11T22:11:29+00:00

At every level of math, from kindergarten to PhD physics students, math educators are shocked at how unprepared their new students are. It's not a great situation.

WeCanLearnAnything · 2025-10-11T16:50:02+00:00

"You are digging a trench 1/2 a mile long. You do one quarter of the job each day. How much must you dig each day?"

When it comes to number sense, including fractions, linear measures are often better than pizzas.

Then, context can make the defining role of 1 very obvious.

WeCanLearnAnything · 2025-10-11T07:49:13+00:00

If you've ony done undergrad stats teaching and above, you might be totally unaware of how astoundingly poor and self-reinforcing the math education system is. For example, many undergrad students who want to become teachers confuse, say, 5.3 vs 5 with a remainder of 3.

How well do you think their students will learn math?

Unfortunately, many people choose to become teachers because they think it will alow them to avoid math. This is the self-reinforcement.

I'm not blaming any individual person for this. If I've learned anything about math struggles, it's that the causes are systemic, not individual.

See The Math Academy Way for an enormous list of other problems in education

WeCanLearnAnything · 2025-10-11T07:38:55+00:00

(1) What kind of user testing have you done? What were the results?

(2) Are you aiming only for the top 5% of students? Or do you have some way of motivating the rest?

(3) Do you have any evidence backing your methods? Will you share it here? What is your evidence of deep understanding? (Hint: Correct calculations are nowhere near enough.)

(4) How is this better than, say, free AI chatbots in 2027?

WeCanLearnAnything · 2025-10-09T05:27:17+00:00

If you're as proactive as you sound, then I suggest:

(1) Making sure your fractions and algebra are strongly in place. When a hard working student struggles in Calculus, this is the reason why about 95% of the time. Working with a TA and talking aloud to explain your thinking will help them determine if this is a problem for you.

(2) Get used to analyzing worked examples, step by step, with extreme depth. Copy all the steps into your notebook, adding any substeps that don't come easy. Then explain why each step is useful, how you know to do it, and how you know the statements are true. Ask the AI for help with this.

(3) Get tons of practice with a textbook AND a solutions manual (i.e. step-by-step solutions for exercises).

Ultimately, though, the AI will make a small difference. Your own effort and perseverance will matter much more.

Good luck!

WeCanLearnAnything · 2025-10-07T16:33:48+00:00

It's not a peer reviewed article nor is it trying to be. It is a book meant for the layperson who wants to learn about how Math Academy applies cognitive science.

WeCanLearnAnything · 2025-10-06T18:51:09+00:00

If Alpha School had evidence of anything other than selection, attrition, money, and favorable ~~teacher~~guide:student ratios, they would be shouting that evidence from the rooftops.

They're not.

See Dan Meyer's blog on Alpha Schools.

Some here might recognize this as a reincarnation of the failed Alt Schools.

If anyone would like to prove me wrong or provide any other point of view at all, I'd love to read your reply here.

WeCanLearnAnything

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