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Comment by dqpb | Hacker News Reader

If you're interesting in improving your ability to learn, I recommend Learning How To Learn on coursera: https://www.coursera.org/learn/learning-how-to-learn#syllabu...

It discusses the actual science of learning (it does not feature spaced repetition).

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Isn't spaced repetition, like, the principle way of learning ... how can a course on learning not include it?

I didn't think we knew how information is laid down in/by neurons: could you precis this "actual science" that it teaches?

What's weird about the above comment is that this course specifically talks about spaced repetition and active recall as the only ways to learn effectively. I took this course and it revolutionised my life - but mostly because I started using Anki afterwards.

I just checked the course. Spaced Repetition is listed in the glossary of terms, so you're right that it's in there somewhere. I don't remember it as being a primary topic, whereas active recall is primary.

This course also revolutionized my life, but I find spaced repetition to introduce too much pointless overhead. Instead I focus on aggressive active recall until I understand the content and then I move on.

This is exactly why you should take the course. To clear up the misconception that spaced repetition is the principle way of learning.

This is probably one of the best investments most people can make.

Think about it. If you become a more effective learner it can have a huge compounding effect.

This course is one of my favorites. Thanks for sharing it!

I don’t remember if the course says spaced repetition exactly, but active recall testing is featured a lot, and active recall testing is very much an ajacent concept to that.

I think they're orthogonal. You could have spaced repetition without active recall and you could have active recall without ongoing spaced repetition.

I think active recall is the more important fundamental mechanism for learning and the focus on spaced repetition tools detracts from that.

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