Robert Sobolewski
rs.io · Personal blog · on HN since 2011
Robert Sobolewski writes about learning techniques, especially Anki spaced repetition, along with category theory, statistics datasets, and problem solving.
What HN saysHN commenters link his Anki tips and 10,000-card write-up as useful for studying, and cite his post on the effectiveness of checklists.
16HN people shared it
8linked it in comments
43stories submitted
878story points
5 months agolast shared
2011people per year2026
Most-shared posts
- 1Anki tips3 people · first shared 2017
- 2Anki, Ten Thousand Cards Later2 people · 36 points · first shared 2014 · 2 comments on HN
- 3Why Category Theory Matters2 people · 7 points · first shared 2019 · discussion on HN
- 4Mathematical theory of why something is interesting2 people · 5 points · first shared 2014 · discussion on HN
- 5Interesting Data Sets for Statistics2 people · 1 points · first shared 2015 · discussion on HN
- 6Interesting Data Sets for Statistics1 people · 216 points · first shared 2014 · 17 comments on HN
- 7Why Online Communities Decay Over Time1 people · 158 points · first shared 2014 · 143 comments on HN
- 8I Hate My Smartphone1 people · 120 points · first shared 2011 · 121 comments on HN
- 9The Science of Problem Solving1 people · 120 points · first shared 2014 · 16 comments on HN
- 10Intuition for Simulated Annealing1 people · 67 points · first shared 2014 · 9 comments on HN
- 11Hard Books Are Overrated1 people · 38 points · first shared 2014 · 16 comments on HN
- 12Why Category Theory Matters1 people · 25 points · first shared 2014 · 1 comments on HN
- 13The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Checklists1 people · 20 points · first shared 2014 · discussion on HN
- 14C is a Wasteland1 people · 15 points · first shared 2011 · 15 comments on HN
- 15Statistician on a Plane1 people · 7 points · first shared 2014 · discussion on HN
What HN people wrote when they linked it
lettergram · 2014-05-09
My friend and I have been using this for years. My friend took it pretty serious this year:
http://rs.io/2014/04/05/anki-10000-cards-later.html
It's really useful for courses in college, especially Language, Biology, Chemistry, and Physics for definitions, pronunciations, systems, etc.
Math and Computer Science is a bit hard since a lot of that requires practice and it takes time to figure out how to structure those cards.
Anyways, highly recommend them.
glimmung · 2026-05-31
"The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Checklists" (https://rs.io/unreasonable-effectiveness-of-checklists/) comes to mind.
When I was younger I would have though the same. Now that I have more humility and less working memory, I think differently.
turtleyacht · 2022-11-25
Oh--just that I couldn't understand the first chapter in Stepanov fully on first reading, so I need to read it again (and again, and again).
The Feynman reference is
Well, I asked him, “How can I read it?
It’s so hard.” He said, “You start at the
beginning and you read as far as you can
get, until you are lost. Then you start at
the beginning again, and you keep working
through until you can understand the whole
book.”
—Joan Feynman, Richard Feynman’s sister,
recalling a discussion with her brother
From https://rs.io/feynman-reading-difficult-things/
adbge · 2019-05-04
Neat! I have a similar page I put up at 10k cards. We should be friends
http://rs.io/anki-tips/
gbacon · 2018-08-08
I built an Anki deck to study for the FAA instrument written test and the oral exam portion of the instrument practical test.
Tips and best practices:
* Effective learning: Twenty rules of formulating knowledge[0]
* A list of Anki tips and suggestions that [a medical student] wrote[1]
* Anki Guide for Medical Students[2]
* How to make high quality Anki cards quickly[3]
* Anki Tips: What I Learned Making 10,000 Flashcards[4]
[0]: https://www.supermemo.com/en/articles/20rules
[1]: https://www.reddit.com/r/medicalschool/comments/4ocdyb/a_list_of_anki_…
[2]: https://drwillbe.blogspot.com/2011/08/anki-guide-for-medical-students.…
[3]: https://managingmedicine.org/2013/05/14/how-to-make-high-quality-anki-…
[4]: http://rs.io/anki-tips/
velavar · 2015-07-02
This is the site I usually turn to, when I'm on the prowl for interesting datasets: http://rs.io/100-interesting-data-sets-for-statistics/
These datasets will make for some nice additions to this list.
ralmeida · 2014-05-10
I've used it for 8 months, and did not observe any negative side effects in the nature of those you mention.
One thing that I would consider somewhat of a disadvantage of an explicit repetition system is that you need to really take care of how you engineer the questions to match the way you would normally encounter the knowledge they refer to in real situations.
For example, read the section on "Two-way connections" of this article, also linked somewhere else in this thread: http://rs.io/2014/04/05/anki-10000-cards-later.html
pps · 2017-03-19
Some good resources for beginners:
https://mullenmemory.com/
http://artofmemory.com/
You can't just imagine something and remember it forever, combine mnemotechniques with:
http://www.retrievalpractice.org/
https://www.supermemo.com/en/articles/20rules
http://rs.io/anki-tips/