My flashcard refactoring for today is a reminder of the classic knowledge construction advice: do not add what you do not understand. It is also a reminder of the importance of providing enough related cards in your deck for a piece of knowledge.
Here’s the card I came across that was giving me trouble, related to SQL programming (double-sided):
- Side 1: Oracle SQL syntax for creating object table
- Side 2: CREATE TABLE (table name) OF (object type)
When revisiting this card, I realized that I didn’t have a good concept of what “object tables” are, so this is definitely a case of not understanding the material before committing it to spaced repetition.
But the thing is, I wouldn’t have added it if I didn’t have a good understanding of object tables, at the time of adding knowledge to my spaced repetition system. The problem is I forgot the concept of “object tables”, and seeing the answer to this card was not enough to bring it back. I didn’t have any other cards in my deck about “object tables” and how they differ from other related concepts in Oracle SQL such as nested tables.
In a situation like this, it helps to go back to the source, clarify any misunderstanding, and add new cards that solidify your knowledge.
So, in this case, I looked up Oracle documentation and found a great article almost immediately that clarified the meaning. It also provided a bunch of useful nomenclature for closely related concepts, providing further scaffolding for the knowledge. This lead me to add a bunch of cards:
- Card 1 (Cloze): Objects can be stored in two types of tables: [object tables] and [relational tables].
- Card 2 (Basic 1-sided Q&A):
- Q: What’s the difference between object tables and relational tables? (Oracle SQL)
- A: Object tables store only objects Relational tables store objects with other table data
- Card 3 (Basic 1-sided Q&A):
- Q: What does each row represent in an object table? (Oracle SQL)
- A: An Object
So to recap, here the main lessons from this refactoring:
- Don’t add stuff to spaced repetition that you don’t understand
- Make sure you add enough knowledge about the concept in your deck, so there is sufficient context for you to understand again when you forget
- When dealing with 1 or 2, the solution is to go back to the original source to understand the knowledge and add more relevant material.
For access to my shared Anki deck and Roam Research notes knowledge base as well as regular updates on tips and ideas about spaced repetition and improving your learning productivity, join “Download Mark’s Brain”.
For access to my shared Anki deck and Roam Research notes knowledge base as well as regular updates on tips and ideas about spaced repetition and improving your learning productivity, join "Download Mark's Brain".