“Mastering any subject is built on a foundation of knowledge: knowledge of facts, of heuristics, or of problem-solving tactics. If a subject is part of your full-time job, then you’ll likely master it through repeated exposure to this knowledge. But for something you’re working on part-time—like myself learning Japanese—it’s very difficult to get that level of practice…

Spaced repetition systems are one of the most-developed answers to this problem. They’re software programs which essentially display flashcards, with the prompt on the front of the card asking you to recall the information on the back of the card…

Less widely known is that a quiet revolution has greatly improved spaced repetition systems over the last couple of years, making them significantly more efficient and less frustrating to use. The magic ingredient is a new scheduling algorithm known as FSRS, by Jarrett Ye.”

From Domenic Denicola.