Tomasz Kuehn

Tomasz Kuehn (b. 1966) is one of co-founders of SuperMemo World. He studied computer science with Piotr Wozniak and Krzysztof Biedalak. He wrote the first versions of SuperMemo for Atari 800 (1988) and Atari ST (1989). He also sold the first 10 copies of SuperMemo 2 using an advert in a computer journal KOMPUTER (January 1989), i.e. two years before the company was formally set up, and a few months before communism collapsed in Poland.

If Kuehn had his way, we might have never used the name SuperMemo. In 1988, he proposed his spaced repetition program be called CALOM for Computer-Aided Learning Optimization Method.

Kuehn has also contributed to SuperMemo by convincing his friend Marczello Georgiew to take on the role of a marketing director at SuperMemo World in 1991. In the same year, he became convinced that the future of computing is Microsoft Windows. At his urging, SuperMemo 6 for DOS was rewritten for Windows in 1992 (Turbo Pascal 1.0 for Windows). SuperMemo 7 for Windows might have arrived 2-3 years earlier as a result.

In 1997, Kuehn suggested Open source SuperMemo for Linux (before the idea of open source took off).

Last but not least, Kuehn convinced everyone in 1992 that the inventor of spaced repetition should wear a suit during our first appearance at CeBIT 1992 in Hannover. A suit was a major investment for a budding company. I never wear suits but keep that early investment in pristine shape in my wardrobe. I am not sure it ever returned its value, but it is sure fun to write about it 32 years later.

This glossary entry is used to explain "History of spaced repetition" by Piotr Wozniak (June 2018)