Myth: SuperMemo will overwhelm you with work

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Myth

A myth says that as you add more material to SuperMemo, your repetition loads grow beyond being manageable. No item added to SuperMemo is considered "memorized for good". For that reasons, all items are subject to review sooner or later. There must therefore be an inevitable increase in the cost of repetitions

Fact

It is true that a large number of outstanding repetitions is the main excuse for SuperMemo drop-outs. However, life shows that, with the constant daily learning time, the acquisition of new knowledge does not visibly slow down in time except for the very first couple of months. In other words, from a long-term perspective, the acquisition of new knowledge is almost linear. Older items are repeated less and less frequently leaving room for new material. The exponential nature of this "fading" explains why we can continue with a heavy inflow of new material for decades

Priority queue

In incremental reading, the number of new items can be huge. They are handled with priority queue, which makes it possible to neglect low priority material.

Further reading

Myth busting is an important mission at SuperMemo Guru. We tackle myths about memory, learning, creativity, SuperMemo, and incremental reading. Please write if you want a myth busted or if you disagree