Gary Wolf on the history of spaced repetition
This reference is used to annotate "History of spaced repetition" (2018) by Piotr Wozniak
The reward for the best piece of journalism in history of spaced repetition goes to Gary Wolf. In his 2008 article in Wired, he captured of few essential truths about SuperMemo that formed a nice bridge between my thinking and the popular perception of the theory of learning:
Photographers can learn to produce the most arcane effects in Photoshop. Why shouldn't more people be able to master SuperMemo?
"It was never a feel-good product," Murakowski says, and here he may be getting closer to the true conflict that lies at the heart of the struggle to optimize intelligence, a conflict that transcends design and touches on some curious facts about human nature. We are used to the idea that normal humans can perform challenging feats of athleticism. We all know someone who has run a marathon or ridden a bike cross-country. But getting significantly smarter — that seems to be different.
We associate intelligence with pure talent, and academic learning with educational experiences dating far back in life. To master a difficult language, to become expert in a technical field, to make a scientific contribution in a new area — these seem like rare things. And so they are, but perhaps not for the reason we assume.
The failure of SuperMemo to transform learning uncannily repeats the earlier failures of cognitive psychology to influence teachers and students. Our capacity to learn is amazingly large. But optimal learning demands a kind of rational control over ourselves that does not come easily
Wolf's text might have triggered a wider adoption of spaced repetition in competitive services (incl. popular web products like Duolingo or Quizlet).
Quoted excerpts come from the following reference:
Title: Want to Remember Everything You'll Ever Learn? Surrender to This Algorithm
Author: Gary Wolf
Journal: Wired
Date: April 2008
Link: https://www.wired.com/2008/04/ff-wozniak/
Backlink: History of spaced repetition