Myth: SuperMemo is useless

Myth

SuperMemo is useless. Some people believe that the natural mechanisms of building long-term memories are superior to spaced repetition

Fact

Our brain prefers "easy" over "important". We excel at remembering celebrity trivia. We are dismal at recalling mathematical formulas learned in high school. In addition, those who deny the value of spaced repetition usually fail to appreciate the value of associative memory, or fail to delineate the distinction between cramming facts and learning universal inference rules. See: SuperMemo is Useless and No force in the world can convince me to SuperMemo. A superset technology, incremental reading, seamlessly combines natural learning with spaced repetition. To understand why even this is not enough read: Why is incremental reading not popular?

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