Programmable Attention | Spaced Repetition Systems Can Be Used to Program Attention | Spaced Everything | Spaced Repetition Mechanics Create a Sense of Effortlessness | Kawara | Current Conception of Orbit Is Overly Memory-Focused; Where’s the Poetry? | the Dominant Culture Around Spaced Repetition Memory Systems Is Fixated on Meaningless Goals | Collecting Material Feels More Useful Than It Usually Is | Deciding to Remember Something With a Spaced Repetition System Is a Lightweight Gesture | People Underr
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Highlights
- There’s a connection here to “autoplay” functionality in YouTube or Netflix, wherein the software drives you, rather than the other way around. In those contexts, it’s a somewhat adversarial relationship; the aspiration here is to “program yourself” in a way you yourself would endorse. (see also Spaced repetition systems can be used to program attention)
- Experience as a spaced repetition. I’ll keep saying loving words in different ways and forms to nephew so he can internalize it as an inner voice. A repeated line of conversation acts like a reified, embodied reminder, until it becomes a part of his cognitive architecture
- In this sense, “Tools for thought” is a somewhat distorting term. It pushes us to think about “thought” as the end-goal. We’re really trying to construct “contexts for meaning.” Note too that a “context” could be a plain old-fashioned essay!
- You need to make eye contact with the idea.
- The way I add material to memory systems feels like a gesture. It’s something I do habitually, often almost unconsciously. It’s usually not explicitly purposeful—more like a way of mentally “underlining” information. It’s much like how I use the Twitter “like” button. It’s not a bookmark; it’s not a vote; it’s not costly; liking a tweet is a habitual, unconscious way I indicate interest.