Hello! If you're reading this, a quick note that this website is from 2021. It's old as hell - I haven't re-read each post (21st of June 2025 Alex talking here) - I am almost certain my beliefs re: flashcards and learning how to learn will have matured in a bunch of ways since writing all of this. But I stand by this project, as I'm still a big anki fan.
Welcome to Teaching You How To Learn!
Quick Mission Statement: The aim of this site is to act as a natural extension of the 80,000 Hours website.
Key Ideas Guide 1: Intro & Mission
(Lack of) learning at school -> empirically backed best ways to learn -> profundity of memorisation -> Anki & benefits.
Key Ideas Guide 2: Learning, Knowledge, Intelligence, Mastery, Anki
Anki isn’t just for memorising facts! What is Anki -> debunking Anki myths -> what is learning, knowledge, intelligence?
Key Ideas Guide 3: Getting Started With Anki
Everything you need to start strong with Anki!
Summary of Key Ideas Guides
I wanted to have a quick summary of each of the key ideas posts as I know they’re a little verbose at the moment - the whole “if I had more time I’d have written a shorter letter” syndrome.
Quick Obsidian Guide
One thing that has become clear from doing 1:1 coaching is that Obsidian is a big part of my learning workflow, but I haven’t yet covered it in detail on this site! To amend this, I’m going to write a quick post outlining some of my main thoughts re: Obsidian, and also add a screenshare video so I can do a quick tour of my space and show some key features.