New Flashbang Update: LLM-graded spaced repetition cards

Also, an atomic knowledge structure that makes learning super granular, and cool open source textbooks.

New Flashbang update dropped! If you want to see what it looks like ASAP, skip to the 30 second mark above.

Basically:

Each chapter has 3-5 “atoms,” or main points.

And each atom has 2-5 short, targeted flashcards. You review these cards by typing their answers in and getting graded by an LLM.

Your performance on each of the atom’s flashcards is tracked, presenting a multifaceted view of how well you grasp that main point.

This coordinated logging makes all kinds of interesting structures possible. “Knowledge legos” that can relate to each other and across lessons and courses. Excited to experiment with this more.

***

After my last release, I was bummed.

The four-video series I scoped out and researched was a huge amount of work and progress was too slow.

No one seemed to be as obsessed with Cold War eastern Europe as I was, and the demands of curriculum design for a 1989-2020 history were much higher than something with way, way more literature--like a broad survey of world history from 1500 to now.

So I stepped back and reflected. I realized I did not want to give up and so I switched up how I approached the project.

First, I started with the nerve center of the operation: spaced repetition review. I learned how to use the FSRS libraries and got a beginner's level understanding of how its algorithm works.

I integrated a really nice CMS to work with the content, Payload. Then I set up a review in which the user writes their answer in a text box and the LLM grades them.

This was something I've thought about doing since last August.

In the example I used, from an OpenStax open source history book, this was a short chapter on south and southeast Asia in the 16th and 17th centuries.

The chapter held 4 atoms, and each atom had between 2-4 flashcards attached to it.

I'm really, really excited to build these out as "knowledge legos," that can be remixed and recycled and related to bunch of other legos over the course of this course and others.

Feeling freshly invigorated, dreaming of making this a kind of open-access "college general education requirement of the future."

Let me know if you wanna try it out yourself--I'm going to release a live demo to a limited number of people soon I think.

Thanks for reading and please subscribe if you wanna keep getting updates. All the encouragement helps—it feels worth it to keep going.