Ask HN: Learning tips besides space repetition?

Spaced repetition = information retrieval. You need the other part, encoding information. Best "trick" to encode information effectively is to "make it yours" in the best way you can. Develop, explore, follow rabbit holes, ask yourself questions about what you are learning, engage emotionally with the content, write down what you learn in your own words, etc.

Keep asking "Why" (LLMs are great for this!) until you're satisfied.

There are other learning tips for other areas (e.g. immersion for languages), but I think that one works quite well for STEM fields.

I also like to do organised notetaking via Obsidian, not because I read the notes super often but because the act of organising (and building flashcards while I'm there) is very effective at building understanding.

Spaced repetition => Is it for learning or remembering?

Per my understanding: Learning is the acquisition of new skills or knowledge. Memory is the expression or storage of what you’ve acquired. Learning and memory maintain an interdependent relationship.

What are you trying to do? Learn or remember? The reason I ask is I learn new things, but I don't remember them after a week or a month or two. But I can always pick them up and re-remember if I come across those topics. For example, algorithms, coding problems, system design and such. I don't remember those how many ever times I repeat. But once I start coding, I will take more time but I will solve them (for example).

For the life of me, I couldn't learn reading music score. Tried many times. But I have learnt the skills required to play music (for example) and acquired 'muscle memory' instead for various chords, scales, progressions and such.

For me, Learning is not remembering. Albert Einstein once said, “Never memorize something that you can look up.”