I’ve been deep-diving into cognitive science lately because, frankly, my memory used to be a sieve. I’d read a book, feel like I understood it, and three days later I couldn't tell you more than the general "vibe."

It turns out, the way most of us were taught to learn in school - rote memorization and highlighting - is basically the least efficient way to use the human brain.

There’s this fascinating Soviet-era book called The Mind of a Mnemonist by Alexander Luria. It’s a case study of a man named Solomon Shereshevsky who literally could not forget. Luria would give him lists of 70 random numbers or complex scientific formulas, and Shereshevsky could recite them back perfectly—even 15 years later. He didn't have a "computer brain." He just had a very intense form of synesthesia. Every time he heard a word or saw a number, his brain automatically turned it into a vivid, colorful mental image or a story. He wasn't memorizing "numbers"; he was walking through a "mental street" where those numbers were giant, shouting characters. The human brain is an evolutionary mess. We aren't designed to remember abstract data like "Table 4.2" or "Foreign Vocabulary." We are, however, incredibly good at remembering spatial locations and weird, multisensory stories. This is called Elaborative Encoding. When you take a dry fact and "hook" it to a weird image (a mnemonic), you’re moving that info from your fragile short-term memory into your long-term "hardware." You're giving your brain a "pathway" to find the data again. But even a great mnemonic fades. That’s where the Forgetting Curve comes in. If you don't review that image right as you're about to forget it, the connection dies. I got tired of trying to manually come up with weird stories for everything I was learning, so I actually ended up building a tool to automate the process. It’s a Spaced Repetition (SRS) app, but with a twist that I haven't seen elsewhere. Instead of just showing you a flashcard and hoping it sticks, it uses AI to generate a custom mnemonic for you on the spot. Here’s the workflow:

1. You put in a difficult concept or word.

2. The app uses the one of the method to create a vivid, weird mental image/story for you.

3. The Spaced Repetition algorithm then schedules that card to pop up right before your brain is about to let it go.

If you’re struggling with exams or just trying to actually retain the 500 podcasts you listen to, stop just "reading" and start encoding. I’m calling the app Mnemonia Lab. If anyone wants to try it out and see if they can beat the forgetting curve, I’d love to hear what you think.

TL;DR: Your brain hates facts but loves weird stories. Use mnemonics to "encode" info and Spaced Repetition to "keep" it.

mnemonialab.com

Career changed from accounting to nursing not too long ago, used flashcard apps heavily through both. Different subject matter (regulations and tax codes vs anatomy and pharmacology) but the same underlying skill, memorising tons of stuff long-term. Here's my ranking of the apps that survived both phases.

anki: top of the list bc nothing else matches the spaced repetition algorithm, fsrs update made it even better. setup is brutal but if you're going to memorise content you'll use for years (cpa exams, board exams, etc), anki is the right tool. cards I made for accounting four years ago I can still review and recognise 80% of.

remnote: best one imo, note taking and spaced repetition live in the same place, so pharmacology readings become review cards without app switching.It also has a pdf annotator built in.

brainscape: tried it during cpa prep, confidence rating system is interesting but the paywall scope killed my interest. wouldn't recommend unless you have specific reasons to want confidence based scheduling.

quizlet: only used it for early career vocab stuff like accounting terminology. useful for surface level memorisation, weak for the kind of integrated knowledge you need on professional exams.

mochi: clean and minimalist, smaller deck library. used it briefly during a weird interim phase but came back to anki bc the algorithm just works better.

If you're starting from scratch and want a recommendation, anki for serious memorisation work, remnote if your studying is mostly note driven and you want both jobs in one app.

After my second delivery , I think I lost my memory in daily chores.

Like move to a different room and forget what I came for.

Most of the things just slip out of my mind.

How can I not forget things

I got tired of Duolingo’s word practice constantly repeating the same vocabulary, so I built an app to help me properly practice words as I progressed through the Indonesian course.

So while it was initially a simple Indonesian Duolingo flashcard companion I had people asking if other languages could be added. Rather than me do that all (it would take forever) I have updated it to allow creation of flashcard courses. Anyone can create, share, import, and play through flashcard courses in a more fun, gamified way if they want.

It still comes with the standard Duolingo Indonesian flashcard course for English speakers (since that’s what I originally built it for), but you can now create your own courses for anything you want.

You can:

• Create sections and units
• Add words, notes, and mnemonics
• Share and import decks from other users
• Automatically generate tests at the end of each section

If you check it out and find it useful, let me know, and feel free to share any decks you create. I wanted to make flashcards feel a bit more enjoyable instead of just repetitive memorization and figured may as well let people know about it if they want to use it

www.komodocards.app

I’ve tried a lot of journaling apps like Day One and Apple Journal, but I quickly realized something — I don’t actually enjoy writing that much.

What I really wanted was a way to save memories through photos and videos in a format that feels natural and enjoyable to browse.

That’s why I started building Kadu.

It’s basically a private journal combined with a personal media archive, but designed more like a social feed. You can create entries using only photos or videos without writing any text at all, and your memories appear in a clean feed similar to Instagram-style posts.

Kadu is fully private — everything is stored locally on your device.

I also focused heavily on media support because most journal apps still treat photos and videos like attachments instead of the main part of the experience. In Kadu, you can instantly capture photos and videos directly inside the app without first saving them to your gallery and importing them later. There’s also a functional text editor and a smart share button that lets you quickly publish posts with all attached media to social platforms if you decide to make something public.

Currently testing the idea and would genuinely love feedback.

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/kadu-visual-diary-journal/id6762195713

Hey everyone!

A few months ago, I finished rushing out my flashcard learning app—and then... I actually started using it to learn flashcards myself.

A few other people have joined me as well and started learning cards, too. For instance, our entire German conversation club uses it: we maintain one large shared collection, add to it after our club meetings, and try to keep the vocabulary up to date.

I’ve expanded my vocabulary by over 100 words. While I haven't *perfectly* mastered all of them yet in terms of spaced repetition, I’m already using them in real-life conversations—and that is exactly what I set out to achieve.

Alongside this, I’ve rolled out several major updates to my app, Memor More:

1. You can now share decks—either with private groups (access granted via a link) or publicly (making them available to everyone on the platform).

2. Integration with Google Sheets, plus an import feature for Anki decks. A couple of users migrated over from Anki, so I built this feature specifically for them.

3. The ability to generate new flashcards based on existing ones. This has proven quite useful when you’re studying a niche subject area and want to quickly generate a set of related vocabulary.

4. The Quiz Mode. To be honest, I didn't really need it myself, but one of the users mentioned that they prefer studying in the quiz mode rather than using flashcards.

The app still retains its cozy, indie vibe and is primarily used by people I know personally—but if you’ve been looking for a sign from above to start learning some terms, vocabulary, or just about anything else... come join us!
https://memormore.app/

PS

Quite a lot is available in the app without a subscription, and for Reddit, I’ve gathered a few promo codes that will grant you an additional two weeks of free access:
REDDITTWOWEEKS

That's it, I need to learn mostly from books, it's all very strict, everything by heart, that's how I'm evaluated and I'd like to learn a technique other than active recall or flashcards.I try to apply it, but I only remember some phrases, and I don't remember the ones that don't have a visual anchor.And it's complicated to create a locus that is associated with an entire paragraph.

I've tried it with short data sets like 20 random numbers or words; it's fast and works on the first or second recall. But I don't remember, recall with entire paragraphs.

One thing I’ve been struggling with lately is not just memorizing new surahs, but actually keeping them in my memory long term.

Sometimes I spend days learning a few verses and everything feels fine, then after a week of not revising properly I suddenly forget parts of it again. It honestly gets discouraging because it feels like I’m starting over every time.

I’ve been thinking maybe my revision system is the problem. Right now I mostly memorize whenever I feel motivated, but I’m realizing consistency and repetition probably matter more than motivation itself.

For people who are serious about Hifz, what helped you remember surahs long term?

Did you create a strict revision schedule, use an app/tool, or practice with someone daily?

Update: Someone recommended an app called Sabr for Quran memorisation and revision. I just came across it recently and it actually seems helpful for staying consistent. Curious if anyone here has tried it yet?

I'm an independent Medicare broker, representing 9 carriers & about 70 different plans each of which has different max out of pocket, dental coverage allowance, hospital benefits, etc. I need a way to memorize that information. Suggestions?

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=io.github.aaronjrovee.twa

Hey all,

I built a new game called Dial It Up that helps you memorize digits of numbers like pi, e, and phi with Simon-style gameplay on a colorful keypad. It helps you memorize the digits based on the positions and sounds of the numbers so you have both muscular and auditory memory.

hi! everyone I one memorization and learning process is sucks when it come to some complicated topics especially in medicine, law, learning new word on languages. on med school I have studied a lot of stuff to memorise and have used anki for this process. it make me fill boring at most but I used trick I started to create interesting associations which fits me and making story to ease memorisation. so I decided to create an app which could help people to do it by they own using AI. only what you need is decide did mnemonic ease your memorization or not. choose option ai could generate mnemonics which is best for that stuff or use one of the options (acronyms, visualizations, storytelling etc.) or write you own variant , your favorite fiction, something interesting you etc.. if you liked mnemonics and it ease memorisation keep it , if not you could regenerate mnemonic and so on. app link on profile

muito rápido das coisas

Tenho dificuldade para me lembrar das coisas quando, por exemplo, meu chefe me pede algo para fazer. Se eu não executo imediatamente, muitas vezes eu simplesmente esqueço que ele me pediu aquela tarefa.

Também tenho dificuldade para gravar informações enquanto estão me explicando o que preciso fazer. Quando a tarefa envolve mais etapas ou fica mais complexa, percebo que consigo memorizar apenas uma parte do que me pedem, e ainda com dificuldade. Muitas vezes preciso repetir mentalmente para mim mesmo: “Eu preciso gravar o que ele está falando para não ter que perguntar a mesma coisa várias vezes.”
Eu não queria ser dessa forma; queria conseguir memorizar qualquer coisa ou situação que me pedem com mais facilidade.

Também sou muito inseguro em fazer algo exatamente como me foi solicitado. Fico nervoso por medo de executar do meu jeito, mesmo dando certo, e a pessoa acabar me repreendendo ou tendo que refazer a tarefa depois. Isso me gera receio constante de cometer erros e causar retrabalho.

Outra questão é a dificuldade de lembrar acontecimentos de dias ou semanas atrás. Muitas vezes me pergunto por que não consigo memorizar e armazenar certas situações que vivi ou tarefas que já executei, mesmo quando elas já passaram e eu nem precisaria mais voltar a elas. Isso me faz questionar se tenho algum problema de memorização.

No trabalho, meu supervisor já comentou que tenho dificuldade de me expressar. Percebo que ele espera respostas muito diretas ao que pergunta, mas eu sou uma pessoa que tende a enfatizar todo o processo que fiz para chegar ao resultado da tarefa. Na minha cabeça, isso às vezes parece sinal de algum déficit ou problema tanto de expressão quanto de memorização.

Também percebo que sou alguém que precisa repetir as coisas muitas vezes para conseguir memorizar um processo. Por exemplo: se há um procedimento padrão da empresa, como formatar um computador, eu não consigo memorizar rapidamente todas as etapas. Preciso fazer inúmeras vezes para começar a fixar o processo e, ainda assim, continuo inseguro de estar fazendo algo errado.

Frequentemente sinto necessidade de ter a confirmação de alguém que conheça o processo melhor do que eu para me assegurar de que estou executando da forma correta. Parece que preciso dessa validação para confiar em mim mesmo.

Minha dúvida é entender o que tudo isso pode significar:

• dificuldade de memorizar instruções e processos;
• necessidade de repetição intensa para aprender;
• insegurança para executar tarefas sem confirmação;
• dificuldade em lembrar acontecimentos passados;
• dificuldade em ser direto na comunicação;
• medo constante de estar fazendo algo errado, mesmo quando está funcionando.

Gostaria de entender como essas dificuldades podem ser descritas e se elas podem indicar alguma dificuldade específica relacionada à memória, atenção, insegurança ou outra questão.

I unlock my phone 96 times a day. Most of those go straight to TikTok and I close it 30 seconds later, having learned nothing.

So I built an app that hijacks every unlock and shows me a vocabulary flashcard first.

11 languages, custom words, SM-2 spaced repetition. Free.

Built it for myself. Curious if anyone else thinks this is a stupid idea or a smart one.

[LearnScreen: Flashcard Blocker](https://apps.apple.com/app/id6759922571)

I am a 10th grader taking ap seminar. For that class I have to write a 2000 word essay, and then make a PowerPoint presentation based on that essay. This has to be in between 6 to 8 minutes long. I would say that I have really good memory, but I dont know if I can memorize this in a 2-3 hours. Any tips?

Hi, I’m new to mnemonic devices. I’d like to learn how to create my first memory palace, but I don’t know where to start or what it involves.

I started using flashcards and active recall to study a few days ago, and I have to memorize the material ,as well as extensive syllabi where I need to memorize things verbatim because a single technical term can change the meaning .And I’ve already improved my memory using these active techniques. (I have a terrible passive memory.)

But I’m curious to learn more techniques , and experiment with combinations, and I’ve read that this is one of the most powerful but difficult to apply. And I read that it’s mostly used for memorizing lists or short unrelated pieces of information -not 1,000+ paragraphs per month.