20 reasons why Anki isn’t popular
I decided to put together every single reason that I could think of, or that I had heard from someone else. If a reason is not on this list, you are probably the first person who has ever thought of it.
1) Active recall. It forces you to retrieve information, which strengthens memory. But it’s mentally taxing. Mental effort feels uncomfortable and people naturally avoid it. Speaking of which, I recommend reading “Thinking, Fast and Slow” by Daniel Kahneman, he talks a lot about it.
3) For short timeframes like 1-3 days (typically right before the exam) cramming can - and most likely will - outperform spaced repetition, since there isn’t a whole lot of time for the spacing effect to take place.
5) Anki is far more complex than, say, Duolingo, so it could never compete with Duolingo in terms of the number of active users. An app that is easier to use has a tremendous advantage when it comes to attracting users, regardless of its effectiveness. An app that has a 200 pages manual has lost the popularity race before the it even made it to the starting line.
6) A lot of people want to “pause” Anki to prevent due cards from piling up, but that contradicts the simple fact that even if you can pause an app, you can’t pause forgetting inside your head. So there is a conflict between optimal scheduling and user satisfaction.
