Email Archives - Welcome to Orbit (and the number one rule for writing flashcards)
Hello fellow student,
If you're reading this, you're among the first 100 students who have signed up for Orbit. Your early support means a lot to me.
I created Orbit after a sad problem I discovered throughout university and in my first few years of work: students aren't being given the best tools for learning, instead being given the worst of technology. And when I say students, I mean anyone trying to learn anything deeply.
You only need to look at the declining reading and math scores for students since 2020 to see how bad things are getting...
Beyond that, there are so many forces trying to take our attention and time away: doomscrolling, brainrot videos, AI-generated content, algorithms that feed on your engagement.
But there's good news: research has advanced, and our understanding of the cognitive sciences (learning how to learn) has never been clearer. Orbit is my way of bringing these techniques into the world.
There is a lot of eye-opening stuff and too little space to put in a welcome email. I will leave you the two things I want you to know the most:
Your intelligence or talent is not fixed, you have so much more potential to learn better and to use that to achieve any of your goals.
Memory is the key to understanding, which is the key to learning anything
Point #1 will take some time for you to internalise and reflect on... Point #2 is something you can put into your life today. Whether it's studying for your midterms or using it at work. No, really, try it! Try making a flashcard with a pen and a piece of paper next to you.
The easiest way to improve your memory is to create a flashcard. Question in the front, answer in the back. After a while, read the question, take your best guess, then check if you've got the answer right.
And the number rule you should use in this flashcard, and all of your future flashcards, is that each flashcard should test for the minimum amount of information to be recalled. This is something preached by experts like Piotr Woźniak, the creators behind the algorithm that Anki uses.
So instead of your answers being a whole paragraph for you to recite, choose one thing to test yourself on. Break it up into multiple flashcards if you have to.
If you remember this rule, your learning will skyrocket. Writing flashcards now becomes nearly effortless. Recalling them becomes even easier.
You can try writing it with that piece of paper, or you can write it in Orbit, where I'm on a mission to make your studying even more effective.
If you have any questions, thoughts, or just want to say hi. Drop a reply and I'll be happy to chat.
Thank you and welcome, Nick
btw: I send each email out individually, nothing is sent automatically. If you don't want any more emails from me, reply "unsubscribe" and I'll leave your inbox alone. No questions asked.