SuperMemo: Incremental learning is not for everyone

Editable (wiki) version of this page

Incremental learning is powerful. We believe it might spell a revolution in learning. Its present incarnation will reach only a small fraction of society. This is why:

Most of people will never arrive to this website. A great part of this planet do not have access to the Internet. Of those who are privileged enough to be able to use Google or Wikipedia on a regular basis, most are too busy with work, family and other pursuits. The rest are busy with Facebook, Twitter, games and other "blessings" of the Internet.
A significant fraction of the users of the Internet realize that the web offers incredible self-help opportunities. However, a substantial portion of those will suffer from a cognitive bias known as the illusion of knowledge. This bias does not spare highly intelligent individuals. Under the illusion of knowledge, we are less motivated to seek more learning.
Users of the Internet who are highly interested in learning quickly discover that their memory can be improved, and that their learning can be advanced to a new level with some help from the net or software. However, the language barrier is another big sieve. The best materials about learning techniques have been published in English. Language divisions result in a global inequality in the access to information. You can read about SuperMemo in a couple of major languages. Perhaps you might learn about incremental reading too. The article you are reading now will take months or years to percolate to non-English areas of the net!
For anyone interested in learning, it does not take long to find out about spaced repetition. The term was quite exotic when first used in the context of SuperMemo in the mid 1990s. In those days it could only be found in a couple of scientific publications. However, it was SuperMemo that helped popularize the concept, which now has entered the popular culture. Those who seek better memory will quickly be informed that spaced repetition is the way. They will get they introduction to spaced repetition from SuperMemo freeware, or an array of other excellent free spaced repetition applications, some of which use SuperMemo algorithms. The fact that the newest SuperMemo is a commercial product will prevent many potentially excellent students from ever going in the direction of incremental learning. This must made be clear then. At the moment of writing, SuperMemo 2004 is freeware and supports incremental reading. It might be missing the priority queue, but this will matter only much later in the process when you build a collection of unmanageable size. In SuperMemo 2004 you can do Import, Extract and Cloze. That's the core of incremental reading!
Among users of SuperMemo, only a fraction will ever become interested in a complex concept of incremental learning (probably still below 5%). A typical newcomer is more likely to drop out altogether than to move on to the next level. The chief culprit is the incompatibility of SuperMemo with the human nature and the modern lifestyle. Stressful and busy lives do not help in forging new paths and acquiring new habits. It is not just that humans like to live in their comfort zones. It is also that the pressures of the modern dog-eat-dog society are pretty effective in stifling higher inspiration, lifelong learning, creative pursuits beyond one's job, etc. Those issues are inherent (human nature), or systemic. As such they cannot be easily remedied.
Some users might hold a relatively positive opinion about incremental reading, but will excuse their lack of commitment by technological limitations of SuperMemo. For example, "unless you give me a Mac version, I won't go there", "I hate Internet Explorer", "Your interface comes from Windows 98 era" or "I will come back if you have a mobile version". Incidentally, there is an inherent incompatibility between mobility and incremental learning. Mobility correlates with multitasking and low attention (interaction with others, arriving mail, phone calls, browser pop-ups, etc.). The power of incremental learning lies in balancing creativity with attention. As such, incremental learning is inherently immobile (unless you understand mobility as a transfer between two or more peaceful and static environments). In addition, without a standard-size keyboard, incremental reading might feel like paddling up the creek.
Among those users of SuperMemo who get down to reading about incremental learning, a large proportion will come with a preconceived goal: proving that incremental learning is not really worth the investment of time. "Negative reading" is more likely to occur in a bad state of mind: low-spirits, irritation, or reading outside one's optimum circadian brainwork bracket. This preconception may be largely subconscious and based on a defense mechanism: proving that incremental learning is a weak concept is easy, should save one a great deal of investment in mastering the concept, and prevent the need to leave one's comfort zone. Discovering that incremental learning is a must will simply augur long hours of plodding through the documentation that is notorious for its poor readability index. The presented article is harder to read than 70% of articles at Wikipedia. The ultimate judgement is strongly correlated with your present state of mind. You are more likely to say "Incremental learning is full of fluff" or "Incremental learning goes against human nature" than to say "I have discovered a new great technology that will change my life". You might be just seeking affirmation of your preset frame of mind: "Incremental learning must be a hoax or at least a waste of time", or simply "Incremental learning is not of much use in my particular profession". It is easy to find the desired confirmation. Imperfections in this article will provide a rich material for dismissal. A perfection is not achievable. Prejudiced mind will always find a way to misinterpret. Naturally, if you are enthusiastic about incremental learning at your first encounter, this is a very good predictor of your ultimate success.
Having passed all this rich obstacle course, you are now bound to be in a tiny group of people who arrived at this point. The good news is that you might be part of a special elite. People with fertile minds who are open to new challenges, motivated well-enough and self-disciplined enough. Naturally, you might have equally well come here exhausted with your failure in learning, in hope of finding a remedy to your recent bad exams results. Whatever the answer, the road is still very long. Even with a brisk mind and great enthusiasm, you may still drop out at later stages.
When reading about incremental learning, you might hit another major obstacle: "This is more convoluted than I thought!", or "The whole idea of priorization makes me nauseous", or "The toolset may be rich but is it natural?". You can get discouraged either by incomplete understanding of the concept, or the incompatibility of the concept with your personality.
If you have already decided to try incremental learning, and you have SuperMemo 16 installed, you may get an unpleasant shock. SuperMemo 16 is not user friendly! It has been optimized for pro users and only simplified enough at lower levels (File : Level) to make it somewhat palatable for a novice. You can overcome this impression only with a firm belief: incremental learning works and it is worth the investment of my time. After a year, you may love the solutions you hated at first in SuperMemo. User unfriendliness and complexity will make many give up in the first days or weeks. Those dropouts rarely return! We are guilty here too. New solutions are never perfectly encapsulated and/or interfaced. You will get your neat iPad and Android version only when incremental learning is more popular, which is not soon.
The dropout rate in the first weeks is still high. Some of the main problems: importing unsuitable text, difficulty in parsing the text with extracts, losing context of extracts, comprehension problems (not related to SuperMemo), clozing texts that are too complex, difficulty in formulating items, excessive time spent on styles and templates, learning overload, confusion, problems with SuperMemo (e.g. layouts), lack of sense of progress, etc. Without clear gratification, many users come to the conclusion that the cost is greater than the benefits. They are not wrong. It is not easy to get a return on your investment in a month or even longer. Few users start their learning swiftly on a wave of solid enthusiasm!
Many of the advantages of incremental learning rely on the size of your learning collection. The value of search&review increases with the size of the collection. At the beginning of the process, when collection is knowledge-poor, you may feel like laying the first brick of a large pyramid on a vast boring desert. The greatest fun can be found at the top of the pyramid, when you can see the extent of your knowledge in a good perspective. This metaphor should not imply your pyramid will ever stop growing. You keep adding stone blocks to the sides. The pyramid keeps growing high and wide for lifetime.
The extent of failure does not only cover the dropouts and the never-has-beens. Even long-term users may enter a never-ending struggle with item formulation, complex material, priorities, overload, etc. The later you start, the longer the transition from pain to fun. Old habits die hard. There is one clear litmus test for success: once incremental learning is fun, you know you do things right. If you have not reached the level of fun after a couple of months of trying hard, you need to re-think your strategies. For example, you may need to start from reading this article cover-to-cover again.
If you happen to be a happy user of incremental learning, your knowledge will keep growing fast, and your hunger for learning will keep increasing at an ever faster rate. This makes you a part of a very tiny elite. This also imposes an obligation. It is time to help others reach your level!