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Re:Show HN: MDAnki – convert Markdown to Anki cards by kazinator on Friday February 21, 2020 @08:20PM (#22388740)
The "leech" thing is not a useful feature in Anki. I have configured it so that cards marked as leeches keep being scheduled normally instead of being suspended.

I have found in the past that

(1) with sheer persistence, I busted through leeches. For instance 催促 used to be a leech, in a deck of cards where that is the front. Now I know the word so well I can recall it in the reverse direction: for instance to talk about how it used to be a leech. :)

(2) given enough time, cards you know well will turn into leeches, simply due to occasional gaffes. The conversion of a card to leech is based on an absolute count of how many times you got it wrong, ever, regardless of how many times in between you got it right.

Re:Show HN: MDAnki – convert Markdown to Anki cards by andrewzah on Friday February 21, 2020 @11:55PM (#22389507)
> with sheer persistence, I busted through leeches.

Thats totally fine too, it’s just that energy could’ve been dedicated to other cards where there isn’t an issue. I also power through some of these occasionally if I don’t feel like busting out pen and paper, etc.

> given enough time, cards you know well will turn into leeches,

Yeah this is an issue. Particularly if you keep periodically doing Anki, with just enough time to have lapses. So I set Anki to mark leeches instead of suspending them, and when I go through suspended / leech cards I do an assessment.

Re:Show HN: MDAnki – convert Markdown to Anki cards by kazinator on Saturday February 22, 2020 @12:04AM (#22389528)
> could’ve been dedicated to other cards where there isn’t an issue

Nope! It doesn't work that way; each card is scheduled independently of others. You're not going to see other cards less due to seeing one card more.

Busting through leeches just adds to the workload; you still spend all the same time on the other cards.

(Even if you set daily limits on reviews, that just causes a backlog.)

Re:Show HN: MDAnki – convert Markdown to Anki cards by banana_maker on Saturday February 22, 2020 @01:10PM (#22392365)
I was referring to the mental energy spent on busting through that leech, not anki's system.