The OP was a positive story. There could be an interesting discussion to be had around the subject of useful things to remember. But you literally used the words "tedious" and "stupid", and this sort of comment doesn't usually result in good conversation or debate.
You'd do well to heed the downvotes and constructive feedback you're getting :)
Here are some quotes from HN guidelines in case you missed them!
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I don't know what you're imagining by "it", but my remarks are only about memorizing all countries by border shape, not the use of spaced repetition as a whole.
That's the "it" I have swatted down.
Memorizing names of countries -> continent, I could swallow. That is useful. Or even latitude and longitude (rounded off to nearest ten degrees, say). Or some general indication: is it to the north, south; landlocked or coastal.
So if someone talks about Venezuela, the kid knows it's a coastal country in South America's north.
If you can't tell me that, what's the use of recognizing the shape of Venezuela and mapping it to a name?