Why do I have to write my own Anki cards?
You really shouldn't have to write your own Anki cards today.
There's a really common sentiment that using pre-made or llm generated decks can't replace creating your own.
This is probably true. Writing your own flashcards forces you into a state where you have to actually think and organize the concepts together in your head into things that are digestible.
Often the flashcards that people create are not conducive to review. It's hard to create cards that aren't easy to remember the "shape" of later on instead of actually remembering the content. And drilling one small piece of the puzzle doesn't fill in the rest of the pie.
LLMs are sophisticated enough now to generate variations on flashcards on-demand. But nobody has wired up LLMs natively with spaced repetition for learning. It seems like everyone has stopped at "generate 100 flashcards for me based on this pdf," which does result in flashcards that aren't going to help you remember things.