Where do the lines come from?

From the book pages in the HourLife library, where each book carries a short list of lines that readers vote on. The game deals from all of them, and better-voted lines come up more often. Each card links to its book's page, so you can read the rest.

Why only three new cards a day?

Because every card you keep comes back later, and the reviews add up. Three a day keeps a session to a few minutes even when a week of cards falls due. Up to ten cards come back in a session; if more are due, the end of the session offers the rest.

What happens if I miss a day?

Nothing is lost. Cards that fell due wait in your binder and come back the next time you play, oldest first. Only the streak starts again.

How is the streak counted?

A day counts when you answer at least one card, by the date on your device. Play today and yesterday and the day before, and the streak reads three days.

Can a card drop all the way back?

One step at a time. A miss moves a card down one step, from Gold to Silver for example, and it comes back on that step's schedule. A card already at Print stays there and comes back the next day.

Where is my binder saved?

Only in this browser, in its local storage: each card's line, its book, its step and when it is due. Nothing is sent to HourLife. Clearing your browser's site data, or Clear the binder inside the game, removes it.

Keep this game for later

Games
Wisdom Cards

Wisdom Cards

Three cards a day, each a line from a book page in the HourLife library. Name the book before you keep a card. When it comes back, a word is missing, and remembering it makes the card climb.

Play full screen How it plays

3 minutes a day: three new cards, plus any due back
Spaced repetition cards return after 1, 3, 7, 14 and 30 days
No account your binder stays in this browser

How it plays

Open the pack
Each day's pack holds three cards, each a line from a different book page in the library. The pack is dealt by date, so a reload deals the same three, and tomorrow brings a new one.
Name the book, then keep the card
A new card shows its line with the source hidden under foil. Pick the book it comes from out of three. The foil comes off either way, and the card goes into your binder: a right answer sends it there at Bronze, a miss at Print.
Fill the gap when it comes back
A card comes back when it is due, with one word missing. Pick the word and the card climbs a step, from Print to Bronze, Silver, Gold and Foil, and waits longer next time: 1, 3, 7, 14, then 30 days. Miss it and it drops a step and comes back sooner.

Why it asks before it shows

Trying to recall something does more for memory than reading it again. Psychologists call this the testing effect. In one well-known study, students who practised recalling a short passage remembered more of it a week later than students who spent the same time rereading it.

Spacing helps too. Reviews spread out over days hold up better than the same reviews crammed into one sitting, a result repeated across hundreds of experiments. That is why a card you know waits longer before it comes back, and a card you missed returns sooner.

The schedule is a simple Leitner box, after Sebastian Leitner, who described it in 1972: a right answer moves a card to a box you review less often, a miss moves it back. Here a miss moves a card back one step rather than to the start, so one slip does not undo a month.

The lines come from the library's book pages, the same ones readers vote on there, and better-voted lines turn up more often. They are the library's words about each book, not always the author's own, so a card names the book it comes from rather than claiming a quotation.

Sources: Roediger and Karpicke, Test-enhanced learning, Psychological Science (2006); Cepeda et al., Distributed practice in verbal recall tasks, Psychological Bulletin (2006); Sebastian Leitner, So lernt man lernen (1972).

Questions

Where do the lines come from?

From the book pages in the HourLife library, where each book carries a short list of lines that readers vote on. The game deals from all of them, and better-voted lines come up more often. Each card links to its book's page, so you can read the rest.
Why only three new cards a day?

Because every card you keep comes back later, and the reviews add up. Three a day keeps a session to a few minutes even when a week of cards falls due. Up to ten cards come back in a session; if more are due, the end of the session offers the rest.
What happens if I miss a day?

Nothing is lost. Cards that fell due wait in your binder and come back the next time you play, oldest first. Only the streak starts again.
How is the streak counted?

A day counts when you answer at least one card, by the date on your device. Play today and yesterday and the day before, and the streak reads three days.
Can a card drop all the way back?

One step at a time. A miss moves a card down one step, from Gold to Silver for example, and it comes back on that step's schedule. A card already at Print stays there and comes back the next day.
Where is my binder saved?

Only in this browser, in its local storage: each card's line, its book, its step and when it is due. Nothing is sent to HourLife. Clearing your browser's site data, or Clear the binder inside the game, removes it.