Flashbang School

I started this project during Buildspace's Nights and Weekends hackathon in 2023. If you'd like to scroll through the newsletter history of it all, check my Substack. I'll also include a short write-up below.

I'd been enjoying the flashcard generator I'd created with the GPT-4 API a few months prior and wanted to build it into a more robust way of ingesting online courses.

From there it became a project I noodled on for the better part of the next year.

The idea was to show bite-sized, interactive videos I created, divide them into core main points (called atoms), and then develop a network graph where each atom's learning level was measured by learner performance on its assigned collection of spaced repetition flashcards. The flashcards would appear in the learner's inbox each morning, and they'd need to type their answers to the questions in natural language. An LLM would grade their answer and assign them a grade on Anki's 0-3 scale (again, hard, fair, good.)

I tried a few different courses as the first subject of the 'school'—After the End was on world history post-1991, and after that I pivoted to Cognitive Security, a review of critical thinking and media theory.

Here's an update from the world history days, showing off the interactive video and network graph review:

Later, I pivoted (using AI to comb through OpenStax's marvelous Creative Commons textbooks) and showed off the LLM SRS here:

Ever restless with this project, by the second Nights and Weekends I introduced RPG elements and some storytelling.

Looking back, I'm most happy with the educational videos I created. In particular, this prologue to a series on Poland's Solidarity labor union turned out pretty well.

When working on more Cognitive Security subject matter I also tried making them shorter, and perhaps more TikTokky.

Given my continued interest in this domain, I don't think I'm done with Flashbang. However, I'm now letting it rest for a while until more clarity arrives regarding what format it truly wants for itself.