Comment by Muromec
Whenever I try to use anki I can't figure what those four buttons actually mean, so I end up with 40 cards that I still can't recall and then the thing happily drops another 10 on top and I just delete the deck or the app. Haven't learned the thing I was trying to learn with it ever.
Either I don't understand the algorithm or it doesn't understand me.
My tip is to map the 1-4 difficulties as "wrong, or <60% confidence", "60-80% confidence, thought required", "90%+ confidence, thought required", and "90%+ confidence, no serious thought".
Depending on what you're learning, you might vary those. For language learning, that works well imo.
Also, make sure to switch to FSRS. The old algorithm defaulted to "again" resetting a card to 0, while "again" in FSRS does show it again, but doesn't reset it back to being effectively new.
If you want to understand the algorithm, read this: https://github.com/open-spaced-repetition/fsrs4anki/wiki/ABC...