Books are a great way of building onto the knowledge of people but the problem is that there are so many out there. What are some of the ways I can read faster so that I am able to process more information faster. I am talking about non-fiction primarily.
Ask HN: How can I read faster?
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Re: Ask HN: How can I read faster?
#2Here is a great video essay on the topic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIW5jBrrsS0
Re: Ask HN: How can I read faster?
#3Something that has helped me is not reading books cover to cover. Just pick out the information you need. And read a lot in parallel.
Re: Ask HN: How can I read faster?
#4If the end goal is to increase your knowledge then reading faster won't necessarily get you there.
You won't process the information faster or retain it any better. Instead, learning to put down a book when it's not good rather than forcing yourself to finish it and taking good notes or writing a book review are better approaches (for the goal of processing and retaining information for longer).
Re: Ask HN: How can I read faster?
#5Skim examples when you know the concepts.
Some books really can't be read fast (e.g. math books). So the moment a book is not information dense, read strategically.
Also, skim topics fast you already know.
Re: Ask HN: How can I read faster?
#6There is ample literature and probably lots of youtube guides and tutorials on the matter of "speed reading", and it works to quite some extent.
Oftentimes understanding will improve with faster reading, rather than the opposite.
Re: Ask HN: How can I read faster?
#7I made this site to do exactly that: https://www.speakreader.com
I've always found it a bit hard to keep focused while reading long text and books. So after trying a lot of things I noticed that this method works really well for me and I was able read almost 7 books in a month with it. Though for me it only works when I set the speed to at least 2.5x normal otherwise I get bored. Also only non-fiction. It's 100% free because I made this only for myself, but maybe try it and see if it works for you too!
Re: Ask HN: How can I read faster?
#8Talk with the doctor about depression. Genuinely out of all methods I tried for faster reading it turned out antidepressants helped multiple times more than any technique. I know it sounds bizarre but if you're struggling with reading and it feels like every books drags through weeks then it's your best shot.
Re: Ask HN: How can I read faster?
#9You can search online for exercises to speed up your reading skills. With the correct techniques, you can double your reading speed.
An alternative is audiobooks. You can listen to them while commuting, cleaning, cooking, etc. All time you would not be able to spend reading. And you can also speed up the playback in most/all players.
Re: Ask HN: How can I read faster?
#10I learned this using a simple technique:
Start using your finger to track where your eyes are. Move your finger a little bit faster than you read.
Resist the urge to go back if you think you missed some things, just assume things will clear up later on, or if they do not, they were not very important to begin with anyway...
After a while, you can stop tracking line by line, but just scan a page by moving your finger diagonally across a text. After doing this for a while, you can skip using your finger all together, and glance over texts to get the main idea.
I have been doing this for over 2 decades, and can glimpse at contracts for peculiarities by glazing over a page, or go through books taking only a few seconds per page if I'm in 'scanning' mode.
It's a nice party trick as well ;).
(Note that reading contracts for the first time like this are good for a first review and general flow, but you miss a lot of details, so you need to do a proper review later on.)
I tend to take a little longer when I'm actually reading a text thoroughly, although I prefer to read texts really fast and re-read them after a while when they are interesting or need more attention.
IME not all texts are readable like that; some text is very information-dense and it gets really hard to keep track of the context if you try to speed-read it.
On a side note, glancing over code/search results might have contributed bigtime to this skill as well.
The biggest "disadvantage" is that - when on holiday - I need a gazillion books, because it takes me at most 2 or 3 days to get through a single book...