Sorry, You Can’t Speed Read • Hacker News Board

Re: Sorry, You Can’t Speed Read

#101

Post by tamana » Sat, Apr 16, 2016, 5:57 PM UTC

jkot wrote: post #29

jasonkester wrote: post #9

I don't get why anybody would want to speed read a novel. (Outside of a High School literature class where you're being forced to read Ethan Frome and you just want to get back to playing Minecraft, of course). When I'm reading Hemingway, I'll go back and read individual paragraphs three times to squeeze the last drop of juice out of them. There are only so many Hemingway paragraphs in existence, so wasting one feels…

I speed read a few books from Hemingway to find out if I liked the author. Not my cup of tea.

How do you know if you'd like the author if you read the words carefully? Hemingway doesn't write for plot.

Re: Sorry, You Can’t Speed Read

#102

Post by dgacmu » Sat, Apr 16, 2016, 6:12 PM UTC

lmm wrote: post #89

isomorph wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I was a kid, I used to speed read each Harry Potter book when it came out, just to find out the plot so nobody could spoil it for me, and then I'd read it again later for enjoyment

Aren't you just spoiling it for yourself then?

There are many ways to skin a wizard. (Who's to criticize how someone enjoys their leisure reading? I too spped-read the later honor Harrington books, for precisely the reasons noted above.)

I do it with academic papers,too - but because my goal is to index it and to identify quickly if I need to read it more carefully now, or just to know enough about it that I can remember it exists if I need it later. Of course, I don't pretend it's even speed reading - I literally skip most of the interior text.

Re: Sorry, You Can’t Speed Read

#103

Post by cygnus_a » Sat, Apr 16, 2016, 6:27 PM UTC

I don't know what they're talking about, I speed-read that article in 20 minutes and my comprehension was great!

Re: Sorry, You Can’t Speed Read

#104

Post by robbrown451 » Sat, Apr 16, 2016, 6:33 PM UTC

AaronHatch wrote: post #85

From my experience of speed reading classic novels, I actually go faster and with higher comprehension when I slow down and stop trying to comprehend. I don't read words allowed or to myself in my head. I look at them and move forward. After a few years of doing this, I've been able to go through novels at surprising speeds. It's like I can parse an entire page and visualize everything without trying. Also, using my…

"I don't read words allowed or to myself in my head."

I had to read that allowed to know what you were saying.

Re: Sorry, You Can’t Speed Read

#105

Post by runjake » Sat, Apr 16, 2016, 6:52 PM UTC

You most definitely can speed read.

In high school, I took a speed reading course from the teacher who was on the speed reading segment on the 80s show "That's Incredible!". By coincidence, she taught at my high school in Southern California. I feel bad for not remembering her name but it's been well over 20 years ago at this point.

Her technique emphasized exercising the eye muscles, improving peripheral vision and focus. The downside to the technique is that it required one to constantly do these eye exercises to maintain speed, although my peripheral reading ability is still there.

Re: Sorry, You Can’t Speed Read

#106

Post by sna1l » Sat, Apr 16, 2016, 6:56 PM UTC

There are a bunch of speed reading apps that have come out that basically just flash single words in front of you super quickly. It seems like this concept has really gained in popularity as people's attention span has shortened due to smartphones, faster internet, computers, etc.

Re: Sorry, You Can’t Speed Read

#107

Post by partiallypro » Sat, Apr 16, 2016, 6:56 PM UTC

I did speed reading at Sylvan when I was younger, and I was really pretty good at it. The only problem, is that during the tests which tested your comprehension I was able to surmise the answers based on tropes & assumptions rather than actual comprehension. I could get 100% on the tests of maybe 25 answers, strictly based on tropes and assumptions. To be honest, this might have killed my love of reading fiction.

To this day, I can get to pages into a book and begin making major assumptions about the rest of the book (usually it will be close enough), so when my assumptions start playing out, I abandon the book, or skip to the last chapter to find out if I was right (more often than not, the trope plays out.) If I were to continue to read it, it becomes more of a chore than something enjoyable. I don't know if this is a result of my speed reading classes, or not...but it's something I just tied together after reading this.

I do enjoy reading history or things based on opinions, biographies, etc; which are much much harder to speed read. But I do wonder, just how much of speed reading is assumption and reliance on tropes...which underscores two problems, I believe, in both speed reading and in writing.

Re: Sorry, You Can’t Speed Read

#108

Post by manigandham » Sat, Apr 16, 2016, 7:11 PM UTC

jobigoud wrote: post #37

Regarding audio they say: > Doubling the speed, in our experience, leaves individual words perfectly identifiable — but makes it just about impossible to follow the meaning. Wow, sorry but this is very misinformed. A lot of people me included can listen to audio at 2x. I constantly listen to podcasts (so not a slow narration to begin with) at 2x in English which is not even my native language and I understand everyth…

This part made me question the entire article. Just about any audiobook or podcast under 2x is too slow for me and most videos (including tv shows and movies) I watch at 1.5x comfortably. I'm also much faster at reading today than I was a few years ago. There is definitely a way to get much faster (while still being realistic).

Re: Sorry, You Can’t Speed Read

#109

Post by notahacker » Sat, Apr 16, 2016, 7:18 PM UTC

SeanDav wrote: post #42

zipwitch wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I speed read pulp novels, and have for decades. From Doc Savage to Honor Harrington's recent outings, sometimes you just want the the combination of that literary equivalent of zoning out in front of the TV, combined with finding out what happens next. You're right that speed reading very well done stuff is a waste of time, but for the written equivalent of fast food, it seems to work fine. And if something does turn…

What is the point of speed reading a novel? If you can't be bothered to read what the author wrote, word for word (or nearly so) then you might as well go online and read a summary of the novel - job done. When an author writes a book, they consider every word they put in. Every word has meaning and a reason for being there. I am sure you could take almost any novel ever written and reduce it down to a 10th of it's o…

Many novels are better for being speed read. Dan Brown and Stephen King for example, are very good at ideas and pacing but if you spend ages trying to savour their word choices you'll probably end up disappointed.

Re: Sorry, You Can’t Speed Read

#110

Post by jobigoud » Sat, Apr 16, 2016, 7:21 PM UTC

ash wrote: post #67

jobigoud wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes the speech rate algorithm is important. The application I use uses the Sonic algorithm by Bill Cox, which is actually optimized for rates over 2x. https://github.com/waywardgeek/sonic I think speed rate should be a standard control on every multimedia player, just like volume.

> The application I use What application do you use for listening?

Well I haven't tested a lot of them so not sure if it's relevant but I use DoggCatcher as a player and another app called Presto that shims the Android audio layer to increase the speech rate transparently for the player app. It's Presto that uses the Sonic library.