Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Maybe the default settings are too high

raptitude.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 332 posts

Re: Maybe the default settings are too high

#31

Post by Dylan16807 »

loloquwowndueo wrote: post #27
chilmers wrote: post #2

If you’re a fan of LOTR but don’t fancy reading it aloud yourself, I’d really recommend the new audio versions read by Andy Serkis. While I don’t vibe with every facet of his performance, overall it’s a tour-de-force, and really makes the prose come to life. Especially in those descriptive sections that it’s possible to glaze over when reading the text. Having an actor of the calibre of Serkis reading them to you bri…

Noooo. Audio books feed you the content at someone else’s pace, not at your (slow) pace, which is exactly what TFA advocates. Or, what are you going to do? Hit Pause after each sentence so you can fully digest and savor it?

An audiobook is bad if you want to go extra slow. I don't think I want to go that slow.

The article advocates not rushing. In general, that's a good fit for audiobooks.

Re: Maybe the default settings are too high

#32

Post by Zenbit_UX »

loloquwowndueo wrote: post #27
chilmers wrote: post #2

If you’re a fan of LOTR but don’t fancy reading it aloud yourself, I’d really recommend the new audio versions read by Andy Serkis. While I don’t vibe with every facet of his performance, overall it’s a tour-de-force, and really makes the prose come to life. Especially in those descriptive sections that it’s possible to glaze over when reading the text. Having an actor of the calibre of Serkis reading them to you bri…

Noooo. Audio books feed you the content at someone else’s pace, not at your (slow) pace, which is exactly what TFA advocates. Or, what are you going to do? Hit Pause after each sentence so you can fully digest and savor it?

First of all, I don’t recommend going through life yucking someone else’s yum.

Second of all, I took TFA advice and read that article with the slowness and deliberate attention it recommended and found it to be trite and difficult to distinguish from AI slop… but if that’s what brings this person joy, good for them.

Who cares if the GP eats their cookies in one bite and listens to their audiobooks at 2.25x speed? Because one self help guru turned blogger said it’s a bad idea?

Re: Maybe the default settings are too high

#33

Post by mikestorrent »

danielodievich wrote: post #7

We read LOTR to our sons when they were little. It was likely the 6th time for me,and 3rd in English. Stupendous experience. The command of the English Tolkien had is sublime. Wish the movies didn't take so much liberty with Faramir.!!!

I've not braved reading them LOTR yet, but my sons are still getting read to even as one's about to become a teenager; it's some of my favourite time in the evening and it allows me to force them through books just slightly too advanced, with lots of them stopping me to explain (or me stopping to editorialize, and provide historical context etc).

I don't know how long they'll let me keep doing it for, but I don't see any reason to stop

Re: Maybe the default settings are too high

#34

Post by eszed »

danielodievich wrote: post #7

We read LOTR to our sons when they were little. It was likely the 6th time for me,and 3rd in English. Stupendous experience. The command of the English Tolkien had is sublime. Wish the movies didn't take so much liberty with Faramir.!!!

I can't wait to read LOTR to my (now four-year-old) son. Been looking forward to it since we started trying for a kid. Seriously, peak fatherhood moment. I'll savor it. That (and a few others are) on the embargo list: he's not allowed to see the film before we read the books. I wish I'd got Winnie the Pooh on there in time.

Re: Maybe the default settings are too high

#35

Post by loloquwowndueo »

Zenbit_UX wrote: post #32
loloquwowndueo wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Noooo. Audio books feed you the content at someone else’s pace, not at your (slow) pace, which is exactly what TFA advocates. Or, what are you going to do? Hit Pause after each sentence so you can fully digest and savor it?

First of all, I don’t recommend going through life yucking someone else’s yum. Second of all, I took TFA advice and read that article with the slowness and deliberate attention it recommended and found it to be trite and difficult to distinguish from AI slop… but if that’s what brings this person joy, good for them. Who cares if the GP eats their cookies in one bite and listens to their audiobooks at 2.25x speed? Bec…

Interesting how in your second paragraph you do exactly the thing you said not to do in your first.

Re: Maybe the default settings are too high

#36

Post by chihuahua »

After I finished reviewing the CS textbook "Computer Architecture: A Quantitative Approach" in the mid 1990s during a vacation (looking for errors before publication), I found that my brain had been permanently reconfigured for speed reading. For years afterwards, I would automatically read entire sentences at a time, to go as fast as possible. I think I have now recovered sufficiently so that I can read books one word at a time.

Re: Maybe the default settings are too high

#38

Post by crazygringo »

loloquwowndueo wrote: post #27
chilmers wrote: post #2

If you’re a fan of LOTR but don’t fancy reading it aloud yourself, I’d really recommend the new audio versions read by Andy Serkis. While I don’t vibe with every facet of his performance, overall it’s a tour-de-force, and really makes the prose come to life. Especially in those descriptive sections that it’s possible to glaze over when reading the text. Having an actor of the calibre of Serkis reading them to you bri…

Noooo. Audio books feed you the content at someone else’s pace, not at your (slow) pace, which is exactly what TFA advocates. Or, what are you going to do? Hit Pause after each sentence so you can fully digest and savor it?

The article literally says:

> limiting myself to mouth-speed

Audiobooks are mouth-speed.

The article suggests this is the right slow speed, at least for the author.

Maybe you yourself want even slower, but that's not what the article is suggesting.

Re: Maybe the default settings are too high

#39

Post by xyzzy_plugh »

> I’ve found reading aloud helpful for staying engaged — limiting myself to mouth-speed rather than eye-speed means I won’t rush, miss important details, and then lose interest, which has always been a problem for me.

This worked for me... for a time. And then what happened surprised me (but maybe shouldn't have): I started zoning out and thinking about other things, missing important details, while reading aloud. Wild that we can even do that.

Re: Maybe the default settings are too high

#40

Post by Wowfunhappy »

I can't control the speed that I read.

In fact, I noticed that whenever a book becomes most exciting, I start reading especially fast (to the point of skipping words), because I want to know what happens next. So I spend the least time with the best parts of the best books.

Ever since I realized that, I have switched pretty much exclusively to audiobooks. I don't really know if it's faster or slower overall, but it's a predetermined pace, and that works better for me.

Post reply on HN