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Fastbook: Listen to audiobooks faster (2020)
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Re: Fastbook: Listen to audiobooks faster (2020)
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Re: Fastbook: Listen to audiobooks faster (2020)
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Re: Fastbook: Listen to audiobooks faster (2020)
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Re: Fastbook: Listen to audiobooks faster (2020)
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Re: Fastbook: Listen to audiobooks faster (2020)
#76This may well be beyond the etiquette of HN but listening to podcasts/YT/audiobooks on fast speeds and omitting silence breaks is really stupid. Slow frying your brain to save 5 minutes here and there doesn’t make you smarter.
If I could not speed up podcasts, I would not listen to them at all. As a matter fact, before I had access to a podcast player with this feature up I did not listen to them at all.
There’s way too much fluff, even in a good technical podcast (these actually seem to be the ones that neglect all editing, so many speakers are half ‘ums’ or long pauses while they come up with what to say next) and of course the “fun” podcasts are mostly made of fluff and are largely unlistenable at below 2x
Re: Fastbook: Listen to audiobooks faster (2020)
#77Nice open source project, but ironically I feel that it would take too much of my time preparing shortened audio books.
My wife and I have both been family plan members of Audible for about 10 years and when you include their free audio book Plus Catalog, we have probably well over 1000 shared books.
I sometimes speed up listing by up to 1.5 times faster for books that I like well enough to finish, but not 100% liking. For some books I really like, I may end up listening to them two or more times - so it is not all about saving time. Yesterday, I was 3 hours into a 12 hour book and I was not loving it but wanted to enjoy the ending so I skipped forward to just the last two hours.
Even though I am mostly retired, I find there is not time enough for much of what I would like to do. My personal best strategy for getting time back is learning how to enjoy just the first few episodes of streaming video series, and then stopping unless I really love the series.
One last thing on the subject of using time effectively: I find that the recall from reading some books I really loved is far from perfect. My wife and I subscribe to the Blinkist service, and I find a really good use of time is to occasionally read (or listen) to a 15 minute summary of a previously read book and then spend another 5 minutes thinking about the book.
Re: Fastbook: Listen to audiobooks faster (2020)
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Re: Fastbook: Listen to audiobooks faster (2020)
#79What's the point of listening to 3 books per day? You need time to digest the ideas in a book. Sometimes I listen to one chapter in a book and I need a whole day to digest it: I get into a state where I don't want to listen to _any_ music, etc.
I feel the same way about any media: podcasts, TV, movies, etc.
The creator put in a lot of time and effort, so to not give it your full attention is a complete disservice. When I watch something, I want to hear every line and not miss any dialogue. When I read something, I want to absorb every sentence.
Can't wait to hear someone critiquing our "consumption-obsessed society" in an Amazon review of an economics audiobook they listened to at 6x speed on their morning commute.
Re: Fastbook: Listen to audiobooks faster (2020)
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