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

Re: Sorry, You Can’t Speed Read

#91

Post by tedmiston » Sat, Apr 16, 2016, 4:17 PM UTC

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…

For the same reason that some people enjoy a slow bar coffee (pour over style) and some want the fastest possible to move on with life.

Personally, I'd rather wait for the good things.

One counterexample is general news -- I always just want the tl;dr.

In a realistic world, each person has a relatively small discrete amount of free hours each week.

Re: Sorry, You Can’t Speed Read

#92

Post by tedmiston » Sat, Apr 16, 2016, 4:20 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?

Personally I retain information better if I read the CliffsNotes before the novel itself.

I'm not concerned with spoiling the plot, but rather giving myself a structure to be built out with details. [There's a term for this in learning theory that was mentioned in Pragmatic Thinking and Learning, but ironically it's slipping my mind right now.]

Related - Here's an example of how I took notes on the book REMOTE. https://github.com/tedmiston/notes/blob/master/books/Remote....

Re: Sorry, You Can’t Speed Read

#93

Post by mratzloff » Sat, Apr 16, 2016, 4:22 PM UTC

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 don't get it, either. I read at a speed that matches what I'm trying to get out of it. I skim work-related documents and zone in on relevant areas. In college, I would speed read humanities textbooks.

But novels? Like you, I read those slowly and savor them like a good bourbon or wine. I look up words I don't know and commit them to memory. I stop and think about the writing, or a turn of phrase in some dialogue, or the world or characters. I consume novels. This is very different to how many people I know read.

But then I only read very good books. Life is too short to read a bad book.

Re: Sorry, You Can’t Speed Read

#94

Post by pjscott » Sat, Apr 16, 2016, 4:57 PM UTC

wodenokoto wrote: post #78

I once took a speed reading course and my conclusion was, just as the article, that it is glorified skimming. But some text are written to be skimmed (large parts of many college textbooks for example - the author is paid by the word, so there's often a lot of filler. Most people only need to get squinted with most journal article they meet)

Is it just skimming? When I saw the headline of the article I decided that, rather than skimming it, I'd try just reading all the words really fast. I haven't taken a class or anything, so maybe my technique could use work, but I understood it just fine at a little over 1300 words per minute. The writing wasn't very dense, and even then I didn't have time to think critically about what it was saying until after reading it, but I wasn't just skimming.

(n = 1)

Re: Sorry, You Can’t Speed Read

#95

Post by SimonPStevens » Sat, Apr 16, 2016, 5:07 PM UTC

I use audible a lot. I've found that as I've got used to it I can increase the speed to around 2x. When I first started using it I usually set it around 1.25.

It depends a bit on the narrator and the content. I find I often need to start with a new narrator at around 1.75 and then bump it up to 2 when I get more comfortable with their voice. But I would say that provided the speaker is clear and not heavily accented my language processing quite happily works at 2x speech speed. (Perhaps they deliberately speek slower for audio books though?).

Whenever my wife hears it she says it sounds like nonsense to her, so I do think it's something that you get used to over time.

Re: Sorry, You Can’t Speed Read

#96

Post by sbmassey » Sat, Apr 16, 2016, 5:11 PM UTC

If I am reading anything worthwhile, I will usually be taking notes and looking stuff up every page or two, or pausing to make sure I really understood some concept, so I'm not sure speed reading would help much

Re: Sorry, You Can’t Speed Read

#97

Post by ldjb » Sat, Apr 16, 2016, 5:26 PM UTC

The authors of the article mention Spritz, but I have to wonder whether they've actually used it. They argue that speed reading involves skipping over words. However, when you use Spritz, you do read every word -- you simply do so faster.

Research [1] suggests that whilst use of Spritz does negatively impact reading comprehension, that impact is relatively minor. My own personal experience of using Spritz agrees with that finding.

I'm not saying there are no downsides to speed reading, but there are times when you do need to read something quickly and you can sacrifice a small amount of reading comprehension. In those cases, speed reading can be immensely useful.

[1] http://sdk.spritzinc.com/www/1.0/psb/Spritz-PSB-study.pdf

Re: Sorry, You Can’t Speed Read

#98

Post by mistercow » Sat, Apr 16, 2016, 5:31 PM UTC

ldjb wrote: post #97

The authors of the article mention Spritz, but I have to wonder whether they've actually used it. They argue that speed reading involves skipping over words. However, when you use Spritz, you do read every word -- you simply do so faster. Research [1] suggests that whilst use of Spritz does negatively impact reading comprehension, that impact is relatively minor. My own personal experience of using Spritz agrees with…

> However, when you use Spritz, you do read every word

You're presented with every word. Whether or not you actually read every word is harder to gauge.

Re: Sorry, You Can’t Speed Read

#99

Post by vaughngh » Sat, Apr 16, 2016, 5:50 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…

Completely agree, you just have to work your way up. Made a custom chrome extension and often watch videos at 4x speed (depending on the speech rate of the actual narrator).

Re: Sorry, You Can’t Speed Read

#100

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Apr 16, 2016, 5:51 PM UTC

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…

[deleted]