How to read 1-2 full books per day. No, seriously.

[Adam Secada]

Hmmmm, I think I have some of that, can you give some tips about how to get rid of it?

Sure, I can tell you what worked for me. I don't mean to hijack the thread, but I think I'm going to anyway.

We had these kids in my high school that were notoriously smart. They both got perfect SAT scores, and were straight A students. Our student newspaper released a parody paper on graduation, with the cover story being that these kids had been guessing on their exams the whole time. Maybe.

Firstly, one of the things thats kind of quirky about the Imposter Syndrome is that its a trait shared by high performers. So, while it may be kind of weird for me to say that if you think you're an imposter, you most likely aren't, thats actually a true statement I can make based on the research I looked at. (Something like 50% of wealthy people think they are frauds, and as many as 70% of all people feel like they are frauds at some point in their life.) Its actually the incompetents of the world that don't realize they have a lack of skill.

Lookup the Dunning-Kruger effect. All their research was born from the case of this guy named Wheeler, who read somewhere that Lemon Juice was usable as invisible ink like in so many spy movies. So of course he did the rational thing: he smothered his face in lemon juice and promptly robbed two banks, thinking the lemon juice would make him invisible to security cameras.

One of the takeaways of the study:
If you're incompetent, you can’t know you’re incompetent, the skills you need to produce a right answer are exactly the skills you need to recognize what a right answer is.

If you can't tell, thats the corollary of the thing I put in bold up there. If you think you're incompetent, you can't be because you have the skills, knowhow and savvy to know what incompetence looks like in the first place.

It took me a while to wrestle with this, because it seemed very circular logic to me at first. So, I shrunk the findings down into a mantra that I use whenever I hear the little voice in the back of my head telling me I'm dumb.

"Everyone on this planet is dumb. The only difference between the smart people and the really dumb people is that the smart people know how little they know." Confucius and Socrates have similar words of wisdom -- if you still have self doubt, I'd recommend you pick up some of their work. I know I'm dumb, but those dudes are F'n smart.

 

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[masterneme]

Sure, I can tell you what worked for me. I don't mean to hijack the thread, but I think I'm going to anyway.

We had these kids in my high school that were notoriously smart. They both got perfect SAT scores, and were straight A students. Our student newspaper released a parody paper on graduation, with the cover story being that these kids had been guessing on their exams the whole time. Maybe.

Firstly, one of the things thats kind of quirky about the Imposter Syndrome is that its a trait shared by high performers. So, while it may be kind of weird for me to say that if you think you're an imposter, you most likely aren't, thats actually a true statement I can make based on the research I looked at. (Something like 50% of wealthy people think they are frauds, and as many as 70% of all people feel like they are frauds at some point in their life.) Its actually the incompetents of the world that don't realize they have a lack of skill.

Lookup the Dunning-Kruger effect. All their research was born from the case of this guy named Wheeler, who read somewhere that Lemon Juice was usable as invisible ink like in so many spy movies. So of course he did the rational thing: he smothered his face in lemon juice and promptly robbed two banks, thinking the lemon juice would make him invisible to security cameras.

One of the takeaways of the study:
If you're incompetent, you can’t know you’re incompetent, the skills you need to produce a right answer are exactly the skills you need to recognize what a right answer is.

If you can't tell, thats the corollary of the thing I put in bold up there. If you think you're incompetent, you can't be because you have the skills, knowhow and savvy to know what incompetence looks like in the first place.

It took me a while to wrestle with this, because it seemed very circular logic to me at first. So, I shrunk the findings down into a mantra that I use whenever I hear the little voice in the back of my head telling me I'm dumb.

"Everyone on this planet is dumb. The only difference between the smart people and the really dumb people is that the smart people know how little they know." Confucius and Socrates have similar words of wisdom -- if you still have self doubt, I'd recommend you pick up some of their work. I know I'm dumb, but those dudes are F'n smart.

Hey thank you very much for the effort, that's a very detailed explanation.

I've read about the Dunning-Kruger effect in the past, what a "coincidence" , but I haven't read their studies, very interesting stuff.

This makes a lot of sense and in some way it makes me sad, I'll explain why:

There are a couple of fields I've been involved professionally. Is in these areas where the Imposter Syndrome has affected me the most.

I didn't think I was skilled enough until I got enough clients telling me how bad other guys are.

I was so focused in developing myself that I didn't check the competence.

And the truth is that they're really bad in general, and that's what's bothering, if me, with obvious (at least for me) lack of skill I'm better than the average professional, the average service provided is crap.

On the positive side, this means that improving my skill I can own the market (and then the world :joyful.

I find direct correlation with the 4 stages of the learning model taught in NLP, being the first one Unconscious Incompetence.

In this stage, you not only don't know, you don't know that you don't know.

And ironically is because the natural overconfidence of the incompetent that is possible to progress to the Conscious Incompetence stage. The ignorance and overconfidence act as motivators.

When you realize that you suck, that confidence disappears and if you don't find any other motivator, the learning process stops because you give up.

But what happens with some people? When they realize that they suck, they use that let's call it low-self-steem-motivation in their favor.

This group of people often go through a fifth stage called Conscious of Unconscious Competence which means that they're aware of their uncosncious skills and behaviours.

This can happen when a person possess a highly developed self-awareness.

This being said, I can say that if the Imposter Syndrome is still affecting me, its effect has diminished but when I feel it is still uncomfortable.

If I can't get rid of it completely at least I'd like to make it so manageable that it doesn't bother me.

Now back to the topic... READ PEOPLE READ!

 

[Adam Secada]

And the truth is that they're really bad in general, and that's what's bothering, if me, with obvious (at least for me) lack of skill I'm better than the average professional, the average service provided is crap.

The irony of this is that all the Fastlaners who read this should be emboldened and empassioned by this fact, not saddened.

But yes, back to your regularly scheduled programming.

Read Books. But then apply what you learn. Endless reading is being BUSY. It isn't being PRODUCTIVE.

 

[daivey]

One that reads a lot and listens to audio books, I don't think it really saves you that much more time, other then you can listen to it, while you're doing other things. It may seem like it, but if you look at the minutes on an audio book versus reading, I don't think you're speeding much up, it may just seem like it. And also the comprehension level and how much you really remember. I often find I have to back track because I read and listen to much, and overload my brain with material.

exactly... and those no such thing as "true multi tasking". people that claim they can listen to an audio book and complete other tasks + get all the information from the book are full of shit... or child geniuses... and if you're a child genius, you can probably read the book faster than any other human being can read it back to you verbally.

there is no time savings, it's a pretend "action" to make you think you are doing something/being smarter.

there is no replacement for actually doing the work, that's the reality.

 

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[Mattie]

people that claim they can listen to an audio book and complete other tasks + get all the information from the book are full of shit...
I would have to agree. While I'm multi-tasking, I am really only focusing on the book partially. Sure, my subconscious mind might be hearing it, but to really catch the whole thing, while doing something else, not I don't believe you can. I usually have to stop the audio and go back to it, if i hear a certain part. Maybe if your taking a shower, doing dishes, or something where you're not actually having to think in two places, and aim your focus it might work.

 

[Luffy]

That's great unless you like the experience of just reading a book the old fashioned way and reflect on it as you move along.

 

[Determined2012]

I like the idea. I'm much more of a visual learner though rather than auditory. I find myself getting distracted by what's going on around me visually and can miss a whole chapter listening to an audio book.

This! I tried listening to 10X on Audibles and every 10 minutes I had to rewind and restart, I def was not retaining the info. I need to look at the words and actually READ them in my head, or out loud.

Now looking at the words and hearing them is really effective for me. I cancelled my audibles account because listening to books just didn't work for me.

 

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