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Speed Reading: Is it worth it?

wordwarrior

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I'll preface this post with an acknowledgement: I realize that MJ and many established members of this forum advocate doing over getting caught in an endless reading cycle. This makes sense, but in the process of doing I'm sure many of us will have to do at least some reading/crash courses/etc.

This brings me to my question: Do any of you have experience with speed reading? Is learning about speed reading worth it? Can it cut down the learning curve and free up more time for doing?

I stumbled onto a Udemy speed reading course and I'm wondering if it's worth it.
 
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RazorCut

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This brings me to my question: Do any of you have experience with speed reading? Is learning about speed reading worth it? Can it cut down the learning curve and free up more time for doing?

I stumbled onto a Udemy speed reading course and I'm wondering if it's worth it.

I think it works for skimming. I am a slow reader if I want to immerse myself in the text. However if I want to speed read I just skim through by recognising every 4th or 6th word and am still able to follow the dialogue, then anything that looks interesting I can slow down and read the paragraph.

I take it that is what the course teaches? Have you tried looking for a YouTube video on speed reading? It will take a fraction of the time that a course will take.

The old trick of reading the back cover, intro, end, then using the index to focus on the areas of most interest are great ways of getting an abstract. There are also web sites that do a good job of dissecting the meat for lots of business related books.

www.blinkist.com for example.


Lots of ways to get though a book quickly. However often the more effort you put in the more you take from it. I recently read a book twice. Second time around with a highlighter and sticky labels. Then I went through a third time writing all the highlighted sections out into a word document and annotating them. Took ages but was worth all the effort.
 

RazorCut

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MTEE1985

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I stumbled onto a Udemy speed reading course and I'm wondering if it's worth it.

I’ve dabbled but found the comprehension rates aren’t as high as I’d like. Doesn’t mean it won’t work for you though.

I’d say try it and report back. What’s your worst sunk cost here? $9.99 and a few hours? I think that’s worth the potentially thousands of hours of savings over your reading life.
 

wordwarrior

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Lots of ways to get though a book quickly. However often the more effort you put in the more you take from it. I recently read a book twice. Second time around with a highlighter and sticky labels. Then I went through a third time writing all the highlighted sections out into a word document and annotating them. Took ages but was worth all the effort.

I read Robert Ciadlini's Influence along with Pre-Suasion and highlighted the salient points while mostly ignoring the anecdotes. Last night I went back to Influence and re-read some of the highlights I made earlier. It was a very effective and concise refresher.
 

NMdad

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What @RazorCut said.

Also, I have done some speed reading--I think it was Tim Ferriss's approach, basically where you train your eye movements to continually move across each line of text, without pauses or re-reading words/lines. It worked well, but I found it required a lot of focus & mental energy. You can do the eye-movement training using a book (from the library) in a language you're not familiar with--Greek, Spanish, etc.

That said, one of the best ways I've found to reinforce & retain info/ideas from what I've read is to tell someone else what I've read. Basically, since you're teaching someone else, you have to know the material. It's the Richard Feynman technique:
Learning From the Feynman Technique – Taking Note – Medium
It works well, but beware: your spouse & kids will start calling you names--nerd, geek, etc.--when you get all excited telling them about random stuff like paperclips, salt, Genghis Khan, ... :)
 

ExaltedLife

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Short answer: no.

You won't retain what you read because you aren't taking the time to integrate it. Its counterproductive.

Read the book properly one time and you won't ever need to read it again.
 

Andy Black

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I’m curious why folks want to read faster?
 
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Kak

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I do speed some audible books up to 1.75 and 2x you get used to it...

Then my wife gets in the car and she thinks they are speaking a different language. HAHA
 
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RazorCut

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I’m curious why folks want to read faster?

I guess lack of time or only want the salient points, not the padding. Like sucking the juice out of an ice lolly while leaving the ice behind.

I mainly use Audible but the problem with that is unless you take notes (which defeats the freedom associated with an audio book) you lose a lot of the information.

How do you digest and retain information Andy?
 

ExaltedLife

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I’m curious why folks want to read faster?

To save time, but it's a short cut.

It's like this.

When you think, your neurons fire. When you hear a word, the neurons relating to what that word means fire.

The thing is, everything is related, so understanding is about connections. When you read fast, you have time for a few of those neurons to fire, but fewer connections get made.

For example if you want to understsnd what 'productocracy', the definition is nice but somebody who has taken the time to think of ten or more examples is going to understand it way more clearly, because they've identified whole bunch of connections in reality.

If you want to sacrifice clarity of understanding in exchange for volume of information, go for it, but it's a bad idea.
 

ExaltedLife

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Like I said in another thread, the key to retaining information is relating it to your senses, especially sight. Emotions are good too for remembering the connection of the word to reality. Thats why women never forget when you piss them off, haha.

It comes down to the richness and detail of the content in your mind. If you can *see* it in your minds eye, it's easy to bring it up. Maybe you've never thought about it, but if I ask you what color your neighbors' car is, you probably know it.
 
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ExaltedLife

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Also this is why @MJ DeMarco probably understands "productocracy" way better than most people who have read the book, because he created the concept inductively; he derived it by looking at a large number of businesses in reality, looking at what they had in common versus other businesses, and then creating a concept based on their unique essential characteristics.

So for him, the concept is connected to a lot of data, because he saw it first hand. For lots of others, its just a word they read in a book with a definition and one or two examples.

This is (I think) where that whole "you only retain 10% of what you read" bromide came from. Most people don't take the time to recreate the inductive process.
 

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If you are currently reading 1-2 pages per minute - I wouldn't worry about it.

If you are only reading 1 page every 2 or 3 or 4 minutes you should probably seek out to answer why and then focus on trying to get that up to the typical 1-2 pages per minute mark.

Also learn to skim and stop. There's no gold star for finishing a book or reading every page. If it's boring - stop. If it's confusing - put it down and pick up later. If you already get the idea - skim until you hit something new and exciting.

As KAK said - audiobooks are also gold. No reason not to listen at 1.5 - 2x speed. I do this all the time with youtube videos and the like and I can't stand listening slower anymore. I just bump up the speed to the point where it's fast but I still understand everything and can absorb the info. It's usually 1.5 for fast talkers and 2x for average talkers. Some really slow folks make me wish more programs had 3x.
 

NMdad

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I do speed some audible books up to 1.75 and 2x you get used to it...

Then my wife gets in the car and she thinks they are speaking a different language. HAHA
OMG--this same exact thing happens to me. My kids think it's hilarious.
 
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Apo

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I'll preface this post with an acknowledgement: I realize that MJ and many established members of this forum advocate doing over getting caught in an endless reading cycle. This makes sense, but in the process of doing I'm sure many of us will have to do at least some reading/crash courses/etc.

This brings me to my question: Do any of you have experience with speed reading? Is learning about speed reading worth it? Can it cut down the learning curve and free up more time for doing?

I stumbled onto a Udemy speed reading course and I'm wondering if it's worth it.
I have always been a slow reader in my native language like in English. Reading fast for few minutes and lose most of the information. I never trained though and it is funny you created this topic because I was thinking about it while reading the other... I need to get faster at reading... I dont have any issue though haha
 

Andy Black

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You pesky kids seem in such an infernal rush...
 

Andy Black

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How do you digest and retain information Andy?

I don’t try to. I let it wash over me till something resonates. Then I put it down or turn it off and mull over it for a few weeks... trying to figure out what I can do different going forward.

All it takes is one small twist to make all the difference.

When I was attending weekly 2 hour evening sessions with Blaise Brosnan, he’d tell the group to just take one thing away from each session, to act on it, and to make a 5% gain in your business. Do that each week and you’ll have a completely different business at the end of the 20 weeks.

I prefer to clear my head by simplifying things rather than fill it up with yet more “stuff”.

The main thing I’m working on at the moment is focus, so the thought of speed reading/listening actually horrifies me.
 
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ApparentHorizon

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There are tricks to speed read. IDK where they're taught or where they come from, b/c I have yet to find anything similar.

But, someone showed me this and I use it to skim while retaining info.

VS

Speed reading full words and barely understanding.

upload_2019-3-6_14-59-37.png
 

ProcessPro

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I trained my eyes to move in the manner recommended by a speed reading course and now I instinctively do it even when I don't want to. It's a bit annoying. My eyes make these big jumps.

There is a place for selective reading if you know what you want from a book and knowing when to skim.
It also helps to develop a reading strategy that accounts for the way writing is structured. i.e. The main idea is in the first/last paragraphs and first/last lines in a paragraph. So reading selectively can reveal the wheat while skipping the chaff and you can read more as needed. Selective reading is helpful simply because many authors have some quota to meet (I think 200 pages), so there is often around of fluff around their key ideas. It saves time.
 

SquatchMan

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I skim unimportant/short stuff that I still want to read for whatever reason. News stuff mostly.

Interesting stuff I usually read normal speed, which is still fast. Really interesting stuff or complicated stuff gets a few reads because it takes a few reads to internalize it.

I don't really read books anymore though. I prefer reading blogs or forums. I think it's a better than a book for many topics. Business stuff is especially fun since you can read the progress as it happens combined with lots of different viewpoints.

I just bump up the speed to the point where it's fast but I still understand everything and can absorb the info. It's usually 1.5 for fast talkers and 2x for average talkers. Some really slow folks make me wish more programs had 3x.

It's always funny when you go from a very slow speaker at 2x to the same slow speaker at 1x. It sounds like slow motion audio. Makes me realize just how slow some people talk.
 
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SK1

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I have been speed reading for many years.
As an educator - its great to find relevant content, review pre-learnt materials, mark learners work, etc.
For learning - it is not so good.

Everyone is different. Maybe I am not doing it correctly?
 

RazorCut

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I have been speed reading for many years.
As an educator - its great to find relevant content, review pre-learnt materials, mark learners work, etc.
For learning - it is not so good.

Everyone is different. Maybe I am not doing it correctly?

That sounds bang on to me. So excellent information in this thread. :thumbsup:
 

Xeon

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When it comes to speed reading, learn from the best of the best : Tai Lopez.
He has a YouTube vid which teaches people to finish a book in 10 mins.....

That means if you camp at a library, you can finish 50 - 80 books a day, or more.
 
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Sanj Modha

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What's your objective with reading? Is it:

1 - To read more books?
2 - To enjoy the books?
3 - To learn from the books?

It's not the same thing. Answer the question and you'll figure out if you need to speed read.

I read like 17-20 books a year and I don't speed read. I spend 30 minutes a day reading and that's all I need.
 

NC Bidniss

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I'll preface this post with an acknowledgement: I realize that MJ and many established members of this forum advocate doing over getting caught in an endless reading cycle. This makes sense, but in the process of doing I'm sure many of us will have to do at least some reading/crash courses/etc.

This brings me to my question: Do any of you have experience with speed reading? Is learning about speed reading worth it? Can it cut down the learning curve and free up more time for doing?

I stumbled onto a Udemy speed reading course and I'm wondering if it's worth it.

As long as you can effectively soak in the information through speedreading, it is a good strategy. However, if you are simply reading the words and not the ideas the words represent, then you aren't doing yourself any good. If you can read a book in 3 hours, but fail to remember anything from the book a week later, you didn't do yourself any good.
 

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