3 ms·

Very cool. Its great that you are doing this. One question about Triple Your Reading Speed: Did you find you can increase your speed and still retain the infor

Very cool. Its great that you are doing this. One question about Triple Your Reading Speed: Did you find you can increase your speed and still retain the information? I've heard that a lot of speed reading techniques end up decreasing retention.

oscardelben 17y ago
Personally not. You can speed read some of those books but forget it on scientific topics. But maybe it's just me, I don't have a good memory. Still, my ex girlfriend could read a page in 3-5 seconds by focusing only on paragraphs, with very good retention (she would remember pretty much everything). She has always read this way so it's definitely possible for some people.
keefe 17y ago
He's certainly much nicer than me, I'm doing well if my cast-offs end up at goodwill. I decided to respond to this because of the speed reading comment. I spent a lot of time doing "metawork" on my text processing speed. I rewrote this paragraph like 5 times trying to properly express this idea, so bear with me... I find I can read very quickly and get a certain impression of the text, sort of like an impressionist painting version of the content That's the fastest and it's the most useful for quick scanning - a stupid example of the usefulness of this is when I was recently rereading stranger in a strange land, I scanned through Heinlein's political diatribes looking for the bits I actually want to read. Next, if I slow down a bit I can read every word and get most of the ideas at an intellectual level, but I'm not bothering to call up a mental image of what the author is trying to convey, so there's no enjoyment in it. Finally, I can read and reread every word, try to picture everything the author is saying in my head and really grok it, which takes much longer still. I guess I'm trying to make a point that reading speed is like a throttle and learning to speed read is very useful in terms of becoming aware of how much attention you are paying.
- roundsquare 17y ago
  Thanks. Good point. I tend to read something and only understand it a bit. Later on, when my mind wanders, I'll run through it again and really get it. Problem is, I'm going to law school soon so I need to improve my ability to read quickly and understand pretty well. I was wondering if a book like this would help me in that way, but it seems like it would only be marginally useful. Oh well.
  - keefe 17y ago
    I actually think speed reading techniques should be pretty effective for law school. The big trouble is imagining the scenes and trying to feel what all the characters are feeling. AFAIK, law books are just lists of facts. The way I get around that kind of learning process is to prepare the information in multiple formats (flash cards, the textbook, my notes, somebody else's notes) and scan each one quickly. I'll have to defer to the opinion of people less allergic to the legal system on this one.

oscardelben 17y ago

Personally not. You can speed read some of those books but forget it on scientific topics. But maybe it's just me, I don't have a good memory. Still, my ex girlfriend could read a page in 3-5 seconds by focusing only on paragraphs, with very good retention (she would remember pretty much everything). She has always read this way so it's definitely possible for some people.

keefe 17y ago

He's certainly much nicer than me, I'm doing well if my cast-offs end up at goodwill. I decided to respond to this because of the speed reading comment. I spent a lot of time doing "metawork" on my text processing speed. I rewrote this paragraph like 5 times trying to properly express this idea, so bear with me... I find I can read very quickly and get a certain impression of the text, sort of like an impressionist painting version of the content That's the fastest and it's the most useful for quick scanning - a stupid example of the usefulness of this is when I was recently rereading stranger in a strange land, I scanned through Heinlein's political diatribes looking for the bits I actually want to read. Next, if I slow down a bit I can read every word and get most of the ideas at an intellectual level, but I'm not bothering to call up a mental image of what the author is trying to convey, so there's no enjoyment in it. Finally, I can read and reread every word, try to picture everything the author is saying in my head and really grok it, which takes much longer still. I guess I'm trying to make a point that reading speed is like a throttle and learning to speed read is very useful in terms of becoming aware of how much attention you are paying.

roundsquare 17y ago
Thanks. Good point. I tend to read something and only understand it a bit. Later on, when my mind wanders, I'll run through it again and really get it. Problem is, I'm going to law school soon so I need to improve my ability to read quickly and understand pretty well. I was wondering if a book like this would help me in that way, but it seems like it would only be marginally useful. Oh well.
- keefe 17y ago
  I actually think speed reading techniques should be pretty effective for law school. The big trouble is imagining the scenes and trying to feel what all the characters are feeling. AFAIK, law books are just lists of facts. The way I get around that kind of learning process is to prepare the information in multiple formats (flash cards, the textbook, my notes, somebody else's notes) and scan each one quickly. I'll have to defer to the opinion of people less allergic to the legal system on this one.