also, even without creating output or taking action in the world reading alone does not suffice to learn. New ideas have to be pondered, developed and connected

also, even without creating output or taking action in the world reading alone does not suffice to learn. New ideas have to be pondered, developed and connected. Connecting what you already know with what some information stream tells you and carrying the lines of thought further is the valuable part. This is the central crux of speed reading, the ability to think is the bottleneck, not the parsing of text.