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Audiobook paired with a good set of noise cancelling headphones on an early train is as good as a commute gets. Your 20 second trip to the (home) office is not

Audiobook paired with a good set of noise cancelling headphones on an early train is as good as a commute gets. Your 20 second trip to the (home) office is not a commute. I do those too sometimes :)

copperx 7y ago
How do you deal with the excruciating slow speed of audiobooks? Even on 2x speed I feel I can do twice as fast by reading with my eyes and get better retention. Anything faster that 2x makes the speech unintelligible, but reading fast feels like things get more coherent.
- angel_j 7y ago
  untested hypothesis: binaural speech, overlap spoken words in time, but space them out over both ears
  - copperx 7y ago
    That's not an hypothesis.
    - angel_j 7y ago
      Are you gate-keeping science?
- xyzzyz 7y ago
  Just don't rush it, and enjoy the experience. You won't be able to read every book in existence anyway.
- luag 7y ago
  I personally just learn to enjoy it. Listening at 1.3x max.
- chrisseaton 7y ago
  Why are you in such a rush? Relax and enjoy the experience. Would you go to an opera or play and then ask them to rattle through it as quickly as possible so you can get out again?
  - HNLurker2 7y ago
    The beginning is boring and that's why most people quit reading too. YMMV
    - deleted 7y ago
      [deleted]
  - tristanperry 7y ago
    I watch YouTube (and downloaded) videos at 1.75+ playback, because I _think_ that some videos are slowed down before being published. I'm not sure why this is done - whether it is to make the video easier to follow for non-native speakers, or to give a more 'authoritative' feel (slower speech = more confidence etc?), but I find such videos unbearable to watch at x1 speed. So for me it's not about rushing and not enjoying the experience. It's about listening to it at a speed which is bearable: and hence enjoyable.
    - DanBC 7y ago
      > I _think_ that some videos are slowed down before being published It's to stretch the videos that are just under 10 minutes to longer than 10 minutes so they can add mid-roll ads.
    - r3bl 7y ago
      It's always because of the ads. Whenever you're wondering why the video is too long, or why the author is somewhat rambling around the point, or why they include those "like and subscribe" sections in every video (sometimes at the beginning, because you'd close the tab otherwise), the answer is always to find that sweet spot that accommodates the ads. It's also why channels tend to upload videos of similar length, regardless of the topic. Sometimes they have to cut the script short, other times they have to find a way to lengthen it.
- Swizec 7y ago
  As a fairly proficient ESL guy 1.5x is the fastest I can do for audiobooks. Most books are read slowly on purpose I think so they’re easiest for most people to understand and everything is enunciated perfectly. Speeding up makes them feel like normal talking speed. Mind you audiobooks have less filler than natural speech so they’re a little more information dense than someone shooting from the hip. I find the best way to enjoy them is on a nice run where the situation holds me captive and I can’t retreat into a more distractive media. In my experience audiobooks can’t keep my attention, not fast paced enough, and I pull out my phone. As soon as that happens I no longer hear/process the audiobook. But if I’m running it’s juuuust perfect enough to keep my attention and sort of embed the ideas into my subconscious even if I’m not actively listening. It’s a lot like speed reading in that way. With speed reading I always felt like I was rushing and had no idea what I’m reading. But ask me questions and I could recap the information back flawlessly. However, I purposefully avoid speed reading fiction because it detracts from the experience. You get the info, but you lose the feel.
- nextlevelwizard 7y ago
  I guess point is that you can do something else while listening, like I commute with a car so reading a book is out of the question, but listening to audiobooks and podcasts fits well. Besides commuting you can do other things like house chores. For me audiobooks have opened reading in a whole new way. I used to think that I was dyslexic, but I've since discovered that the right term is subvocalization. I was slow reader as a kid and never grew out of it. So reading is really slow for me, I've tried to work on it, but in the meanwhile I might as well be listening audiobooks.
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]
- itsrajju 7y ago
  I listen at 0.8x, especially when listening to fiction. Reading is certainly much faster, but I tend to enjoy more while listening to soothing, meandering speech by the voice actor.
  - reallydontask 7y ago
    Interesting, I do occasionally listen to non-fiction books at 0.9x but fiction I normally listen at 1.25x.
- gfody 7y ago
  I’ve heard this a lot. I always listen at normal 1x speed and that usually seems plenty fast as my mind gets busy with visualizing the scenes and characters and filling in bits of detail and whatnot for realism. I wonder if folks who speed it up have their minds similarly engaged or if they’re just having a much lesser experience. To me it’d be like trying to watch a movie on fast forward.
  - stordoff 7y ago
    I typically read at 300-500 wpm (I don't really subvocalise - it's not a deliberate choice, I just don't, and don't remember ever doing, when reading at a 'normal' speed), and I'm always visualising scenes and characters (there are some I can distinctly remember, years later). Listening to an audio book at regular speed, I'm often waiting for the next piece of detail, and that pulls me out of it. That is sometimes the lesser experience (for me) - I generally find it much more difficult to build a mental image at the slower pace. If I really pay attention, I can sometimes 'hear' fragments of words and individual words - it's like a partial subvocalisation (something like "I listen 1x speed plenty fast visual fill detail"). If I deliberately slow myself down (as I often do if I'm particularly enjoying a certain section, or if a section is particularly intricate), I subvocalise as normal, but at the same time I lose the visual aspects of picturing a scene. I start to hear the prose, but lose the visualisation.
  - kd5bjo 7y ago
    Not necessarily lesser, but different. My brain doesn’t generally visualize anything, but it’s good at building a semantic web that connects cause and effect. If you ask me to describe the physical characteristics of a character in a book that I read, I probably can’t, unless it has an effect on the plot. But I have no real trouble keeping track of what’s going on in books like The Count of Monte Cristo where everyone has half a dozen names and different motivations they’re willing to show to different people. I also listen to things at 1x speed because I don’t care for the audio artifacts from the speedup process, but I have to be in the right mood for it. If I’m too energetic, the book won’t hold my attention and my mind will wander to other things— I’ll mentally shut it off and have no idea what’s going on when I try to resume the book.
  - deleted 7y ago
- dorfsmay 7y ago
  Some of us read as slowly if not slower than we speak. Also, different audio systems read at different speed. Have you tried pocket at 2 or 2.5 x? Still too slow?
- gdy 7y ago
  It depends on the player. Audible's 3x is intelligible even for a non-native speaker like me. Smart Audiobook Player's 3x is atrocious.
- cm2187 7y ago
  I find that the slow speed helps not missing the logical thread the way I consume audio books, by always doing something else at the same time.
- helloindia 7y ago
  As a fast reader myself, I can't get myself to listen to audiobooks or podcasts while sitting in one place. When I'm walking, it doesn't bother me as much, so I listen to them on my morning/evening walk in the park. I finished several books this way.
- inanutshellus 7y ago
  If you're listening on Libby, you can long-press on the speed icon and drag down. That'll get you all the way up to 3x. It's fantastic.
- brendyn 7y ago
  Perhaps LPCnet may be of use to you. If is a neural net for generating speech based on google's research. The demonstrate using it to intelligently slow down or speed up audio. perhaps you will find 3x audio more natural with it. maybe a smart accelerator could be made that speeds up quiet parts more. https://people.xiph.org/~jm/demo/lpcnet/ https://people.xiph.org/~jm/demo/lpcnet/
- heurist 7y ago
  Listen to more challenging content. I can only listen to dense, information rich texts, anything else feels like a waste of time.
  - copperx 7y ago
    I've never found such books as audiobooks. Care to share a few?
    - heurist 7y ago
      The selection is limited but they're around. Most recently I've listened to Robert Greene, Joseph Campbell, Walter Isaacson, Jan Swalford, Peter Frankopan, among others. My favorite in the last year was "The Rise and Fall of American Growth" by Robert J Gordon. There are a lot of classic philosophy texts as well, Seneca, Plato, etc. And various useful books on marketing and how to sell, since that's a skill I've been working on. One of the ways I find books is to think of something I'm interested in then go to https://hackernewsbooks.com/ https://hackernewsbooks.com/ and search for recommendations. The best books I've read recently were ones I can across on HN. If I find recommendations then I'll go on audible and search for an audiobook version. I don't always find them, maybe 1/10 are available, but it's been a useful tactic in general.

Audiobook paired with a good set of noise cancelling headphones on an early train is as good as a commute gets. Your 20 second trip to the (home) office is not a commute. I do those too sometimes :)

copperx 7y ago

How do you deal with the excruciating slow speed of audiobooks? Even on 2x speed I feel I can do twice as fast by reading with my eyes and get better retention. Anything faster that 2x makes the speech unintelligible, but reading fast feels like things get more coherent.

angel_j 7y ago
untested hypothesis: binaural speech, overlap spoken words in time, but space them out over both ears
- copperx 7y ago
  That's not an hypothesis.
  - angel_j 7y ago
    Are you gate-keeping science?
xyzzyz 7y ago
Just don't rush it, and enjoy the experience. You won't be able to read every book in existence anyway.
luag 7y ago
I personally just learn to enjoy it. Listening at 1.3x max.
chrisseaton 7y ago
Why are you in such a rush? Relax and enjoy the experience. Would you go to an opera or play and then ask them to rattle through it as quickly as possible so you can get out again?
- HNLurker2 7y ago
  The beginning is boring and that's why most people quit reading too. YMMV
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]
- tristanperry 7y ago
  I watch YouTube (and downloaded) videos at 1.75+ playback, because I _think_ that some videos are slowed down before being published. I'm not sure why this is done - whether it is to make the video easier to follow for non-native speakers, or to give a more 'authoritative' feel (slower speech = more confidence etc?), but I find such videos unbearable to watch at x1 speed. So for me it's not about rushing and not enjoying the experience. It's about listening to it at a speed which is bearable: and hence enjoyable.
  - DanBC 7y ago
    > I _think_ that some videos are slowed down before being published It's to stretch the videos that are just under 10 minutes to longer than 10 minutes so they can add mid-roll ads.
  - r3bl 7y ago
    It's always because of the ads. Whenever you're wondering why the video is too long, or why the author is somewhat rambling around the point, or why they include those "like and subscribe" sections in every video (sometimes at the beginning, because you'd close the tab otherwise), the answer is always to find that sweet spot that accommodates the ads. It's also why channels tend to upload videos of similar length, regardless of the topic. Sometimes they have to cut the script short, other times they have to find a way to lengthen it.
Swizec 7y ago
As a fairly proficient ESL guy 1.5x is the fastest I can do for audiobooks. Most books are read slowly on purpose I think so they’re easiest for most people to understand and everything is enunciated perfectly. Speeding up makes them feel like normal talking speed. Mind you audiobooks have less filler than natural speech so they’re a little more information dense than someone shooting from the hip. I find the best way to enjoy them is on a nice run where the situation holds me captive and I can’t retreat into a more distractive media. In my experience audiobooks can’t keep my attention, not fast paced enough, and I pull out my phone. As soon as that happens I no longer hear/process the audiobook. But if I’m running it’s juuuust perfect enough to keep my attention and sort of embed the ideas into my subconscious even if I’m not actively listening. It’s a lot like speed reading in that way. With speed reading I always felt like I was rushing and had no idea what I’m reading. But ask me questions and I could recap the information back flawlessly. However, I purposefully avoid speed reading fiction because it detracts from the experience. You get the info, but you lose the feel.
nextlevelwizard 7y ago
I guess point is that you can do something else while listening, like I commute with a car so reading a book is out of the question, but listening to audiobooks and podcasts fits well. Besides commuting you can do other things like house chores. For me audiobooks have opened reading in a whole new way. I used to think that I was dyslexic, but I've since discovered that the right term is subvocalization. I was slow reader as a kid and never grew out of it. So reading is really slow for me, I've tried to work on it, but in the meanwhile I might as well be listening audiobooks.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
itsrajju 7y ago
I listen at 0.8x, especially when listening to fiction. Reading is certainly much faster, but I tend to enjoy more while listening to soothing, meandering speech by the voice actor.
- reallydontask 7y ago
  Interesting, I do occasionally listen to non-fiction books at 0.9x but fiction I normally listen at 1.25x.
gfody 7y ago
I’ve heard this a lot. I always listen at normal 1x speed and that usually seems plenty fast as my mind gets busy with visualizing the scenes and characters and filling in bits of detail and whatnot for realism. I wonder if folks who speed it up have their minds similarly engaged or if they’re just having a much lesser experience. To me it’d be like trying to watch a movie on fast forward.
- stordoff 7y ago
  I typically read at 300-500 wpm (I don't really subvocalise - it's not a deliberate choice, I just don't, and don't remember ever doing, when reading at a 'normal' speed), and I'm always visualising scenes and characters (there are some I can distinctly remember, years later). Listening to an audio book at regular speed, I'm often waiting for the next piece of detail, and that pulls me out of it. That is sometimes the lesser experience (for me) - I generally find it much more difficult to build a mental image at the slower pace. If I really pay attention, I can sometimes 'hear' fragments of words and individual words - it's like a partial subvocalisation (something like "I listen 1x speed plenty fast visual fill detail"). If I deliberately slow myself down (as I often do if I'm particularly enjoying a certain section, or if a section is particularly intricate), I subvocalise as normal, but at the same time I lose the visual aspects of picturing a scene. I start to hear the prose, but lose the visualisation.
- kd5bjo 7y ago
  Not necessarily lesser, but different. My brain doesn’t generally visualize anything, but it’s good at building a semantic web that connects cause and effect. If you ask me to describe the physical characteristics of a character in a book that I read, I probably can’t, unless it has an effect on the plot. But I have no real trouble keeping track of what’s going on in books like The Count of Monte Cristo where everyone has half a dozen names and different motivations they’re willing to show to different people. I also listen to things at 1x speed because I don’t care for the audio artifacts from the speedup process, but I have to be in the right mood for it. If I’m too energetic, the book won’t hold my attention and my mind will wander to other things— I’ll mentally shut it off and have no idea what’s going on when I try to resume the book.
- deleted 7y ago
dorfsmay 7y ago
Some of us read as slowly if not slower than we speak. Also, different audio systems read at different speed. Have you tried pocket at 2 or 2.5 x? Still too slow?
gdy 7y ago
It depends on the player. Audible's 3x is intelligible even for a non-native speaker like me. Smart Audiobook Player's 3x is atrocious.
cm2187 7y ago
I find that the slow speed helps not missing the logical thread the way I consume audio books, by always doing something else at the same time.
helloindia 7y ago
As a fast reader myself, I can't get myself to listen to audiobooks or podcasts while sitting in one place. When I'm walking, it doesn't bother me as much, so I listen to them on my morning/evening walk in the park. I finished several books this way.
inanutshellus 7y ago
If you're listening on Libby, you can long-press on the speed icon and drag down. That'll get you all the way up to 3x. It's fantastic.
brendyn 7y ago
Perhaps LPCnet may be of use to you. If is a neural net for generating speech based on google's research. The demonstrate using it to intelligently slow down or speed up audio. perhaps you will find 3x audio more natural with it. maybe a smart accelerator could be made that speeds up quiet parts more. https://people.xiph.org/~jm/demo/lpcnet/ https://people.xiph.org/~jm/demo/lpcnet/
heurist 7y ago
Listen to more challenging content. I can only listen to dense, information rich texts, anything else feels like a waste of time.
- copperx 7y ago
  I've never found such books as audiobooks. Care to share a few?
  - heurist 7y ago
    The selection is limited but they're around. Most recently I've listened to Robert Greene, Joseph Campbell, Walter Isaacson, Jan Swalford, Peter Frankopan, among others. My favorite in the last year was "The Rise and Fall of American Growth" by Robert J Gordon. There are a lot of classic philosophy texts as well, Seneca, Plato, etc. And various useful books on marketing and how to sell, since that's a skill I've been working on. One of the ways I find books is to think of something I'm interested in then go to https://hackernewsbooks.com/ https://hackernewsbooks.com/ and search for recommendations. The best books I've read recently were ones I can across on HN. If I find recommendations then I'll go on audible and search for an audiobook version. I don't always find them, maybe 1/10 are available, but it's been a useful tactic in general.