5 ms·

Have you tried watching things at 2x speed? I watch anything educational at 2x stopping to replay (often several times) anything I don't understand, watching at

Have you tried watching things at 2x speed? I watch anything educational at 2x stopping to replay (often several times) anything I don't understand, watching at normal speed. I end up powering through the bits I understand and focusing on parts I don't. I also find the fact that I really have to concentrate to decipher what's being said means I don't get distracted. While some stuff that gets posted here veers into productivity cult status, I personally don't think this deserves to be lumped in with that. In spite of speeding it up, I probably spend the same amount of time watching the lecture as I would at normal speed. I do it because in my experience any concept that's novel or hard in a lecture won't be understood by me on the first viewing. So will require several attempts and usually reading something.

VeninVidiaVicii 5y ago
I use 2-3x speed to get through the recorded videos of my “umm”-ing prokaryotic molecular biology professor (during COVID). However, when I’m watching something for fun, I hate to speed through it, because I enjoy the watching process.
- strangeattractr 5y ago
  Would never speed up something I was watching for enjoyment. I was slightly puzzled when I saw Netflix enable speeding up video, I suppose someone out there must have wanted it.
  - Cpoll 5y ago
    I know a few people who like doing that when they decide they don't like a movie they're watching but still want to finish it. I've watched Man on Fire this way and found it very comedic at 1.75x speed.
    - dahart 5y ago
      I suffer from feeling like I should finish watching things I started even after realizing I don’t like it. I’ve also come to the realization that it is freeing and making progress and good use of my time to force myself to decide to stop watching the show. It might be a kind of sunk cost fallacy that I’m fighting, feeling the need to check if there’s a surprise or if the ending gets better, feeling like I have to make sure I didn’t miss out on something good after all. Never tried speed-ending a video on Netflix, but I have on YouTube. But thinking about it now, I’m going to try harder to double down on consciously turning something off instead of wasting my time more quickly.
      - waterhouse 5y ago
        A thing I've done a few times with TV shows is go read the Wikipedia summaries of the remaining episodes. Much faster than watching them. (In one case I then decided the rest was worth watching; in several others, I didn't.)
    - ivanhoe 5y ago
      I do this when binge watching TV series, as the quality often fluctuates between the episodes through the season. So when (usually in the middle of the season) things get too slow I just switch to watching it on 1.5x - 2x speed, rather than fast forwarding through the episode. Helps me with managing that fear of missing out something "important" in the plot...
      - mlyle 5y ago
        Recap episodes! There's a few slivers of new plot buried in there, but I don't need to see the rest at 1x speed.
  - karmakaze 5y ago
    It's quite useful for movies that were edited to meet a length but don't actually have the content to match. Some speed can raise the interest density to make it watchable again. Also/similarly for some older movies which have a slower-paced style that doesn't fit today's conventions and expectations. Slower takes more art/skill to do more with less, and it's so refreshing when it works. [Same for wide shots rather than close-up frantically-cut action.] I'd never speed those up, and rather watch them on a day I have the time.
  - a9h74j 5y ago
    Less Netflix, more chill?
ethbr0 5y ago
Most people on YouTube talk slowly enough that 2x is more than feasible. (Or maybe I need to drink less coffee and swap the jungle for house)
- netizen-936824 5y ago
  >swap the jungle for house In all seriousness it may actually help. I notice when I swap to lower BPM music I process information differently. Same with novel music and lyrics, they change processing
- friedman23 5y ago
  So you watch lectures at 2x speed while listening to music?
  - ethbr0 5y ago
    I said jungle, not gabber. ;)
- mc32 5y ago
  I agree many presenters on YouTube speak way too slowly and need to be sped up to 1.5x. At 2x I find I miss some of the demonstration though (“white boarding”) and I have to “rewind”.
  - stevehawk 5y ago
    youtubers gotta hit that 10 minute mark for the real money, i believe
    - ethbr0 5y ago
      That was my original assumption, but I looked it up before posting this. As near as I can tell, there's a video length requirement for enabling mid-video ads (11 minutes?), but nothing in general. And almost none of the 11ish minute videos I play have interstitials. Maybe it changed? I know next to nothing about historical YT revenue rules.
mannykannot 5y ago
> I probably spend the same amount of time watching the lecture as I would at normal speed. The article's title does not suggest you should do otherwise, though its body suggests that you could do just as well, with a single 2X pass, as with a single 1X one. I also use a variable rate, depending on the complexity and novelty (for me) of the material, and also how well it is presented. I also do this for better comprehension, not to get through it faster. I find it useful to have subtitles on, when available.
- strangeattractr 5y ago
  Subtitles can be a massive help if they're accurate when watching sped up. YouTube autogen ones are often distractingly wrong though
aurizon 5y ago
Worth trying, especially with those slow stuttering drones on youtube, and as the strangeattractor says you can always rewind selected parts as needed. The idea of varied speed viewing has been well known in times past for video as well as audio. There are also the gap compressors that are useful in audio streams that serve the words with variably reduced word gaps. I do wish they also had a stutter, um, ahh stripper for audio that have not used post production editing to eliminate gaps/ums. ahs and stutters etc. There are a number of training courses that help you in becoming an audio reader that many youtubers should well have a look at. https://www.google.com/search?q=audio+reader+training&rlz=1C1CHBF_enCA924CA924&sxsrf=AOaemvKmqPr_Qxrfj6veneTbcpDJ-9WGTQ%3A1640283440770&ei=ML3EYbG_LsTItQbukJOoCw&ved=0ahUKEwixl8X-w_r0AhVEZM0KHW7IBLUQ4dUDCA4&uact=5&oq=audio+reader+training&gs_lcp=Cgdnd3Mtd2l6EAM6BwgAEEcQsAM6CAgAEAgQBxAeOgcIIxCwAhAnOgoIABAIEAcQChAeOgoIABAHEAUQChAeOgYIABAHEB46BAgAEA06BggAEA0QHjoICAAQDRAFEB46CAgAEAgQDRAeSgQIQRgASgQIRhgAUPgJWP8uYLA-aAFwAngAgAGJAYgBxAmSAQQxMi4xmAEAoAEByAEIwAEB&sclient=gws-wiz https://www.google.com/search?q=audio+reader+training&rlz=1C...

VeninVidiaVicii 5y ago

I use 2-3x speed to get through the recorded videos of my “umm”-ing prokaryotic molecular biology professor (during COVID). However, when I’m watching something for fun, I hate to speed through it, because I enjoy the watching process.

strangeattractr 5y ago
Would never speed up something I was watching for enjoyment. I was slightly puzzled when I saw Netflix enable speeding up video, I suppose someone out there must have wanted it.
- Cpoll 5y ago
  I know a few people who like doing that when they decide they don't like a movie they're watching but still want to finish it. I've watched Man on Fire this way and found it very comedic at 1.75x speed.
  - dahart 5y ago
    I suffer from feeling like I should finish watching things I started even after realizing I don’t like it. I’ve also come to the realization that it is freeing and making progress and good use of my time to force myself to decide to stop watching the show. It might be a kind of sunk cost fallacy that I’m fighting, feeling the need to check if there’s a surprise or if the ending gets better, feeling like I have to make sure I didn’t miss out on something good after all. Never tried speed-ending a video on Netflix, but I have on YouTube. But thinking about it now, I’m going to try harder to double down on consciously turning something off instead of wasting my time more quickly.
    - waterhouse 5y ago
      A thing I've done a few times with TV shows is go read the Wikipedia summaries of the remaining episodes. Much faster than watching them. (In one case I then decided the rest was worth watching; in several others, I didn't.)
  - ivanhoe 5y ago
    I do this when binge watching TV series, as the quality often fluctuates between the episodes through the season. So when (usually in the middle of the season) things get too slow I just switch to watching it on 1.5x - 2x speed, rather than fast forwarding through the episode. Helps me with managing that fear of missing out something "important" in the plot...
    - mlyle 5y ago
      Recap episodes! There's a few slivers of new plot buried in there, but I don't need to see the rest at 1x speed.
- karmakaze 5y ago
  It's quite useful for movies that were edited to meet a length but don't actually have the content to match. Some speed can raise the interest density to make it watchable again. Also/similarly for some older movies which have a slower-paced style that doesn't fit today's conventions and expectations. Slower takes more art/skill to do more with less, and it's so refreshing when it works. [Same for wide shots rather than close-up frantically-cut action.] I'd never speed those up, and rather watch them on a day I have the time.
- a9h74j 5y ago
  Less Netflix, more chill?

ethbr0 5y ago

Most people on YouTube talk slowly enough that 2x is more than feasible. (Or maybe I need to drink less coffee and swap the jungle for house)

netizen-936824 5y ago
>swap the jungle for house In all seriousness it may actually help. I notice when I swap to lower BPM music I process information differently. Same with novel music and lyrics, they change processing
friedman23 5y ago
So you watch lectures at 2x speed while listening to music?
- ethbr0 5y ago
  I said jungle, not gabber. ;)
mc32 5y ago
I agree many presenters on YouTube speak way too slowly and need to be sped up to 1.5x. At 2x I find I miss some of the demonstration though (“white boarding”) and I have to “rewind”.
- stevehawk 5y ago
  youtubers gotta hit that 10 minute mark for the real money, i believe
  - ethbr0 5y ago
    That was my original assumption, but I looked it up before posting this. As near as I can tell, there's a video length requirement for enabling mid-video ads (11 minutes?), but nothing in general. And almost none of the 11ish minute videos I play have interstitials. Maybe it changed? I know next to nothing about historical YT revenue rules.

mannykannot 5y ago

> I probably spend the same amount of time watching the lecture as I would at normal speed. The article's title does not suggest you should do otherwise, though its body suggests that you could do just as well, with a single 2X pass, as with a single 1X one. I also use a variable rate, depending on the complexity and novelty (for me) of the material, and also how well it is presented. I also do this for better comprehension, not to get through it faster. I find it useful to have subtitles on, when available.

strangeattractr 5y ago
Subtitles can be a massive help if they're accurate when watching sped up. YouTube autogen ones are often distractingly wrong though

aurizon 5y ago

Worth trying, especially with those slow stuttering drones on youtube, and as the strangeattractor says you can always rewind selected parts as needed. The idea of varied speed viewing has been well known in times past for video as well as audio. There are also the gap compressors that are useful in audio streams that serve the words with variably reduced word gaps. I do wish they also had a stutter, um, ahh stripper for audio that have not used post production editing to eliminate gaps/ums. ahs and stutters etc. There are a number of training courses that help you in becoming an audio reader that many youtubers should well have a look at. https://www.google.com/search?q=audio+reader+training&rlz=1C1CHBF_enCA924CA924&sxsrf=AOaemvKmqPr_Qxrfj6veneTbcpDJ-9WGTQ%3A1640283440770&ei=ML3EYbG_LsTItQbukJOoCw&ved=0ahUKEwixl8X-w_r0AhVEZM0KHW7IBLUQ4dUDCA4&uact=5&oq=audio+reader+training&gs_lcp=Cgdnd3Mtd2l6EAM6BwgAEEcQsAM6CAgAEAgQBxAeOgcIIxCwAhAnOgoIABAIEAcQChAeOgoIABAHEAUQChAeOgYIABAHEB46BAgAEA06BggAEA0QHjoICAAQDRAFEB46CAgAEAgQDRAeSgQIQRgASgQIRhgAUPgJWP8uYLA-aAFwAngAgAGJAYgBxAmSAQQxMi4xmAEAoAEByAEIwAEB&sclient=gws-wiz https://www.google.com/search?q=audio+reader+training&rlz=1C...