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I've been doing some anti-ADHD training on my own by reading a difficult book -- The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. LeGuin -- slowly. Sure I could bro down

I've been doing some anti-ADHD training on my own by reading a difficult book -- The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. LeGuin -- slowly. Sure I could bro down those words in a straight beginning-to-end readthrough and get a sense of what's going on. But I find that going back over the past few paragraphs is rewarding, as subtle turns of phrase reveal details I hadn't noticed. You could probably be trained to comprehend text electronically read to you at 900 wpm. Blind people using screenreaders, for instance, train themselves to understand text read aloud very fast.

pdfernhout 2y ago
You might find amusing the RA Lafferty short-story "The Primary Education of the Camiroi" (1966). Summary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9AXNLUFeplI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9AXNLUFeplI "A PTA delegation from Earth visit another planet to investigate their educational methods in order to figure out how to improve the school system back home on Earth. But the lessons learned, and the conclusions drawn, are rather… odd and disturbing." From the story: https://uncabob.blogspot.com/2015/05/the-primary-education-of-camiroi.html https://uncabob.blogspot.com/2015/05/the-primary-education-o... “How rapidly do you read?” Miss Hanks asked a young girl. “One hundred and twenty words a minute,” the girl said. “On Earth some of the girl students your age have learned to read at the rate of five hundred words a minute,” Miss Hanks said proudly. “When I began disciplined reading, I was reading at the rate of four thousands words a minute,” the girl said. “They had quite a time correcting me of it. I had to take remedial reading, and my parents were ashamed of me. Now I’ve learned to read almost slow enough.” “I don’t understand,” said Miss Hanks. ... “What is this business about slow reading?” Miss Hanks asked. “I don’t understand it at all.” “Only the other day there was a child in the third grade who persisted in rapid reading.” Philoxenus said. “He was given an object lesson. He was given a book of medium difficulty, and he read it rapidly. Then he had to put the book away and repeat what he had read. Do you know that in the first thirty pages he missed four words? Midway in the book there was a whole statement which he had understood wrongly, and there were hundreds of pages that he got word-perfect only with difficulty. If he was so unsure on material that he had just read, think how imperfectly he would have recalled it forty years later.” “You mean that the Camiroi children learn to recall everything that they read?” “The Camiroi children and adults will recall for life every detail they have ever seen, read or heard. We on Camiroi are only a little more intelligent than you on Earth. We cannot afford to waste time in forgetting or reviewing, or in pursuing anything of a shallowness that lends itself to scanning.”
- dxbydt 2y ago
  Amazing story. I enjoyed reading this so much. The sad fact that this was written in 1966 - like the gentleman advocated for gutting the public school system 6 decades ago, and only now we are getting around to the business of defunding the dept of education. The story has foretold everything - the culture wars, the sacred cow/buffalo, utterly divergent visions of the left and right when it comes to what education means…Rafferty seems to be a futuristic mind reader. Amazing.
btilly 2y ago
You aren't finding it annoying? She goes to great lengths to show how non-sexist the society is according to then feminist theory. Then, just accidentally, slips in gender divides that should not exist in her society. Given that I had just read some of that feminist literature, I found it quite jarring.
- bitwize 2y ago
  Guess I'm not far along to have reached the bit with the gender divides, yet. What I have read seemed to reflect a rather 2020s-feminist view of gender, in a time when feminism was still in its bra-burning arc. So that was interesting.
  - btilly 2y ago
    If you think of it as a bra burning arc, you won't get the historical context. The most jarring for me was some of the childhood scenes.
lproven 2y ago
> a difficult book -- The Left Hand of Darkness Difficult?! That's a favourite novel of mine. I've read it 3 or 4 times. What is difficult about it? It's short, as well as beautiful. Only 250 pages.

pdfernhout 2y ago

You might find amusing the RA Lafferty short-story "The Primary Education of the Camiroi" (1966). Summary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9AXNLUFeplI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9AXNLUFeplI "A PTA delegation from Earth visit another planet to investigate their educational methods in order to figure out how to improve the school system back home on Earth. But the lessons learned, and the conclusions drawn, are rather… odd and disturbing." From the story: https://uncabob.blogspot.com/2015/05/the-primary-education-of-camiroi.html https://uncabob.blogspot.com/2015/05/the-primary-education-o... “How rapidly do you read?” Miss Hanks asked a young girl. “One hundred and twenty words a minute,” the girl said. “On Earth some of the girl students your age have learned to read at the rate of five hundred words a minute,” Miss Hanks said proudly. “When I began disciplined reading, I was reading at the rate of four thousands words a minute,” the girl said. “They had quite a time correcting me of it. I had to take remedial reading, and my parents were ashamed of me. Now I’ve learned to read almost slow enough.” “I don’t understand,” said Miss Hanks. ... “What is this business about slow reading?” Miss Hanks asked. “I don’t understand it at all.” “Only the other day there was a child in the third grade who persisted in rapid reading.” Philoxenus said. “He was given an object lesson. He was given a book of medium difficulty, and he read it rapidly. Then he had to put the book away and repeat what he had read. Do you know that in the first thirty pages he missed four words? Midway in the book there was a whole statement which he had understood wrongly, and there were hundreds of pages that he got word-perfect only with difficulty. If he was so unsure on material that he had just read, think how imperfectly he would have recalled it forty years later.” “You mean that the Camiroi children learn to recall everything that they read?” “The Camiroi children and adults will recall for life every detail they have ever seen, read or heard. We on Camiroi are only a little more intelligent than you on Earth. We cannot afford to waste time in forgetting or reviewing, or in pursuing anything of a shallowness that lends itself to scanning.”

dxbydt 2y ago
Amazing story. I enjoyed reading this so much. The sad fact that this was written in 1966 - like the gentleman advocated for gutting the public school system 6 decades ago, and only now we are getting around to the business of defunding the dept of education. The story has foretold everything - the culture wars, the sacred cow/buffalo, utterly divergent visions of the left and right when it comes to what education means…Rafferty seems to be a futuristic mind reader. Amazing.

btilly 2y ago

You aren't finding it annoying? She goes to great lengths to show how non-sexist the society is according to then feminist theory. Then, just accidentally, slips in gender divides that should not exist in her society. Given that I had just read some of that feminist literature, I found it quite jarring.

bitwize 2y ago
Guess I'm not far along to have reached the bit with the gender divides, yet. What I have read seemed to reflect a rather 2020s-feminist view of gender, in a time when feminism was still in its bra-burning arc. So that was interesting.
- btilly 2y ago
  If you think of it as a bra burning arc, you won't get the historical context. The most jarring for me was some of the childhood scenes.

lproven 2y ago

> a difficult book -- The Left Hand of Darkness Difficult?! That's a favourite novel of mine. I've read it 3 or 4 times. What is difficult about it? It's short, as well as beautiful. Only 250 pages.