4 ms·

https://youtu.be/wKISPePFrIs?si=ahGfFp0U7-pTU9w6&t=43 https://youtu.be/wKISPePFrIs?si=ahGfFp0U7-pTU9w6&t=43 my go to example of this is this talk by Saqib Shai

https://youtu.be/wKISPePFrIs?si=ahGfFp0U7-pTU9w6&t=43 https://youtu.be/wKISPePFrIs?si=ahGfFp0U7-pTU9w6&t=43 my go to example of this is this talk by Saqib Shaikh (a blind software engineer at Microsoft) giving a talk about Visual Studio. Link is timestamped

dijit 5mo ago
Ho-ly cow. That is very impressive. I'm not even sure what to say, but discoveries like this are why I use hackernews, I'd never have known this otherwise.
- miki123211 5mo ago
  To be fair, the acoustics of the room that talk was given in are... not too great, to put it mildly. I can easily understand Eloquence (the speech synthesizer he's using) at that speed, but I struggled a bit with this one.
isityettime 5mo ago
I think it takes quite a lot of practice to reach this speed. It's not rare among blind developers, but I think it still takes a lot of work to get there. Pretty impressive! I wish more people would watch videos like this just because having a realistic idea of how blind people do certain tasks can help you move from pity or even compassion to a more productive kind of understanding. I think sometimes when you haven't seen it, you can't really even imagine how it can be done.
- gostsamo 5mo ago
  If you are dedicated, few weeks to few months of usage with regular ramp up. You should be careful with adjusting which symbols are read though and sometimes the programing languages matters because different symbols have different significance for understanding the code.
- Aboutplants 5mo ago
  I listen to a lot of podcasts and listen at 1.5-2.0 speed and it’s to the point that I literally cannot stand listening to 1.0 speed anymore as they go too slowly (depending on the content of course).
  - simondotau 5mo ago
    Same. Returning to 1x speed makes people sound (to my 2x-abused ears) drunk and slurring their works. If I want to listen to something slowly and carefully, I will just about tolerate 1.25x. What really frustrates me is watching/listening to discussion of music, because I am forced to listen to the talking at 1x because the music sounds wrong (and is wrong) at anything other than 1x.
    - BurningFrog 5mo ago
      Playing music at 1x should be a pretty simple feature to add to those apps. Ideally it should be done while encoding.
    - kevin_thibedeau 5mo ago
      The funny thing is that slow talkers sound normal at 2x speed. It's jarring when you hear their actual speech.
      - ghaff 5mo ago
        I listen to podcasts at 1x. But there are a few people I've done podcasts with that I do various audio tricks to speed up.
      - bonoboTP 5mo ago
        And then there is Dwarkesh who sounds like 2x on 1x.
      - ngcazz 5mo ago
        Norman Finkelstein is a notable example of this.
  - 5mo ago
- miki123211 5mo ago
  > It's not rare among blind developers It's not rare among the blind in general. Unless you're completely technologically illiterate, the kind of person who has no idea how to install an app or sign up for an online account, you're probably doing something of the sort.
peab 5mo ago
Woah, this is really cool to see
spartanatreyu 5mo ago
1x is too slow for me. Whenever I'm watching lectures / talks / podcasts, I tend to watch/listen to them at 2x to 2.5x times speed. I only need to lower it if someone flubs an important word in a definition, I'll replay that part at 1x speed. If the person is talking particularly slowly (usually for international audiences) I put the speed up to 3x to 4x speed so it sounds like normal 2x to 2.5x speed. --- My youtube muscle memory: (standard video controls used by every video editor ever) J = back 5s K = play/pause L = forwards 5s (youtube specific controls) Shift F = toggle fullscreen Speed controls (this part is muscle memorised as fast as a password input): 1. Cmd/Ctrl Shift K: opens console 2. Up arrow: loads previous command, typically: document.querySelector('video').playbackRate = 2.5 3. Enter: runs command You have to type in the command for the first time, after that to change the speed, change "2.5" to whatever number you want and console history will remember the change so you can go through the different values with up/down arrows before pressing enter.

dijit 5mo ago

Ho-ly cow. That is very impressive. I'm not even sure what to say, but discoveries like this are why I use hackernews, I'd never have known this otherwise.

miki123211 5mo ago
To be fair, the acoustics of the room that talk was given in are... not too great, to put it mildly. I can easily understand Eloquence (the speech synthesizer he's using) at that speed, but I struggled a bit with this one.

isityettime 5mo ago

I think it takes quite a lot of practice to reach this speed. It's not rare among blind developers, but I think it still takes a lot of work to get there. Pretty impressive! I wish more people would watch videos like this just because having a realistic idea of how blind people do certain tasks can help you move from pity or even compassion to a more productive kind of understanding. I think sometimes when you haven't seen it, you can't really even imagine how it can be done.

gostsamo 5mo ago
If you are dedicated, few weeks to few months of usage with regular ramp up. You should be careful with adjusting which symbols are read though and sometimes the programing languages matters because different symbols have different significance for understanding the code.
Aboutplants 5mo ago
I listen to a lot of podcasts and listen at 1.5-2.0 speed and it’s to the point that I literally cannot stand listening to 1.0 speed anymore as they go too slowly (depending on the content of course).
- simondotau 5mo ago
  Same. Returning to 1x speed makes people sound (to my 2x-abused ears) drunk and slurring their works. If I want to listen to something slowly and carefully, I will just about tolerate 1.25x. What really frustrates me is watching/listening to discussion of music, because I am forced to listen to the talking at 1x because the music sounds wrong (and is wrong) at anything other than 1x.
  - BurningFrog 5mo ago
    Playing music at 1x should be a pretty simple feature to add to those apps. Ideally it should be done while encoding.
  - kevin_thibedeau 5mo ago
    The funny thing is that slow talkers sound normal at 2x speed. It's jarring when you hear their actual speech.
    - ghaff 5mo ago
      I listen to podcasts at 1x. But there are a few people I've done podcasts with that I do various audio tricks to speed up.
    - bonoboTP 5mo ago
      And then there is Dwarkesh who sounds like 2x on 1x.
    - ngcazz 5mo ago
      Norman Finkelstein is a notable example of this.
- 5mo ago
miki123211 5mo ago
> It's not rare among blind developers It's not rare among the blind in general. Unless you're completely technologically illiterate, the kind of person who has no idea how to install an app or sign up for an online account, you're probably doing something of the sort.

peab 5mo ago

Woah, this is really cool to see

spartanatreyu 5mo ago

1x is too slow for me. Whenever I'm watching lectures / talks / podcasts, I tend to watch/listen to them at 2x to 2.5x times speed. I only need to lower it if someone flubs an important word in a definition, I'll replay that part at 1x speed. If the person is talking particularly slowly (usually for international audiences) I put the speed up to 3x to 4x speed so it sounds like normal 2x to 2.5x speed. --- My youtube muscle memory: (standard video controls used by every video editor ever) J = back 5s K = play/pause L = forwards 5s (youtube specific controls) Shift F = toggle fullscreen Speed controls (this part is muscle memorised as fast as a password input): 1. Cmd/Ctrl Shift K: opens console 2. Up arrow: loads previous command, typically: document.querySelector('video').playbackRate = 2.5 3. Enter: runs command You have to type in the command for the first time, after that to change the speed, change "2.5" to whatever number you want and console history will remember the change so you can go through the different values with up/down arrows before pressing enter.