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Ask HN: How have you increased your reading speed/comprehension?

23 points by avindroth ↗ HN
After Alan Kay's AMA, where he claims to have read 20,000+ books in his lifetime, I have been interested in how one can read without losing comprehension. Enhancing the learning algorithm is crucial for absorbing more information.

All methods, both technical and non-technical, are welcome. Some methods I am playing around with are Spritz and the method espoused by Tim Ferriss[1].

[1]: http://fourhourworkweek.com/2009/07/30/speed-reading-and-accelerated-learning/

22 comments

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brudgers
For me, the more I read the more I think I understand. Also, the more I know I forget. In an information technology metaphor, the metadata improves but a lot of the input stream data just gets dropped on the floor.

Of course, Kay may be different. But for me, some things stick and others don't and the things that stick stick due to some combination of my interests, the quality of the author's writing and dumb luck of timing in the external world. And that means that often I will make different connections when rereading because the context in which I am reading is different.

Good luck.

mswen
I went through a phase in late teens where I read a couple different speed reading books and tried out the techniques as well as actively practicing and pushing my eyes and brain to move faster.

After going through that phase I backed off and don't really try to push myself to read fast - but those efforts helped set a different pace and I still read faster than most people around me.

Some things that I think are important: (just one guy's opinion)

1. Try to be broadly curious - an interested brain remembers better.

2. Develop your vocabulary. Particularly if you are reading something outside of your field. Textbooks often have a vocabulary section in the back of the book. Take some time to read through that before tackling the book.

3. Comprehend the structure before diving into reading. It is useful to read through the Table of Contents before starting to read a non-fiction book. Having a sense of the structure in advance helps you with memory and context for specific facts.

4. Read every day.

5. Read lots of different kinds of materials.

6. Allocate your time and attention. Give yourself permission to speed up and even just scan when it feels appropriate but also permission to slow down and focus on comprehension and integration with what you already know when you get to parts that challenge you or feel particularly important.

alankay1
I think these are good advice. A few additions and complements:

What seemed to work for me: 1. I started reading very early in life, and like early sports and music learning, I think this made a difference.

2. Most recall and understanding is relative to existing knowledge, so the more you have to link up to (and the more you read with linking up in mind) the better.

3. I've found that association (2.) works better than trying to understand everything while reading (the understanding is generally there the next day).

eswat
I haven’t fully read How to Read a Book by Mortimer Adler, which is likely to be referenced in another comment, but I do something that’s referenced in that book: syntopical reading.

When I read stuff I usually grab a few books on the same subject and read through them, using a mix of ebooks, physical books and audiobooks, so I can fill in dead time in different contexts with reading something on the same topic. I’m able to compare the ideas of the books and that seems to collate them better in my head.

Other than that I’ve given up and consciously trying speed reading tricks like using peripheral vision to read or reading stuff one word at a time. I’m sure there’s more gains for those techniques but I just don’t have the patience to put them in muscle memory at this point.

alankay1
A start here would be to see if your reading of the AMA resulted in an accurate memory. For example, did I actually claim to have read "20,000+ books"? What did I actually say? No amount of speed is going to help if the recall is so noisy? And, something to ponder, it would have been easy to look to see if what you attributed to me was accurate? Why didn't you? And so forth.
avindroth
My mistake, I should have looked! I now recall you saying that your friends have read more than that.

I will practice more thorough accreditation. Thanks for taking the time to point this out!

alankay
Here is something for all to ponder. Remember when someone switched the TV channel into the middle of a movie you haven't seen for 20 years. How long did it take for you to recognize the movie? And how often did you have a good sense of what is next? Most people report "a second or so". Think about this: when you saw the movie you were not trying to remember it, you did not know you would be tested 20 years later. One way to think of this is that it is highly likely that memory is not the problem to be dealt with, but that recall is.
swah
Do you take notes while/after reading a book?

I suppose that would increase recall, and you could always re-read your notes to remember the most interesting points.

alankay1
I don't take notes. (It's worth pondering whether taking notes is really an aid to internal remembering...) In any case, what I was trying to point out was that it could be the case that we actually remember almost everything, but have real difficulties in recalling our memories without cues. (It's also worth pondering just what it is that "autistic savants" might actually be doing ...)
avindroth
Aren't we reading, in part, for recall of insights (during conversations, brainstorming, or otherwise)?

If we take notes, our eyes are away from the text itself, practicing a simple exercise in recall. In a sense, you are "chunking" the concept.

In addition, the commonplace book become your second brain, an accumulation of cues that will trigger the chunks. A semi-permanent digital repository of knowledge that you can tap into on need-basis.

Whizzing through a book without necessary stops for chunking seems to put to question why we read in the first place.

pasbesoin
Pay attention to your environment. I still remember one fellow student complaining in college about his bio or chem grade -- some such. He always studied with music on.

I told him that would never work for me.

He studied for the next test without music. Came back all excited: Got an A.

I suspect Kay has had many decent offices in which to consume those books. Just a guess.

Environmental needs may vary by individual. Regardless, they are NEEDS for effective assimilation and thinking.

alankay1
Good point! (Cog Psych shows that we don't really multi-task.) I've always been partial to beds and couches for reading ... and especially in the very early mornings ...
ruraljuror
Anecdote about how time of day affects reading: Michael Silverblatt, host of KCRW's Bookworm and one of the country's best readers, says that during the day he reads at a relatively slow pace, say 50 pages per hour; but he will often wake up in the middle of the night and read an entire book over a few hours. I believe he referred to it as "nightbrain."
pasbesoin
So, I'm not the only one. (Some of my best reading occurs in bed. I've sometimes felt a little weird about that, but as I've grown older, hey, if it works...)
avindroth
Presence of music affects your studies based on what kind of thinking mode you are in.

For focused mode, music is a mere distraction.

For diffused mode, music is part of diffusing, relaxing, and thinking wildly.

As you said, change the environment so that it can dictate how you think.

[dead] avindroth
Presence of music affects your studies based on what kind of thinking mode you are in.

For focused mode, music is a mere distraction.

For diffused mode, music is part of diffusing, relaxing, and thinking wildly.

As you said, change the environment so that it can dictate how you think.

qkeast
I have a severe hearing impairment. I have a crazy fast reading speed, which I attribute in part to always having closed captions on television. Simply turning the captions on is a good way to pick up speed: eventually, you don't actually read what's written on the screen—you just comprehend it.
fitzwatermellow
I have a quick hack for reading long news articles on the web. Simply read the first sentence of each paragraph.

This works remarkably well. Most journalists seem to practice a uniform style when it comes to paragraph composition. The first sentence is the "thesis", and the subsequent ones provide the "evidence."

alankay1
The subsequent sentences are also there for disclaimers and subsetting. The first sentence model is too weak for real writing.
baccheion
You can look into PhotoReading and Mental Photography. The ideas sound "scammy," but if you look at what's being said generally, it'll help you (centering your mind, entering the alpha state (you can even use brainwave entrainment until you can do it naturally), suppressing subvocalization (repeating the words in your mind), scanning the table of contents and pages of the book to get a "big picture" sense of what it's about, "activating" what you've read (after taking a nap) by summarizing it out loud, etc).

Also, you can try taking supplements that help with concentration and maintaining awareness. Things like (N-Acetyl) Semax (Amidate) + N-Acetyl Selank + PhenylPiracetam Hydrazide.

If you ask questions, keep your mind active, and engage in what you're reading (visualizing, questioning, etc as you go), then it becomes easier to pick up on things, keep the pace, and fly through it all without even noticing.

Moving your eyes faster is really basic and almost stupid, but the idea of keeping your eyes moving (to prevent backtracking and spacing out) makes sense.

Also, if you have the choice, then it's better to read from a crisp-screen-having tablet, such that you can adjust the font size, width, and spacing of what you're reading, and can have software automatically scroll through the text (and show just the right amount of text at a time, to allow you to digest quickly without having to move your eyes).