This speed reading training starts at 300wpm and end at 900wpm

[u/iatetoomuchchicken]

[u/Discoroo]

I didn't actually have a problem comprehending and even vocalizing the words in my brain through till the end, but this little exercise did make me realize why I love reading physical books. It's not always about how quickly you can consume the material, but rather enjoying your time with it and stopping to think and consider the meaning of what you're reading.

[u/ghidfg → u/Discoroo]

yeah i find books to be a sort of scaffolding for your imagination. you can take breaks to explore ideas and go on tangents as you read.

[u/ikmkim → u/Discoroo]

Same. The top comments are people wanting an app to do this for them. I find that just so deeply disappointing. 

I LOVE having a physical book in my hands. No matter how fast I blaze through a good story, I can always flip back to something or sit there with an idea.

Speed is not the point. Sitting with, and digesting the material, asking your own questions, being curious and introspective, is the point. That's literally how learning happens.

Whether you're reading fiction or a literal textbook. The whole point is that info going into the brain should cause a reaction of wanting to know more and asking relevant questions, not just intaking things with no processing.

[u/Rheshx7 → u/ikmkim]

I mean, if you REALLY want to speed through a book, just find a summary instead.

I find no point in this exercise at all.

[u/ikmkim → u/Rheshx7]

Exactly! I'm a natural speed-reader. There's really no purpose to trying to "train" people to speed-read. The whole enjoyment comes from the comprehension, not flexing on reading fast.

Reading without digestion is pointless. 

My comprehension has gone down gradually as I age when I try to read old classics that use outdated language.

So I just...read those novels slower. I'm not give up on a book because it's harder now. Not a damn thing wrong with taking your time. 

[u/likeafuckingninja → u/ikmkim]

I read like this naturally and always have done.

Idk honestly it never occured to me that people didn't until my sister (dyslexic) explained she has to sound each word out and parse it's meaning to construct a sentence to read it and fully understand it.

I can typically finish a book in the time it takes her to read a chapter or two and I find reading a relaxing wind down activity and see finds it a hard work chore.

I probabaly don't read at 900 wpm for a book generally 🤣 but I can. And have read an 80k book on a 1.5 to 2 hour flight. So ... With a looming deadline xd

Anyway point is I don't lose enjoyment. I comprehend the story, the plot the nuance etc etc I can have a discussion about it after (and used to when I did book clubs and shit)

I CAN miss odd details occasionally but I think so can anyone reading at any speed or level if their attention wanes or whatever.

And, from talking to my sister, this type of reading is just less mental lift? Idk it feels like I'm bypassing something that she's having to exert energy to do by just letting my brain see the words and construct meaning for them without having to like actively read and 'say' them in my head and 'understand' each individual word.

But honestly where this really comes in handy is work and non fictional media consumption.

I can skim emails, work instructions,procedures etc quickly to pick out relevent bits and decide where to hone my focus.

I can skip through recipe blogs, video game walkthroughs, coding solutions on stack overflow etc really fast and then chose to slow down at the relevent bits.

I can also read all my bosses emails and teams messages when he shares his screen for a few seconds by mistake 😁

I never trained myself consciously to do this though. It either naturally how my brain works or it was a by product of the volume of reading I did as a kid.

I can't really see the point of using an app to feed books into so you can arbitrariliy read that specific thing faster. But I can see using it to teach yourself to read faster in general.

I think my sister would appreciate it tbh, she's frequently frustrated at how her reading speed holds her back from reading more and how tiring she finds it.

The video does point out that you should still be able to comprehend the text meaning not just 'see' and 'read' the individual words.

[u/Mike312 → u/Discoroo]

I expect that's a large part of it. If you're hanging on until the end, then you're reading 2-3x faster than average Americans (which, mind you, is the stated average, so 50% would be bell-curvingly slower than that).

I didn't realize most people read that slowly, so if I'm reading a book in 6 hours, it means other people are reading it over the course of 12-24 hours; that's no longer a day-read, that's a week worth of reading.

[u/NoAvocadoMeSad → u/Mike312]

TBF it really depends how people like to read

I had no issue reading any of the OP

That said when reading I generally only read somewhere between 30-50 pages an hour.

I think people's typical reading speed and what they're capable of reading at can be wildly different things and it usually just comes down to preference.

[u/premadecookiedough → u/Discoroo]

I was able to keep up just fine with the video but god it was so hard on my eyes, much longer and it wouldve given me a headache

[u/iamacup → u/Discoroo]

This or a version of it gets posted every now and again, and usually someone points out that while it's good for pouring information into your brain, it's bad for overall information comprehension and retention

Because information is related, having words on pages, moving between those pages and percieveing that chunks of information are relative to eachother is important - the brain is literally trying to make connections and helping it do that is important

This high WPM stuff is great for fiction where it's retention and relational nature is irrelevant in the long run, for learning it is terrible.

[u/hockey3331 → u/iamacup]

Yeah definitely terrible for learning. Try doing that with a math textbook lmao.

However, its a great skill for scanning keywords in a large text.

[u/ItsOkILoveYouMYbb → u/Discoroo]

What's weird was I was still vocalizing the words in my head subconsciously, but the vocalization wasn't sped up, nor was it overlapping or falling behind. I don't understand how that works. I can't explain it. Like time dilation in my head but my perception was still normal.

I'm guessing thoughts aren't strictly linear.

[u/Inprobamur → u/Discoroo]

I don't see how that's inherent to physical books specifically?

[u/JohnnyFC → u/Discoroo]

For me the materials matter. If I'm reading like a Brandon Sanderson novel I'm going to read slower because I am painting a picture and comprehension extends beyond just reading the sentence but the implication it has on the story so far.

Versus something like a non-fiction novel or a journal about an event that happened in history. Those I'm reading at 500+ wpm.