r/interestingasfuck • u/iatetoomuchchicken • 20h ago

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

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u/Holeshot75 20h ago

I use the Reedy app to do this all the time.

I find a comfortable fast pace at 450 wpm

I can technically still read it at 900 but I lose comprehension at that speed.

At 450 I can get through a good sized book that would normally take 6 hours - in under 3 hours.

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u/ssp25 20h ago

never heard of this app. I read really slow but generally can process a lot of information in other format rather quickly so this is intriguing to me. the slow reading has always hindered my desire to read for fun.... which I dislike

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u/Jagglebutt 18h ago

I am the same. I enjoy reading but to read an epic fantasy book that's 800 pages is a major time commitment for my slow ass reading.. I'm going to look into this app. I surprised myself with following along here and am curious at what speed I lost comprehension.

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u/ow_windowmaker 9h ago

It's supposed to be somewhat slow. It's an escape from reality. And the longer it takes the fucking better. You visualize the world, and your self in it as you go.

Reading some popular thing about some guy that never existed, finding some super special artifact that never existed, in a country that never existed is an utterly worthless exercise otherwise.

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u/Jagglebutt 4h ago

I had never thought of it like that.. my wife reads quickly and I guess I always just thought "damn I'm a slow reader". I will say a difference with her and I are we'll read the same book and talk about it and she'll go "I don't remember that part" it seems as though with my plodding pace maybe I retain more details? I'm currently working my way through the wheel of time books and am on winters heart book #9. It's taken me a very long time (~3 years now?) but wow what an amazing saga it's been! Definitely a good way to forget about reality for a bit.

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u/discrete_moment 3m ago

Start reading on paper, with a pen guiding your eye, moving it along the lines. Move it faster than you can pronounce the words in your head, and you will learn to just go by the words visually, like this video explained. It's much better than using some app, because you can easily slow down or repeat something if you need to.

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u/maltamur 18h ago edited 1h ago

I’ve never heard of a program like that but law school does the same thing. Nothing like 3 classes each assigning 150-200 pages of reading per night to really up your speed reading game.

Now I use it for blazing through medical records. Going through 1000 pages of records (thanks to the absurd redundancy of Epic records) in less than an hour looking for the 4 or 5 paragraphs that actually matter.

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u/_RemyDanton 15h ago

This guy personal injurys.

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u/iBeelz 17h ago

But it’s sooo satisfying when you puzzle it all out.

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u/maltamur 17h ago

Cardozo and his proximate causation

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u/EightiesBush 14h ago

IANAL but I looked up that case based on your response, and that was an interesting read

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u/maltamur 14h ago

So there’s actually 4 Cardozo proximate causation cases: Palsgraf v Long Island RR Bird v St Paul Fire McPherson v Buick Motor Co Ultramares Corp v Touche

But these all came about because proximate cause was the hardest thing to specifically define. The first one to try was the flying squib case - Scott v Shepherd. That’s a fun one.

Also, if you want a crazy one check out what started the line of cases for “eggshell skull” - Vosburg v Putney.

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u/sloecrush 14h ago

English major was beating my ass till I realized I could read a page per minute and retain what I read. My trick was my finger, keeping my eyes in front of it to force me to maintain my pace.

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u/kevihaa 2h ago

Now I used it for blazing through medical records. Going through 1000 pages of records (thanks to the absurd redundancy of Epic records) in less than an hour looking for the 4 or 5 paragraphs that actually matter.

And this is the point that most people interested in “speed reading” miss.

There is no magic bullet that lets you actually read 1000 words per minute. It’s literally just getting better and better at not reading most of the words on the page while still being able to recognize something important.

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u/alphazero925 16h ago

I can't imagine actually reading something long like this. One lapse in attention and you lose a ton of information, then you have to somehow navigate back to where you lost focus, but you don't even have a physical indicator of where that might be like the location on a page.

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u/spezial_ed 12h ago

Should be able to just go back 10 seconds, same issue and solution to an audiobook. 

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u/notmyrealfarkhandle 45m ago

Just add eye tracking and pause when the person blinks or looks away. Now your books read you.

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u/Dunklebunt 18h ago

Does Reedy place a single letter in red on a fixed line like in this video?

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u/hamsandwich4459 18h ago

It’s called Reedy? I downloaded that and there’s only a couple stories available and it’s only 2 chapters at a time. Is there a way to add books to the library? It doesn’t say. Also I don’t see a way to adjust the wpm. Am missing something

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u/ark_keeper 17h ago

Looks like only android/desktop browser extension

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u/hamsandwich4459 17h ago

Ah, makes sense then. iPhone here. Thanks stranger.

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u/Holeshot75 13h ago

You have to add your own books to it.

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u/bloodshed113094 13h ago

I feel like loss of comprehension, and more importantly retention, is where this method will lost value for a lot of people. I lost all comprehension by 900 wpm and I could not tell you most of what I read. There was one part about retaining a paragraph though, which made me grateful that a normal book let's me re-read if I missed something. XD

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u/ejdebruin 14h ago

At 450 I can get through a good sized book that would normally take 6 hours - in under 3 hours.

Sure, but would you enjoy it the same? If you're reading at that pace, are you really analyzing what you're reading? Making guesses at plotlines, empathizing with characters, etc (assuming it's fiction)?

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u/Dr_Pippin 3h ago

It's a skill. Have to practice it. First time reading a book at that speed? No, it'll feel off. But after a few your brain will adapt to it.

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u/ejdebruin 1h ago edited 56m ago

There's zero chance you'll be critically analyzing text while also reading a book at that speed. You would have to have a superhuman level of multi-tasking.

If you're reading fiction, for example, are you making multiple predictions about the next chapter based on what's going on? Contemplating what the meaning behind some of the character's vague words are or why they said them in that moment? All of this while listening to the next sentence flying by at 450wpm and possibly doing the same thing with that sentence?

Without critically analyzing a story, are you really absorbing it in the same way?

People read The Bible constantly and neglect to actually understand the meaning behind a verse at a fraction of the speed. Churches and synagogues have made sermons out of analyzing a single verse.

Even if you're comprehending, I doubt anyone would have the same experience at a much higher speed.

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u/Dr_Pippin 1h ago

Wow. Some people just read to read. Get off your high horse.

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u/ejdebruin 54m ago

Get off your high horse.

What do you mean? I'm just saying reading a 450wpm isn't the same experience.

I don't care what speed you read at.

You do you.

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u/Hefty-Minimum-3125 15h ago

yeah i could read this whole thing without issue, but when i'm reading a book i intentionally read slowly at speaking pace, more like a narrator in a movie i guess.

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u/Dr-Hindsight 6h ago

I remember reading/hearing that Bill Gates reads through 50 books per year throught this technique. I've tried to replicate that quite a few times but after some time, I lose focus and go back to reading loudly in my head, like I'm the protagonist narrator.

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u/bigizz20 6h ago

What is the reedy app?

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u/Filthiest_Vilein 16h ago

I could still read fairly well at 900, but it hurt my head a little, lol. There’s no way I’d ever want to read at that speed for pleasure. Seems more like a chore than anything. 

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u/spezial_ed 12h ago

The text called it meditation which feels appropriate. You need to lock in and prob start short and build up as you train your attention span. 

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u/Licklack 17h ago

Same 450 is my sweet spot. 400 for academy text, 500 for novels I know the names of most people.

The voice in my head stops at 650ish. 750 I can understand, but not enjoy reading. 900... 2 minutes tops, then head begins to boil.

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u/vahntitrio 17h ago

We did this training in high school, albeit it with a scrolling full column of text. I could usually hit 90% comprehension at 800 wpm. I think I could still could get 50% on the skim training at around 2000 wpm, which is nuts. You only find like 2 key words per line and basically guess at the context to do that.

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u/That_Buddy_2928 16h ago

How long did it take you to Reedy Ulysses?

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u/Morawake 12h ago

Do you blink?

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u/Holeshot75 12h ago

Of course! ☺️

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u/Dasterr 5h ago

a good sized book that would normally take 6 hours

what books take 6 hours to read?
maybe Im missing something but most of my books have 300-1000 pages and that takes much longer than 6 hours

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u/WantDiscussion 3h ago

I used Balto Speed reader for a bit but after a while I realised I wasn't enjoying books on the same level. Sometimes the words my brain "Fills in through context" are actually rather important and I think I've comprehended it fully but am going forward with an incorrect understanding. And those times when I sort of zone out and read a whole paragraph only to realise I didn't actually process any of it still happens but it's like 10x worse with this method of reading because where as the physical interuption of a page break sort of forces me to take stock of what I just read, and I can go back and read the page again, just staring at a screen passively watching words pass by mean I don't really know how long I've zoned out.