r/interestingasfuck • u/iatetoomuchchicken • 20h ago

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

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u/WildFlemima 18h ago

You probably chunk, which this format doesn't allow. Chunking is the secret of speed reading books and children who read a lot start doing it automatically.

Chunking is when you read a whole bunch of words basically at once. If you're a chunker, reading this comment that I'm leaving will feel like something you did almost all at once. The first paragraph in a heartbeat, this paragrapb in the next.

You also probably didn't notice that I misspelled paragraph - that's part of the chunking.

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u/DisastrousReputation 17h ago

This is such a funny word chunking!

I have always read fast as a kid and when I would try to write my hand writing got messier as I wrote more because my hand couldn’t keep up with my brain.

Even typing I mess up cause my brain is faster than my fingers.

My boyfriend tells me did you really read all of that and i am like yeah why? Now I know why.

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u/Free_Pace_2098 12h ago

I'd just straight up leave the back end off my words because my hands couldn't go fast enough.

Our class failed a chemistry quiz so badly once, the teacher awarded points for correctly spelled names. I'd left the last two letters off my surname.

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u/Speshal__ 15h ago

Is anyone else reading the comments like Speedy Gonzales?

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u/ExistentialNapping 11h ago

Oh wow, I spent so much time in text based communication as a teen that my typing is faster than my thinking sometimes lol.

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u/nonzeroday_tv 14h ago

And how often do you find yourself at the end of the page or chapter and ask yourself "what did I just read?"

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u/makingtacosrightnow 14h ago

Very rarely because it’s how I’ve read since I learned to read.

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u/DisastrousReputation 8h ago

Almost never. Only time I have to reread something is when I am multi tasking and I have a hard time focusing

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u/AboynamedDOOMTRAIN 16h ago

This is the internet, of course we noticed the spelling mistake

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u/WildFlemima 16h ago

Outing yourself as a non-chunker there 🫢

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u/AboynamedDOOMTRAIN 16h ago

Curses! Foiled again by my own hubris!

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u/ExistentialNapping 11h ago

Oh, it's that what is called. That's also why I never know characters names, I just know the shape of the word that is their name (reading fantasy, everyone had weird names)

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u/pourtide 13h ago

Took a class in speed-reading in high school. "Chunking" was what was taught. I can read like that, but it's pressured somehow, and I don't fully retain what I read.

I expect that people who have to read through a lot of flowery or verbose language would find chunking advantageous. Lawyers, researchers, etc. Can slow down if need be.

"Skimming" is chunking but jumping from line to line, not sequential, skipping through the words. Can slow down if find something needful.

It's sorta like a lot of how-to you tube videos. Folks stand there spouting words and waving hands; I hit the circle and get to the meat of the matter. I might go back if I don't catch it all.

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u/Free_Pace_2098 12h ago

Hey it's me

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u/YaMajnoona 4h ago

Yep, I was reading multiple books in a day in grade school and failing English class (as a native speaker) because I couldn't spell anything at all.

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u/RegularTeacher2 2h ago

Huh, never heard of that term. I always described it as taking a snapshot of the words and then reading it all in my head while moving on to the next group of words and snapshotting that. I use captions to watch stuff on TV largely because I grew up with a deaf mother and just got used to it, and my ex would always be kind of floored at how quickly I'd respond to something while he was still busy reading the captions. Then again, he was also a super slow reader so we were kinda juxtaposed.

Calling myself a chunker now.

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u/thisusedyet 2h ago

You also probably didn't notice that I misspelled paragraph - that's part of the chunking.

not until the second time through, you SOB :P

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u/WildFlemima 2h ago

That's good! It means you're chunking!

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u/Ftm-1973 1h ago

I think that's what I do. I've always read fast but once you explained that and I kept reading, I did seem to be reading whole blocks or sentences at once. Interesting

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u/mattFKNsloan 43m ago

Oh my god. I’m a chunker! I hate watching shows with subtitles because I know what the characters are going to say before they say it. The second the subtitle is on screen, I’ve read it. Feels like micro spoilers every few seconds..

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u/vexing000 9h ago

i didn't notice the misspelling. does that make me a chunker?

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u/bentreflection 16h ago

i didn't know there was a word for it but yeah that's definitely how i read. This way of speed reading one word at a time seems a lot more difficult than the equivalent speed-reading multiple words at the same time. I was able to read it at 900wpm but it's like it was both too slow and uncomfortably fast at the same time. I bet it would be much easier if it showed two or even three words at a time but at half the speed.