

Ask HN: Legitimate speed reading method? - DavidSJ

I know there's a lot of snake oil in this area.  Are there any methods you guys are aware of that work well (increase reading speed while maintaining comprehension levels)?
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Travis
DavidSJ,

The courses all teach you the same kinds of things. It's not exactly snake
oil, but it's not something that's easy.

I took one of these years ago, as a kid, and got little out of it. Why?
Because I didn't practice. Here are the main things that I recall from the
class: 1) they trained you to read groups of words rather than individual
words 2) they trained you to use your peripheral vision to increase the size
of those word groups 3) they trained you to stop and recount what you just
read, every couple of pages or chapter.

That was about it. It was about practice -- which most people don't want to
do. There are no tricks; like anything else, getting better at reading speed +
comprehension takes a lot of practice.

However, it definitely does help to be cognizant of the different techniques
they teach, so that you can practice yourself. And, just like programming, you
need to set aside time when you can actively practice these techniques. And
practicing this stuff has generally made the reading itself less enjoyable, in
my experience.

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boundlessdreamz
I read faster than almost anyone I know and the only difference I know is that
I don't think aloud the words when I'm reading silently. I'm reading phrases
rather than words. I hope you got the idea because I don't know how to convey
it. This technique is natural to me and I was surprised initially that a lot
of people read silently, the way they read aloud ie word by word.

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access_denied
Yes thats the thing. Thinking the words out aloud is was makes us reading
slow. We do this because when we firts learn to read, we learn it that way.

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Spyckie
I think its different for every person. You should find out what your tradeoff
level is for comprehension/wpm, and how many phrases you can skip while still
understanding the main points of the section.

I think everyone can pick up reading by phrases to a certain extent. Scanning
full pages or even paragraphs is probably a innate skill that isn't learnable.

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DavidSJ
Thank you for the information, everyone. I appreciate it.

