
Read Slowly to Benefit Your Brain and Cut Stress - anishkothari
http://online.wsj.com/articles/read-slowly-to-benefit-your-brain-and-cut-stress-1410823086?
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dschiptsov
Slowly here should mean not the speed of reading, a-la words oper second, but
the checking/matching of every meaningful piece of information against your
internal (trained) 'map of the universe'.

BTW, one could speed-read only texts on a familiar subjects, the way most of
us read 90% of narcissistic nonsense here. On the contrary, those wery rare
pieces of meaningful thought from self-made professionals (nothing in common
with so-called and usually self-proclaimed 'experts') requires this slow
reading of 'the deep structure' \- reconstruction of author's model of the
universe.

~~~
nrao123
This slow reading idea also jives with Alan Kay's observation of "Slow Deep
Thinking" which allowed us to have massive & non-incremental leaps into the
future.

[http://www.clarkaldrichdesigns.com/2009/05/alan-kay-and-
huma...](http://www.clarkaldrichdesigns.com/2009/05/alan-kay-and-human-
universals-vs-non.html)

Video by Kay which goes into more depth:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTAghAJcO1o](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTAghAJcO1o)

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Lambdanaut
When I'm having trouble paying attention to a book, particularly a non-fiction
that I have to drudge through, I'll slow down and start reading the book in
the voice of a famous comedian. Suddenly everything is 10x more interesting.
Try Robin Williams. Graph Theory taught by Robin Williams is really charming.
He laughs jovially at every theorem.

~~~
keithpeter
That one has legs. Nice idea.

John Cleese teaching Unix/Linux Administration (funny walks).

Alexi Sayle teaching database reduction to normal form (those Mersey vowels).

One of the centres I teach in runs a book club to encourage literacy and
reading. Seems popular. Mix of participants. It is a traditional book club
where they all read the same text.

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jonifico
I usually read so fast that by the time I get to the end of the text, I skip
the last few words for the sake of finishing quickly. This turns out to be a
waste of time and not very relieving. However, when I focus on reading slowly
I'm thinking too much about it and can't concentrate on what I'm reading. I
think more than reading slower or faster, it's about finding a pace where you
feel comfortable and let your brain go a bit.

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adrianhoward
Admittedly there are only two of us — but we have reading on our company
calendar. Thirty minutes every day 3:30-4pm. Because learning new stuff and
getting alternate perspectives is bloody important.

~~~
mattm
At my first job, there were periods where I didn't have much to do. So I
thought, instead of mindlessly surfing the Internet, I'll read to improve my
knowledge. It was a large company and they had hundreds of computer books. So
I got one from the library and started reading it during a down time.

My manager comes over and says "There's no reading during work." (I was
reading The Mythical Man-Month so it wasn't like I was reading a novel or
anything).

I'm not there anymore but I still do take 30 minutes to read daily. I just do
it more discreetly by using Safari Books Online and don't ask for permission.

It's good to hear there are forward looking companies out there. Everyone
should make a little time to do things that won't benefit you today, but will
benefit you in 6 months.

~~~
zimpenfish
I can't remember if it's the MyMaMo which has the "why aren't you working,
what are you doing?" "thinking" "can't you do that at home?" anecdote but
that's brilliant managerial madness in a nutshell.

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Broken_Hippo
I think pushes to get people to read more have been continuously going on
since I was a child in the 80's. Some people enjoy it more than others and I
think more people find reading books more difficult than quick reads - I'm not
sure if this is time, access, or ability.

I also question their stress relief. It seems it might be tied to people
enjoying themselves for a little bit of time many times a week. I don't know
if the research exists, but I will guess if everyone engaged in something
selfish or something they actually thoroughly enjoy for 30 minutes many days a
week, the person's stress levels would go down.

~~~
collyw
I think its increasingly difficult for people to concentrate for longer than
ten minutes these days (I certainly notice this in myself). We are not
encouraged to concentrate for long periods either, instead 'multitasking' is
considered a good thing. Pop up notifications every time an email comes in. A
vibration in my pocket for a message / whatsapp / whatever.

The popularity of Buzzfeed seems to fit with this.

I agree that people should do something they enjoy (doesn't need to be
selfish). I find that outdoor physical exercise works for me. My girlfriend
says the same, when I take the off-road detour home from work on my bike, she
says I am less grumpy.

~~~
Dewie
> I agree that people should do something they enjoy (doesn't need to be
> selfish).

To some people, doing something you enjoy is selfish by definition. In what
way it affects others (if at all) is a totally different matter.

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grannyg00se
Despite many occurrences of the word "slow", this article seems to have
nothing at all to do with the speed at which you read.

~~~
robert_tweed
They appear to be using the term "slow reading" to distinguish it from online
reading:

"One 2006 study of the eye movements of 232 people looking at Web pages found
they read in an "F" pattern... None of this is good for our ability to
comprehend deeply, scientists say."

I personally have 3 styles of reading:

\- Fiction, I read incredibly slowly, and always have done.

\- Technical books, I absorb very quickly, often scanning through parts
covering topics I already know well, and spending longer on anything that is
new. In any case, there is no "narrative" to follow, but the structure still
tends to be linear (one topic builds on the last).

\- Online, I read in a "spiral" pattern, skipping between headlines, then
reading the first and last parts to narrow in on what I think is most
relevant.

Reading every word from start to finish is an inefficient way to extract
information online. If I am interested in a particular topic, I don't have to
read just one article on that subject. 90% of online content is badly written
or factually incorrect in some way, so over-committing to one source typically
results in a lot of wasted effort. The better strategy is to speed read 5 or 6
different sources and then return to whichever one gets its point across
concisely. This also tends to reinforce a bias towards content that is
presented in small chunks with diagrams.

Over the last 18 months I've been spending a lot more time than usual reading
technical books and I have noticed that the amount of time I spend reading
online has affected my ability to speed read technical books the way I
normally do. I have to concentrate harder to avoid scanning in an F or spiral
shaped pattern.

That strategy works online because the aim is to discard bad content as
quickly as possible. It does not work when your aim is to follow the narrative
of a book that is almost always linear and is often more information-dense
than online content.

This linearity is amplified further in fiction because it is an intrinsic
property of the narrative structure (except perhaps, in "choose your own
adventure" books).

It therefore makes sense that reading fiction helps people avoid the habit of
scanning content, skipping over the middle parts. Online, the middle parts
often don't matter because the signal to noise ratio is low. In other formats,
that is often not the case.

~~~
onsalenow
What about non-fiction books that could be considered technical in anothers
field?

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veidr
It's not really 'slow' reading the article is talking about, but uninterrupted
reading.

From personal experience, I agree that reading long-form textual works,
particularly fiction, is fundamentally different than perusing typical
hypertext information. I love the web, certainly, but it's just a different
thing, even though using the web does involve the act of reading words.

I also intuitively agree that uninterrupted reading is beneficial to human
development, and it is interesting to see studies that support that. (This
article, somewhat ironically, would have been better had it linked to the
studies that it mentioned.)

~~~
Broken_Hippo
I intuitively disagree that uninterrupted reading is beneficial to human
development. I don't see this behavior from the few people I secretly wonder
if they wouldn't be considered genius, if they would only take the test. What
they do, however, is read a wide variety of topics often. One very rarely
leaves the house without a book, has files on his phone as a backup, and
downloads enough non-fiction that I wonder when he can read it. Does he read
in long chunks? Sure, if the internet is down or he has to wait. Does he do
this often? Not if he can help it.

The point is that he reads. Often. Likely more than most people get in their
half hours intervals - but if that is the only way for people to read, I fully
support it. I do not doubt many of the benefits of reading, but I think
uninterrupted reading is more of an exercise in extended concentration and Im
sure there are multiple ways to learn this.

~~~
veidr
I don't think it's about concentration, but more about the exercise of putting
yourself mentally in other people's shoes.

And I don't think the benefits of uninterrupted reading are necessarily
becoming 'smarter'. They are more like being better able to understand people
different from you, more easily able to change your mind based on new
information, etc.

Here's a somewhat better article on the topic:

[http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-athletes-
way/201401/...](http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-athletes-
way/201401/reading-fiction-improves-brain-connectivity-and-function)

------
jqm
I've always been a skimmer. With most writing, a good portion of the words can
be skipped without missing much content. The web hasn't changed this for me. I
did it before with print books including fiction for entertainment.

Sometime when the subject matter is deep or densely packed I have to make
myself slow down. Usually this isn't the case though.

~~~
veidr
I read a lot of fiction... (checks kindle) looks like about 100 books a year.
I definitely start skimming when the story isn't engaging enough.

Roughly speaking, I think the better a book is, the less I tend to skim. A
truly great novel I will read at probably 10% of the speed of a bad one. (If
it's _really_ bad, of course, I stop reading and throw it away.. that's
probably the case with 20% of the novels I start).

With most nonfiction, technical books, etc., it is different -- I skim as much
as I can while still extracting the info/knowledge I am trying to get out of
it.

~~~
emodendroket
Depends on the book but I've definitely found some dense technical books
(mostly textbooks) have to be read much slower than my normal speed for real
comprehension.

------
mad44
Here is a case for even slower reading: research paper reading!

[http://muratbuffalo.blogspot.com/2013/07/how-i-read-
research...](http://muratbuffalo.blogspot.com/2013/07/how-i-read-research-
paper.html)

------
madiator
I realized that it was very tough for me to read the whole article from start
to beginning, sentence by sentence, without getting distracted or skipping
sentences.

~~~
anigbrowl
Well it's not exactly prose for the ages. A fluffy article like this is
appropriate for speed reading. If it were an article about your professional
specialty or something important like a firm in which you were invested, then
you'd naturally be more interested and would read it more closely and
carefully.

If you were reading for pleasure you could have a similar dichotomy. I read a
contemporary espionage thriller a few weeks ago and flew through it; it was
enjoyable but quite predictably plotted and the characters unburdened by
doubt, so reading the book was a simple matter of finding out how the hero
arrived at the showdown and what he did when he got there (you'll no doubt be
relieved to know that the free world was saved, once again).

Then I read a literary novel with another novel embedded within in, and a lead
character engaged in teaching literary criticism - quite a challenging book
due to the near-constant tension between narrative and narrative purpose, with
the latter becoming a key element of the former, via an imagined obscenity
trial for the book-within-a-book. This was further complicated by the fact
that I found most of the characters deeply unsympathetic...at first. As you
can imagine, this one required a considerable degree of thought and
reflection, and my reading speed varied considerably with the subject matter -
and I anticipate it will influence my perception of other books going forward,
so in that sense I'm still reading it despite having got to the end.

Currently I'm reading a science-fiction book examining the psychological
construction of identity, Stanislaw Lem's _Solaris_. And although I've read it
twice already (having been into his work for some 30 years now), and although
it's quite a short book, it's going to take weeks because of Lem's narrative
density - he tells simple stories but with a deliberately unfiltered attention
to detail which demands total mental attention.

All are enjoyable, but all provide very different reading experiences and
demand different things from the reader.

------
skc
I've always thought I had a problem with reading. Whenever I read fiction, I
read the text as though it is being spoken. So I've never joined a book club
because I've always been afraid I'd never be able to finish a book in the same
time it takes "normal people" who will typically finish the same book about 2
days earlier than me on average.

~~~
freehunter
I don't see that as a problem. I read books and narrate them to myself in my
head. Sometimes I even develop voices for the characters. If they're talking
fast, I read it faster. If the action is slow, I read it slower. When the
author describes something, I take the time to visualize it in my head.

The downside to this (other than sometimes slow reading) is that by the end of
the book I am so deeply entrenched in this world that I don't want to leave
it. It really feels like I'm leaving something behind forever when I finish
the last page. I had withdrawls from Wool and its associated trilogy by Hugh
Howey. Such an engrossing series and such relatable characters that with my
reading style, I was devastated. And then I moved on to the next book.

------
eik3_de
That's why I wouldn't use Spritz for reading books. For me, good reading isn't
the maximization of throughput from the words into my brain. Most insight
comes from stopping now and then, looking out of the window and thinking about
what you've just read - relating it with own experiences or current
challenges.

~~~
nitin_flanker
yes you are right eik_de. We have to grasp whatever we are reading. There is a
famous adage that says - its easy to read but hard to understand.

Keep it up :)

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neoterics
I wonder if this applies to listening to audiobooks.

I know people generally hate long commutes but honestly if it wasn't for my
commute, I would never spend 2 hours a day listening to audiobooks or reading.
Now I easily finish 2 to 3 books a month due to it and I wouldn't have it any
other way!

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Evgeny
I'm wondering how listening to audio books compares to reading printed texts.
I have in the last couple of years switched to listening in almost all cases
where the audio version of the book I'm interested in exists.

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nitin_flanker
yeah slow reading is important but slowly slowly as the time goes on our
reading speed gets enhanced by itself. I have felt this. Earlier when I used
to read patents I used to take so much time. Slowly slowly the time started
reducing and now I can read the text with a speed that is 3X than before and I
understand the text also.

Second point that I loved is - books are best rather than PDFs. Guess what -
whenever I use to travel in trains I use to read leadership novels of Robin
Sharma. Ebooks are good but they are not as effective as physical books are.

-nitin

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emodendroket
I took the little test and read at my normal speed which is apparently faster
than the speed reading average (FWIW I got the comprehension questions). That
doesn't quite sound right to me.

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aytekin
For me, reading is about thinking, enjoying what I read and learning. That's
why it has never made sense why some people are so obsessed with speed
reading.

~~~
1123581321
The reason is that not all texts deliver an equal amount of information or
enjoyment per word.

------
kyllo
Reading slowly makes me drowsy. I think that's a sign I need to get more
sleep!

------
rbosinger
Although I totally agree with the gist of it I have to admit that I skimmed
the article.

