16/31 Reading more

[darkemeralds]

I'm testing Spreeder, a browser extension for speed-reading online content. It's awesome. You highlight some text, right-click and select Spreeder, and it plays the text one word (or two or three words) at a time, fast.

First I did a quick test of my speed when reading conventionally, and came out at about 290 words per minute. So I set Spreeder at 300. That felt really slow, so I tried 400, and finally settled at 500.



I tried it on some fic, a New Yorker political article, and a post on BikePortland. I'd say my comprehension of each was at least as good as it would have been reading conventionally. That's an instant 70% speed increase.

The average American never surpasses speech-speed in reading, about 200 words per minute. We subvocalize--read aloud in our heads. Spreeder helps force you past that limitation. Apparently most of us spend about 30% of our reading time "regressing"--re-reading and checking back. Obviously Spreeder eliminates that option altogether.

What's lost, of course, is rhythm and cadence and the other auditory qualities of text that, in speed reading, you're actively trying to get rid of. There are times when you want those, and that's when you'd put down the toys and techniques and go back to 200 words per minute.

A couple of really valuable aids for reading online material the conventional way:

Beeline Reader: colors the text progressively, making it easy to follow from line to line. A very good aid for focus. (Hat tip: ravurian.)

Clearly, a browser extension associated with Evernote, and Readability, an independent browser extension. Both present text in the font, size, and page layout of your choice, without ads or distractions, thereby aiding both focus and poor eyesight.

Comments

[kis]

This is fascinating. Brilliant. I consider myself the slowest reader in the world, but I'm finding 600 wpm in 2-word chunks not too bad at all. Have you downloaded it? Or are you just using it via their site?

I'm particularly interested in it because I heard some research about the difference in the impact of advertizing on subjects who are eating when exposed to it and subjects who are not. Apparently chewing over-rides the instinct to subvocalize the brandnames, which means you're less likely to remember or be impressed by them at a later date. http://www.theguardian.com/science/2013/oct/13/eating-popcorn-cinema-advertisers

[darkemeralds]

The popcorn-eating study is fascinating. The first thing that went through my mind is "Maybe it also works in reverse: we eat in front of the TV so we don't have to feel the subliminal effects of advertising." It would explain a lot about the current level of obesity in the western world. My science is bad science.

On Spreeder, I installed the extension in my browser (Chrome). I think it also has a "bookmarklet" for Firefox. That way it's kind of omnipresent and available when needed.

I'm finding the two-word chunks to be about optimum, at least for now. Three felt overwhelming at 500 WPM, but too slow at 400. Supposedly you can speed up as you get used to the technology. It's less useful for fiction, I find, because of how much is usually conveyed with typography and layout--paragraphs, extra line spacing for significant break, italics and bold, etc.

It almost goes without saying that I don't want to speed-read fiction--takes a lot of the fundamental pleasure out of it--but fiction is a good case study for the technology because it's fascinating to see how you get the gist of a story as if speeds by. I tried Spreeder on a short but explicit piece of fanfic last night and really, it was hilarious at that speed. All the important porn-words flashed by, and of course those words still snag the eye a bit, so the words immediately following them in the flashing sequence got lost, and I was left with just the, uh, bones of the porn.

[kis]

Good point about the difference between fiction and non-fiction. Sometimes you want to go slowly, and wallow.

What you have to say about speed porn is interesting in that I'm wondering if putting one's own fic through Spreeder would be a good way of editing the smutty bits. If all you see are the boners bones, it probably needs rewriting!

I really need to get into the habit of using Spreeder regularly.

[darkemeralds]

Ooh, that's a good idea! I should try it. Spreeder works very well on AO3 native pages. I haven't tried it on a Google Doc yet. Hm...


I've used Spreeder to catch up on some blog posts and new articles in the last couple of days, and so far, I'm delighted with it. I've been experimenting with different speeds for different types of material. On the whole, I'm coming away with a reasonable grasp of the material in about half the time of regular reading, but that's not really a fair comparison, because with Spreeder I'm actually getting every word--that is, I'm not skipping around, skimming with that anxious and disordered feeling of not being able to focus.

This result, so far, would seem to testify to the claim that speed-reading techniques improve comprehension and focus. I'm excited about the possibilities.

[tehomet]

Very useful!

My humble version of speed reading with lengthy articles is just to read the first paragraph, the first line of each paragraph, and then the last paragraph.

[darkemeralds]

I think that's approximately what I do, too, only not with such intent--just a sort of nervous, attention-deficit-fueled skipping and skimming.

Most well-written news articles and blog posts can be read this way pretty effectively, really.