Orwell - Improve your speed reading

http://robinduckett.github.com/orwell/

by robinduckett • 16 years ago

27 47 16 years ago

robinduckett.github.com

tbrooks• 16 years ago

I've been using Spreeder to read online articles and long blog posts for a few years now. I'm amazed at how much information I retain from reading at 300 words/minute.

http://www.spreeder.com/app.php

robinduckett11• 16 years ago

That's where I got my inspiration from, but wanted to see if I could code it myself, with the ability to have it "marquee" across, loading different amounts of words at a time, without removing words I may have (or may not have) already read.

DrSprout• 16 years ago

Seems a little more usable for me using text-align right so that if I'm keeping up I don't have to track the next word jumping all over the place.

steadicat2• 16 years ago

300 words/minute looks awfully slow to me. I can speak faster than that. Reading speed can be much faster than speech, especially if you get rid of subvocalization ("speaking" words in your head as you read).

I don't see the advantage of flashing a word at a time. Reading works best when the eye can scan a bunch of words simultaneously. If anything, I'd try flashing a line of text at a time.

boredguy86• 16 years ago

300 wpm is average reading. Speaking at 300 wpm with clarity takes a lot of practice, and most listeners require practice to comprehend that rate of speech. Research shows that with compression (i.e. articulate speech sped up, 'contentless' gaps removed), people without training lose comprehension of spoken word at about 210 wpm.

Unless you're talking with former debaters, I'd slow down that speech a little. Even if you live in New York!

Tekhne• 16 years ago

Unfortunately, I don't have source in front of me, but I've read some research that indicates that subvocalization is actually necessary for full comprehension, and that claims to the contrary are apocryphal. It's probably best to investigate before trying to eliminate subvocalization.

mahipal• 16 years ago

This is a cool idea. I suppose it would need some rudimentary analytics over time to work as an actual training tool?

One suggestion: For me, at least, my reading relies on the shape of the sentence. And I think for everyone they would be looking at the right edge of the sentence as more words are coming in. So it's really jarring to have the right edge jumping around, and it might make more sense to right-align the marquee.

robinduckett11• 16 years ago

Added text alignment prefs, just refresh :D

RyanMcGreal2• 16 years ago

I seemed to get the optimum reading speed and fluidity at 300 wpm, 10 words at a time, reading in 1 word at a time.

Edit: I also second mahipal's recommendation to right-align the text.

robinduckett11• 16 years ago

Now right aligned by default, with a setting to change it.

RyanMcGreal2• 16 years ago

Beautiful, thanks.

wdewind• 16 years ago

Cool

1) It would be cool if the up and down arrow keys would make it faster and slower, or have some kind of gradual slider or something.

2) Doesn't speed reading have less to do with actual linear speed and more to do with effective and efficient scanning of the page? (I've heard people talk about moving from top left to bottom right)

robinduckett11• 16 years ago

I made this just to help me practice, which is why you can set how many words show at once, and how many new words come in at a time :)

conanite• 16 years ago

Cool how sample text comes from the opening pages of 1984 that cover Winston's absolute lack of privacy, describing how the Thought Police can "plug in your wire whenever they wanted to". A topical choice. If only there had been a big social website that would allow him organise a privacy protest group.

+1 for right-aligned text.

robinduckett11• 16 years ago

Hehehe :D

boredguy86• 16 years ago

The way you're calculating words per minute is wrong. You're calculating the page change without taking into account how many words at a time are being presented. So for instance, the refresh for show 30 / read 1 is the same as the refresh for show 30 / read 30. Yet clearly, if 'read 30' is set, the refresh should be substantially slower than if 'read 1' is set. Refresh in seconds should be (words at a time / words per minute) * 60. Right now you're just doing (60/wpm) and ignoring words at a time.

robinduckett11• 16 years ago

I was waiting for someone to bring this up, it's because I put that "calculation" in before I put in the variable read rates in.

If you know how I can fix that, any advice will promptly be implemented :)

boredguy86• 16 years ago

Set your refresh in seconds to (words at a time / words per minute) * 60. And maybe add a check to make sure the show value is never smaller than the words at a time value? (Though it is a fun, schizophrenic way to experience the start of 1984)

boredguy86• 16 years ago

Not sure what you changed, but I set WPM to 60, show 1, and read 1. This should refresh every second (1/60)*60, but it's updating very slowly.

jimmyjim• 16 years ago

Could this possibly be implemented in Chrome as an extension (so I don't have to keep copying and pasting the texts onto it)?

Well, it obviously could, so I guess what I'm asking is are you willing to do it? :) I, for one, would be very, very grateful for it.

steadicat2• 16 years ago

Did you consider smooth scrolling instead of adding/removing a word at a time? The bouncing around due to different word-lengths is troubling me.

robinduckett11• 16 years ago

I hadn't considered smooth scrolling, I'll have a look when I get home.

Gormo2• 16 years ago

Speed reading is great to remember isolated facts and data, but it doesn't work to really understand anything.

If I want to absorb a complex idea and integrate it into my base of knowledge, I need to pause while reading, digest what I've read, figure out its implications, and think about it in relation to what I already know and understand. Speeding up the physical act of reading doesn't add any value here.

When I try to use these techniques, I usually end up mechanically scanning the text word by word without consciously comprehending anything, and having to keep going back to re-read the same paragraphs over and over again.

boredguy86• 16 years ago

Obviously there are many ways people process text, but my early efforts at speed reading (and speed listening) were much like yours. With practice, however, I reached a point where I could bifurcate input processing and ideational processing. It was almost as though my eyes were passively accepting information and throwing it at my mind in useful chunks, rather than my mind actively going out to get information and then churning it.

The best analogy I've found is Hofstadter talking about the process of becoming good at Jumbles (where you have to unscramble letters to find the word). Early in the process, he had to actively, at the forefront of his mind, rearrange letters and test them. As he got better, that active task was offloaded to some barely-conscious 'letter combining capacity' that would only toss up fairly plausible combinations. It might not be a real word, but it had a high level of salience, whereas his active thinking-about process would make bizarre, impossible combinations that would include letters not even in the jumble.

Similarly, the 'active' task of reading is, for me, a pretty passive process now, and I actually have more of my mind to devote to thinking about what I read while my eyes do the boring work of getting the input 'inside'.

brokenmindsets4• 16 years ago

hi boredguy8, I am really interested in the type of speed reading that you are describing and have started trying to learn to do it myself. I say "your type" since people seem to mean a lot of different things when they say "speed reading". What I specifically want to learn is the ability to rapidly read while maintaining comprehension by making the process less of a conscious activity.

How did you learn this skill? Did you automatically start doing this or was it something you intentionally learned? If you intentionally learned it was there any particular method or book you used? I know there are a lot of books/products about the topic but I don't know which ones actually have value and which don't so I have just been trying them one at a time. I have only met a few people in real life who seem to have this skill and they typically are not able to describe how they are doing it. Any information you can provide would be greatly appreciated, even if it is just a description of the process you went through.

Thanks!

dlnovell2• 16 years ago

Sorry, but that is absolutely not true. Notice that every statement you use to back up your premise contains "I". You may not be an effective speed reader or haven't been able to properly train yourself, but your blanket statement that speed reading "doesn't work to really understand anything" is completely absurd.

The goal of speed reading is to increase the rate at which you can _comprehend_ what you read, not just increasing the number of words your read per minute. My dad practiced speed reading while getting his PhD in business management precisely so that he could read the mountains of dense, academic research he needed to in less time. He can read and comprehend fully around 600 wpm. Try telling him that it doesn't work to really understand anything.

It's not something you can master in a week or even a month. It takes a long period of dedicated practice but it can definitely help anyone willing to commit to the training.

brokenmindsets4• 16 years ago

Hi dlnovell, I am trying to learn this skill. Any advice or book recommendations? Do you speed read well also, or does your comment only pertain to your father? Thanks!

Gormo2• 16 years ago

Right, I've explained my opinion of speed reading techniques by describing my experience of having tried them. This is the actual, factual experience I've had attempting to use speed reading - on what basis can you say that this is "absolutely not true"?

Perhaps you're trying to make an implicit point regarding subjectivity vs. objectivity, but if this is the case, I'd point out that (a) the effectiveness of speed reading is an inherently subjective question, and (b) you responded to my anecdote with only your own anecdote, despite explicitly making an absolute claim.

klochner3• 16 years ago

Cool project. Some ideas:

- let users play with fonts/colors/spacing to find their optimum setup.

- aggregate user preferences to find good defaults

Then you have an interesting blog post to write.

I think you should blow away the scrolling and have just two controls: chunk size and speed. Personally I found chunk size ~50 to be ideal.

robinduckett11• 16 years ago

On the second point, how do you suggest I go around doing that?

As for the "blow away the scrolling", I made this to be configurable, sure it's nice to be simple, but I made it so I could tweak it on the fly. You wouldn't have found any chunk size to be ideal if I hadn't made it editable in the first place :P

klochner3• 16 years ago

On the second point, how about:

"log in to save your preferences!"

As for "blow away the scrolling", I guess I'm channeling steve jobs: "This is the right way to do it."

People could prefer scrolling text, but from everything I know about reading, they ultimately will read faster if they use chunks.

pook• 16 years ago

Making this a readability-style bookmarklet or plugin would be awesome.

I would love a "Speedify" button

btilly• 16 years ago

Cool idea, but I would prefer it if you calculated words as groups of 5 letters (that's how it was calculated back when I was learning to type), and not as number of logical words. Because right now you're getting variable length chunks of text but my eyes really like to scan in uniform length chunks.

For instance suppose I am reading in 5 word groups. Some groups I read faster than others. So even though my average reading speed is a bit above 700 wpm, at 700 wpm in your application I have noticeable pauses where I've finished the current chunk, and I have chunks I do not finish. It is very frustrating.

Jd2• 16 years ago

Show words 4 at a time, Read in 4 words at a time @ 500 WPM is the highest comfortable reading speed.

Does this mean I actually read at 2000 WPM?

bluemetal• 16 years ago

that can't be right, but it seems I can do it too

EDIT: it seems to get a whole lot easier to read when i align the text left. when it was aligned right i was wasting time getting my eyes to the always shifting beginning of the new line

Jd2• 16 years ago

Ah. The periods are what kill me.

nhooey• 16 years ago

This thing needs to move pixels at a time, rather than words at a time. It's really hard to calibrate your eyes to the next word when the length of the next word is unknown.

You lose the spatial cues of where each word's position is each time a new word is shifted on to the screen. Something like a smooth stock ticker would be much better.

Although, Spreeder looks much better.

Orwell - Improve your speed reading

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