Will_BC comments on Open Thread, May 26 - June 1, 2014 - Less Wrong

4 Post author: BarbaraB 26 May 2014 07:42AM

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Comment author: Ben_LandauTaylor 27 May 2014 02:34:32AM 3 points [-]

My experience is that modern speed-reading techniques don't lower comprehension unless you get extremely fast (say, 900-1500 wpm). The exception is the very early stages, so it's good to practice on, e.g., mildly interesting fiction. After a couple of weeks with ~30 minutes of focused practice daily, I was reading at double my previous pace with the same comprehension.

Comment author: Will_BC 27 May 2014 02:40:21AM 0 points [-]

Where did you learn these speed reading techniques?

Comment author: Ben_LandauTaylor 27 May 2014 07:07:51AM 0 points [-]

I leaned from Matt Fallshaw, who IIRC was using something loosely based on the Evelyn Wood method.

Comment author: Will_BC 28 May 2014 02:33:10AM 1 point [-]

Thanks for answering, I did some googling and found a website called spreeder.com that seems to be helping. So far I've been able to gradually increase the wpm from where I was comfortable starting, and it seems like it could be an effective tool.