Speed Reading Logs

Stream for speed reading stats ( speed, comments on comprehension and qualitative updates )

INIT : Sat Apr 10 10:16:32 IST 2021 (PINNED)

• initialized speed reading logs
• following “Breakthrough Rapid Reading” by Peter Kump
• practicing daily from 18:00 to 18:45, logging the details from 18:45 onwards
• evaluation metrics :
  1. WPM : words per min
  2. RI : Retention index (fraction of major ideas retained - subjective)
     • REVISED TO AN INDICATOR VARIABLE DUE TO EXTENT OF AMBIGUITY
     • from 7th of MAY 2021
     • REFILED as : RECALL ATTEMPT INDICATOR - indicates whether that run was recall oriented - *‘ed flags indicated a more reliable test : recall being the prime intention

Closure

• efforts fizzled out during the 6th week of training
• I speed read the last week of the book
• not the glorious end the book deserves but respectful enough that I stuck with it for 85% along the way
• this thread’s been hanging unattended for a while now
  • deserves a closure for all the religiously invested effort
  • not a waste, worth it.
  • final review posted here

Progress

Date	WPM (representative HM)	(RI) –> RAI
Wed Jun 2 09:49:40 IST 2021	1848.00	1
Mon May 31 13:50:02 IST 2021	3633.20	0
Tue May 18 19:34:00 IST 2021	2145.00	1
Tue May 18 16:12:41 IST 2021	1628.00	1*
Mon May 17 17:00:53 IST 2021	2178.00	1
Sun May 16 20:11:07 IST 2021	2437.00	1
Fri May 7 20:43:21 IST 2021	1367.00	1
Tue May 4 22:36:22 IST 2021	1412.00	(–) –> 0
Fri Apr 30 19:44:20 IST 2021	1612.00	(–) –> 0
Wed Apr 28 21:07:03 IST 2021	1372.00	(0.60) –> 1
Tue Apr 27 20:17:54 IST 2021	1958.00	(–) –> 0
Fri Apr 23 20:07:29 IST 2021	1210.00	(–) –> 0
Tue Apr 20 19:17:45 IST 2021	1240.00	(0.72) –> 1
Sun Apr 18 19:32:42 IST 2021	995.00	(0.66) –> 1
Thu Apr 15 20:00:19 IST 2021	1311.00	(–) –> 0
Wed Apr 14 18:47:11 IST 2021	827.00	(–) –> 0
Tue Apr 13 18:49:38 IST 2021	689.58	(–) –> 0
Mon Apr 12 18:31:30 IST 2021	366.00	(0.50) –> 1*

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Practice Logs

Wed Jun 2 09:49:40 IST 2021

• speeding up recall oriented hand-movements (personal goal)
  • underlining : 1648.4 -> 1848.0 wpm across the session
  • on new material : with the intention of recall (did not actually recall)
• The author stated the importance of recall; says:
  • speed reading + recall > reading for all that time
• Personal updates :
  • focusing when reading is extremely easy
  • longest reading session of 3 hours a week ago on moderately complex material(non-fiction)
  • Even for absolutely complex material (philosophy, academic reads (machine learning), manuals)
    • albeit lower speeds, effortless focus and quickly get what I want according to the preset purpose, rather than drifting off tangents
  • Major Update :
    • overcome the imposter syndrome associated with speed reading:
      • “Are you really reading?”
      • “Do you even remember that 27th word on the 7th paragraph of the 3rd chapter of that edition of that particular book?”
        • Bootstrapping knowledge and meaningfully reiterating is much more fun rather than bull-dozing head first from start to finish.
    • Reading is a much more active activity pursuit than before
  • Speed is not the only thing that this book helps with.

Mon May 31 13:50:02 IST 2021

• returning to the drills after an unwanted break again
• on towards the week 5 drills
• have been practicing with comprehension with my usual readings during the break
• One paragraph structuring drill (hierarchize from the third sentence) lasting for 15 mins
• one hand-movement practicing drills for 20 mins:
  • underlining, dusting, slashing, criss-cross
  • purpose : visual reading : final clocked rate : 3633.2 wpm with cumulative recall over all these hand movements
  • Cause of high speeds : visual reading on known material

Tue May 18 19:35:26 IST 2021

• second practice session the day (20 mins) : Latin has been put on hold until I’m done with this book
• Author now talks about matching different types of reading to different purposes (note that these definitions are opionated as confessed by the author):
  • linear reading : difficult material
  • skimming : get the gist and cache a mental index of the text : focus on the provided structure to the text (headings et cetera)
    • only to quickly retrieve addresses later on once the purpose is clarified
  • scanning : close to visual reading : already have a purpose : hunt for something
  • visual reading : words are pictures : read in circles or in reverse or as if it’s mandarin(top-down)
    • when you know a lot about what you are reading (fairly common) and just want to fill in gaps of knowledge with new details
    • or : bootstrapping knowledge (quicker and more granulated skimming (skimming on steroids gone rogue))
      • I’ve begun dreaming about parentheses

Tue May 18 16:15:35 IST 2021

• The mid book test today : a highly recall oriented speed reading session : this is the true growth compared to my initial baseline recorded on 12th Apr.
• The test was about reading as much as you can for 3 mins and then spending another 6 mins for jotting down the prominences of what you could recollect.
  • satisfied with the performance : 18 pages in 3 mins @ 1628 wpm with a good amount of recall
• Also started with the week 4 drills and content
• Author slowly brings in the idea of reading with high recall in complicated and abstract texts : think philosophy.
  • says rates won’t be as high as the superficial stuff but would grow proportionately along with the ceiling : have been experiencing that in my daily reads.
• Also introduces the notion of visual reading while anticipating what is to come next : analogy of a musician (reads notes before playing them)
  • Involves looking out for certain pivotal phrases/words that indicate the nature of the following prose.
• finished off with a tagging drill where one has to categorize the third sentence in a hierarchical mannner compared to the first and second sentence of the paragraph
  • randomly picked paragraphs and goes on for 6 mins
  • was the first time : could do only 14 today : comparitively more involved than the other drills

Mon May 17 17:01:18 IST 2021

• End of week 3 drills, and halfway through the course
• one recall oriented normal reading session (10 pages in 1.5 mins) clocking in @ 2147 wpm
• new paragraphing movement introduced to encourage visual cues instead of relying on sub-vocalization
  • along with circling, this aids the brain adapt to consume a group of words as a picture rather than a sequence.
  • is effective and after the initial drill : employing this in regular reads was second nature …
• Tomorrow : the mid-book test

Sun May 16 20:11:58 IST 2021

• Took a break from the book for a while
• was practicing with my daily reading quota itself: the drills have been transferring pretty smoothly
• as of right now I’m reading a lot of manuals, papers, and a biography : practical speed has definitely improved
• Today, the author hinted at practicing for speed with comprehension with some children’s books.
  • For me, that boils down to some new-age self-help claiming a quick fix for possibly philosophical issues
  • am surprised : didn’t expect the practical reading off-time to show up as results in the drills
    • One recall-oriented drill clocked in @ 2437 wpm
    • pretty satisfied with today’s recall as well
• Noticing progress; getting back on track and finishing this off

Fri May 7 20:47:31 IST 2021

• gotta pickup the habit before I lose it again (this is my second attempt with the book)
• one recall oriented drill clocked in @ 1367 wpm
• might double down on the sessions to get this over with quickly : 30 min sessions - twice a day

Fri Apr 30 19:45:12 IST 2021

• an assortment of mechanical tips were introduced today
  • dusting movement introduced
  • how to relax a (paperback) book : useful
  • how to turn a page
• done with set of drills for week 2, progressing to week 3
  • took me 18 days : fair enough
• 1 practice session@1612 wpm sans RI
• need to keep on pushing through
  • does get boring at times

Wed Apr 28 21:08:03 IST 2021

• Amping up the difficulty of the practice material
• picked up some abbreviation heavy management textbooks from my Dad’s old MBA stack
• 1 final speed drill@1372wpm and RI (0.60)
  • RI is not a very good metric
  • rely on subjective analysis
• Did scan the upcoming chapters of the book and they seem practical
  • this is not a magic trick
  • some disciplined practice is what it takes : that is good.

Tue Apr 27 20:18:19 IST 2021

• setting up the meta-base for future comprehension drills
  • one representative run @1958 wpm without RI
  • one para-hunting session @ 22 paras
• speed drills getting a little more enjoyable
• fairly strong habit by now but still need to choose to get drilling
  • need to learn how to daemonize these skills without much lack of awareness

Mon Apr 26 21:01:37 IST 2021

• comprehension drills: using recall
• no speed runs
• new recall strategy being employed : referred as “The Magic Line” by the author
• new para-hunting drills employed : figure out the gist of as many randomly selected paragraphs in 5 mins
  • introducing new log in Progress : 15 today

Fri Apr 23 20:08:04 IST 2021

• practiced maintaining high speed on new material and in a normal reading environment

Tue Apr 20 19:18:01 IST 2021

• Comprehension on a steady rise
• current evaluation is very lenient but somewhat uniform
  • how does one fixate on a particular level of astuteness consistently?
• 1 drilling session resulting in 1 min read @ 1240wpm and one discourse about having a purpose when reading
  • the more clearly defined the purpose, the better
  • key is to match the correct technique with the material depending on the purpose

Sun Apr 18 19:33:08 IST 2021

• Comprehension drills incorporated today:
  • involves varying speed corresponding to the structure of the text
  • mostly shifting modes of confirmation of knowns and scanning new information
  • more fun than the usual speed drilling :
    • enhances reading as a non-linear process and is easier to focus through out
      • compared to a consistent effort of maintaining speed and inferring things at the same time
  • Retention index incorporated back and things are getting exciting
  • as expected, the speed dropped but the improvement is going to be cyclic and decoupled so that’s all well

Thu Apr 15 20:00:42 IST 2021

• drilling time : learning to move fast : RI is out of the picture right now
• lot of drills and one representative run of 1 min @ 1311 wpm
• seems odd and feel like a cheat but the author reinstates that drilling should be specific to either speed or comprehension
• also trying to minimize sub-vocalization and instead start seeing words : building an instantaneous context about a prominent word/phrase in the locality

Wed Apr 14 18:47:41 IST 2021

• focusing on eliminating regressions and getting used to the right hand as a pacer
• still not focusing on retention index yet: that has of course taken a temporary hit
  • but the key is to drill these two aspects orthogonally
• also tried reducing the number of saccades by trying to increase the number of words left out in the beginning and the end of the line
  • this is particularly difficult : have a habit of reading all words
  • occasionally, slips do occur and reinforcing form from the next line is what it’ll take to forge the new habit
• larger drill session today : four three minute untested runs on the same material to encourage carelessness and practice speed
  • final tested run on new material for three minutes @ 827 wpm, RI not applicable

Tue Apr 13 18:50:03 IST 2021

• no comprehension evals today : hence RI wasn’t Applicable
• two runs: 707 and 673 wpm
  • using harmonic mean as representative wpm : 689.58
  • these are rates and arithmetic mean is not appropriate
  • will similarly be using geometric mean for retention index in the future
    • as it’s a ratio
• using right hand index finger as pacer
  • helps eliminate regressions
  • author encourages to do this everywhere while picking up the skill
    • seems inconvenient given the book is old
• not focusing on retention index today

Mon Apr 12 18:29:03 IST 2021

• gauging baseline, no specific techniques employed
• Baseline Eval:
  1. WPM : 366 wpm
  2. RI : 0.5