[NASA Test Pilot]

I have always been a voracious reader, but when I was young my father helped me read faster with what he called a holo-tropic sound device and I learned to read backward and forward as well as at a rate over 4 times the maximum for phonetically sounding words in your head (if you try to sound words in your head the maximum in my day was found to be about 375-385 words per minute) with a few other techniques.

This device was a simple handheld sound device that was connected to a pair of headphones (like a Walkman, but it was before the Walkman). It ran a signal from the left head phone to the right headphone in an oscillating fashion. I matched the speed of my finger with the rate of the wave (going from ear to ear inside my head) and read in accordance with the speed of the wave (whose speed I could increase with a knob). I do not know if such things are around now, but it would not be difficult to create with a modest amount understanding (the frequency and pitch of the wave would probably be important for more optimal efforts). Over the decades since then, my guess is that other ways of increasing your ability to read faster are in existence. I was also aware of focusing on action words (then adjectives) and skipping words that were not directly relate to meaning (of, the, to, a, etc.) and allowed my unconscious to fill them in afterwards.

Another field of consideration would be memory enhancement or mnemonics such that your reading comprehension may be greater as you absorb more information through reading or study. Memory enhancement techniques have been used by other uses as well. Forum members can comment on such techniques from pegging to chunking to using vivid, action oriented, exaggerated visualizations (with sound and smell cues) as well as many others such as association, location and imagination and many others that can help men comprehend more and better utilize their memories. I am old school and still memorize people´s phone numbers and use my phone as a back-up, not as a crutch as another simple example.

People may also wish to discuss how eating certain foods (vitamin D for nerve growth in the hippocampus and cerebellum or keytones) or a proper night of sleep, exercise or being mindful (as opposed to multi-tasking) can be beneficial to being able to absorb and comprehend more information more accurately.

The point of the Thread is to offer suggestions (and mine are from a past era before all of the digital technology) to facilitate the process as it appears that a number of men want to do the work and begin to study large amounts of material. If others have things that they have used successfully, add them here and comment to assist the men on the forum.

Below is a link with a piece of more modern research with a bibliography (86 pages) that can be used as a reference for those so inclined.

https://pages.wustl.edu/files/pages/imce...g_help.pdf


There was also a related thread Noopept here –
thread-27098...12725.html

[Valentine]

One of the best things that's helped me to learn more is interlinking concepts and a multimedia knowledge system.

I have a local WordPress site I use as a knowledgebase (prefer it over Wikis) and whenever I learn something new I add it to the site.

What's been the real gamechanger for me especially is when concepts are interlinked and you start to see hierarchies and how it all fits together.

[Sooth]

My preferred speed reading service > http://spritzinc.com/

[ball dont lie]

(05-13-2016 07:02 AM)Sooth Wrote:  

My preferred speed reading service > http://spritzinc.com/

That shit just blew my mind.

I got up to 500 WPM and could understand but just barely. It says you need to practice a while, I get that.

That was intense. I feel like I just deadlifted super heavy.

[H1N1]

(05-13-2016 07:02 AM)Sooth Wrote:  

My preferred speed reading service > http://spritzinc.com/

This is incredible. I actually found it easier to understand at 700wpm than I did at 450. At 450 I could feel the clunkiness of my brain outrunning the words. At the 700wpm rate I felt like I was getting information into my head closer to the rate at which my brain is able to digest it, and was able to relax. I've always been an exceptionally fast reader and had excellent information retention.

It has always been my abiding frustration that there are so many wonderful and interesting things to read that we will only ever touch a fraction of them in a lifetime. Of course, some works must still be struggled with and digested slowly if they are to be understood. However, there are a great many works that are more incidental to the understanding of a particular subject matter which could be usefully digested using something like Spritz. I'm thinking particularly of history surrounding events, or background information to the main theme of one's reading. The sort of articles and minor works that are useful in many respects, but which one might otherwise not labour through.

[kaotic]

(05-13-2016 08:59 AM)ball dont lie Wrote:  

(05-13-2016 07:02 AM)Sooth Wrote:  

My preferred speed reading service > http://spritzinc.com/

That shit just blew my mind.

I got up to 500 WPM and could understand but just barely. It says you need to practice a while, I get that.

That was intense. I feel like I just deadlifted super heavy.

Just did it also, damn that was rad. I love how it focuses you on the words.

[CleanSlate]

Got up to 600 wpm. Beyond that, I started loosing the words and started getting gaps in what I could remember reading.

But damn, that was cool.

[netguy68]

This was awesome - I hit 700 with no issues and I'm going to try out one of the reader apps.

I've always been a quick reader, but I'd really like to find a way to improve my memory. I pull odd facts out of nowhere, but have always had a hard time with structured memorization items.

Does anyone have any suggestions for improving memory?

[Valentine]

(05-13-2016 11:56 AM)netguy68 Wrote:  

Does anyone have any suggestions for improving memory?

Ginkgo Biloba is effective for improving memory.

Another powerful technique is the "memory palace" technique.

[WeekendCasanova]

(05-13-2016 12:36 PM)Valentine Wrote:  

(05-13-2016 11:56 AM)netguy68 Wrote:  

Does anyone have any suggestions for improving memory?

Ginkgo Biloba is effective for improving memory.

Another powerful technique is the "memory palace" technique.

I believe this is the method that those "memory athletes" use.

When I was younger, I used this method to memorize a deck of cards. Neat parlour trick, but I never used it for school or anything, although I can see the applications.

Edit: I read the actual link, and it is indeed the method that memory contest participants use.

[netguy68]

Does anyone have any experiences with Ginkgo Biloba? The original studies were specific to improving memory functioning in Alzheimers patients, and didn't show anything in normal adult brain function.

But I'm ready to try it - not that I have bad memory, but would love to improve.

Thanks.

[h3ltrsk3ltr]

Holy shit. The 700 WPM on Spritz makes me feel dizzy.

[WeekendCasanova]

(05-13-2016 01:29 PM)netguy68 Wrote:  

Does anyone have any experiences with Ginkgo Biloba? The original studies were specific to improving memory functioning in Alzheimers patients, and didn't show anything in normal adult brain function.

But I'm ready to try it - not that I have bad memory, but would love to improve.

Thanks.

Read above.

I don't know the result of long term practicing of his method, but I know in the short term it's very helpful.

[262]

One technique I was taught in school to read fast was:

1) Put a finger in the top center of the desired paragraph
2) Scan from left to right with your eyes
3) At the same time, move your finger down the center of the paragraph

[tarquin]

This is what I wrote in another post regarding memory.

(02-17-2015 09:11 PM)tarquin Wrote:  

That is a good reference for learning long things verbatim, which is certainly needed on occasion. However, most of the time I end up using, consciously or unconsciously, other systems. When I was a teenager I had the fortune of inheriting my Aunt's book collection. Some of the books were rather odd, but one stuck out and has served me immensely ever since. I spent my time in school studying 1/4th or less of what others did.

Buy this book:

http://www.amazon.com/Memory-Book-Classi...emory+book

It's the updated version of what I had, so I can't vouch for this specific e-book update, but as long as they didn't destroy the text of what I had (from the 80's?) it is a pretty incredible find.

The book is presented in a discussion style between the two authors who both independently had developed their own memory systems before researching the systems of the past. Jerry Lucas (yes, the Basketball Great, Jerry Lucas) had a practice of spelling words alphabetically and in doing so he could spell them correctly. I wonder if he ever used that system while playing "HORSE," oops, I mean playing "EHORS."

There are a few different systems presented from simplest to most complex. Each one is used for a different purpose, but they generally build on each other. I'll give you a basic rundown of what I remember, but honestly the first one is the biggest and most useful. I never had the need to use all of the systems, really the first is enough to change your life.

Jerry Lucas and Harry Lorayne both came to the same conclusion as OP's link does. Most people have trouble remembering things because they never actually memorized them in the first place. The authors start out with the most basic type of thing that people need to memorize: a grocery list. How can you remember a list of 10, 15 or even 74 things? The Link. It's a simple strategy. Link your first item to the next and so on. As long as you can remember the first, you can keep going. But how can you possibly link things together so simply and expect them to stick? Make the connections ridiculous. Harry and Lucas point out that there are a few basic ways to make any link that is worth remembering:

1. Physical Transformation
2. Change in size
3. Action
4. Change in number

This is my recollection, though it has been a number of years since I first read the book, so I may have one of the above off by a little. It often helps to combine more than one of the above to form a link or association and make sure it is a ridiculous connection.

For example, this list of things can easily be memorized:

1. Butter
2. Milk
3. Batteries
4. Lettuce
5. Apple Cider Vinegar

First, imagine a stick of butter. Now we need to link this to milk. I imagine a farmer MILKing a cow by first buttering his hands. This works because it is ridiculous. I can visualize the milk squirting from the udder with the help of the farmer's buttered hands. Quite funny, and unforgettable. Now I need to connect milk to batteries. I picture that bucked of fresh milk spilt by the cow and magically, the bucket is filled with batteries instead! A physical transformation!

Now you try one. How can you connect the batteries to lettuce? Perhaps a giant head of lettuce is powered by D-Cell batteries and it is attacking a city like Godzilla. Maybe that same farmer fertilizes his fields with batteries and up pop heads of lettuce. Literally anything can work, just make it crazy. Last, but not least, is ACV. I imagine that the lettuce is being pressed, and ACV is squeezed out into a bottle of Bragg's. I'm sure you can come up with something much more insane if you want.

The point is, now when you think of butter, you won't be able to do anything except think of that pervy farmer lubing his hands up for a go at Ole Bessie and then on to the next item etc...

That's the basic link. Of course, once you go over the information enough times, you won't actually need the links, your brain will just naturally know that after lettuce comes ACV.

You can use this link for speeches, in fact ancient orators are said to have used such a system. They would link each part of their speech to a part of their house. The doormat is the introduction, the foyer is the first main point, etc... This can be useful if you are flying solo with little prep time for a speech. It makes the speech look more natural and you don't have to keep rechecking cue cards.

From there, it gets better. They (Jerry and Harry) discuss memorizing foreign vocabulary by creating word associations in English. The example they use is "pamplemousse," which is French for "grapefruit." The association they use is "pimpled moose," as it sounds sufficiently similar to create a ridiculous image. They just connect that image to a grapefruit and viola! You're in business! Obviously this can become strained and won't work very well if the language sounds sufficiently different or with every word/phrase, but it is a timesaver when it can be used.

From there the systems become a bit more obscure and rely on memorization of lengthy lists to try and create instant associations. If I recall there is a few page list of a number of common first names which will (potentially) make it easier to remember new people without much trouble, but I never had the patience or use for such a system.

The last system that I remember reading, though only had a passing interest in trying, is the phonetic system for remembering numbers. Each number from 0-9 was assigned a consonant. Vowels had no sounds, but were used to fill in between the numbers. I can't remember how the numbers were assigned, but let's say that the number 5 was assigned to the "b" sound. If you wanted to remember the number "55" you would think of the word "baby." It's two b's in a row. Get it? You can create long sentences which are humorous in this manner. A phone number could be a sentence. Heck, if you wanted to remember that Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President, you could remember a two-syllable word to do so. It is useful in that context, but of course, as before, after you remember that Lincoln is #16 a few times, you'll have no need to remember whatever word association was used. It eventually becomes cemented into your brain.

In all seriousness, get the book. Also, Tim Ferris has a recent podcast up regarding memory. I haven't had the chance to listen to it, but if you get a chance please let me know if it is good or not. http://fourhourworkweek.com/2014/12/30/ed-cooke/

thread-45182.html

The above has helped me quite a bit, but I don't need to use the vast majority of the systems on any given day.

[Off The Reservation]

NTP
Thank you for your thought provoking and outstanding contributions.
OTR

[Gorgiass]

(05-13-2016 07:02 AM)Sooth Wrote:  

My preferred speed reading service > http://spritzinc.com/

Good one, easy to see why Samsung wants it for their watch. Only downside vs paper speed reading is that at the higher speeds blinking and the split second to refocus on the "redicle" seemed to be a factor. Maybe that goes away with practice, or maybe someday they'll incorporate front facing camera sensors and have an auto-pause option.

The only speed reading book I read advocated minimizing eye movement to increase speeds, and it definitely works. Depending on column width you pick one or a number of points between words and lines and absorb words through peripheral vision as you move down (and across, if necessary) the page. If you find yourself wanting to reread a point or paragraph to further understand it, instead pause for a moment and understanding usually comes as you think about it rather than rereading. Also something that's not possible with Spritz without a pause feature.

Speed reading paper like this isn't a relaxing experience for me, it requires a lot of focus and gets a bit draining, so I don't make a conscious effort to do it that often. I didn't notice this drain with Spritz at all. Does anyone notice mental fatigue increases when trying to read faster?

I have an increase in mental processing speed when supplementing with Hydergine and choline, in addition to some of the racetams already mentioned. Never got anything out of ginkgo.

[littleG]

You can have your iPhone read to you by using accessibility functions.

[Fortis]

Hey NTP,

I can't find much info on holotropic devices, but I do keep seeing books on Holotropic breathing. Are these similar concepts?

So when you say you can read backwards to you mean you can read and hear words backwards? So if You read "read a book" backwards do you mean you'd read it as "koob a dear" or do you mean you'd read it as "book a read?"

As far as memory enhancement goes: I find that huperzine helps as does extremely silent work environment (no surprise there). I usually kick everyone out of my apartment prior to any serious study time. I also use big noise cancelling headphones so that the only thing I remember is saying words and reading them, no extraneous noise.

Thanks,

Fortis

[NASA Test Pilot]

@Fortis

No it is not holotropic breathing. Holotropic is what my father called it and that is why I described it. It was also reading the sentences backwards. The idea is NOT to sound out the words (even in your head) as that slows you down and limits you to about 375-385 words per minute.

For example, on a page you would finish one line with the speed of the wave (using your finger as a pointer) going from the left ear to the right ear and then read the following line backward with the wave going from your right ear to your left ear (again with your finger) and you would continue this until stopping. As the speed continued to increase across sessions, I would then practice without the device for a session, then return to using the device on yet another session (increasing the speed at which the wave passes between the ears) and so on.

This combined with the memory work (I had a strong memory to begin) was one of the pivotal things in my life as it laid the foundation to make my academic work easy. In graduate school, students are given thousands and thousands of pages to read per week and they want you to skim and prioritize. As a full time military officer, these skills were golden with classes in the evening (and I worked out a lot as well), and I when did not have duties during the day because they sent me to school, I had a lot of extra time to approach women and train full time with the collegiate athletes.

[T.J.]

There is little scientific evidence to support speed reading.

Quote:

"Speed reading training courses have been around for decades, and there has been a recent surge in the number of speed reading technologies that have been introduced to the consumer market," says Elizabeth Schotter, a psychological scientist at the University of California, San Diego and one of the authors of the report. "We wanted to take a close look at the science behind reading to help people make informed decisions about whether to believe the claims put forth by companies promoting speed reading technologies and training courses."

The report, published in Psychological Science in the Public Interest, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, shows that that there are no magic shortcuts when it comes to reading more quickly while still fully understanding what we've read.

"The available scientific evidence demonstrates that there is a trade-off between speed and accuracy -- as readers spend less time on the material, they necessarily will have a poorer understanding of it," explains Schotter.

Reading is a complex dance among various visual and mental processes, and research shows that skilled readers already read quickly, averaging 200 to 400 words per minute. Some speed reading technologies claim to offer an additional boost by eliminating the need to make eye movements by presenting words rapidly in the center of a computer screen or mobile device, with each new word replacing the previous word. The problem, Schotter and colleagues find, is that eye movements account for no more than 10% of the overall time we spend reading, and eliminating the ability to go back and reread previous words and sentences tends to make overall comprehension worse, not better.

The biggest obstacle, science shows, isn't our vision but rather our ability to recognize words and process how they combine to make meaningful sentences.

"So-called solutions that emphasize speeding up the input without making the language easier to understand will have limited efficacy," says Schotter.

While some may claim prodigious speed reading skills, these claims typically don't hold up when put to the test. Investigations show that these individuals generally already know a lot about the topic or content of what they have supposedly speed-read. Without such knowledge, they often don't remember much of what they've read and aren't able to answer substantive questions about the text.

This doesn't mean that we're necessarily stuck reading at the same speed all the time, however. Research does show that effective skimming -- prioritizing more informative parts of a text while glossing over others -- can be effective when we're only interested in getting the gist of what we're reading, instead of a deeper, more comprehensive understanding.

In fact, data suggest that the most effective "speed readers" are actually effective skimmers who already have considerable familiarity with the topic at hand and are thus able to pick out key points quickly.

The one thing that can help boost overall reading ability, science shows, is practicing reading for comprehension. Greater exposure to writing in all its different forms provides us with a larger and richer vocabulary, as well as the contextual experience that can help us anticipate upcoming words and make inferences regarding the meaning of words or phrases we don't immediately recognize.

Ultimately, there is no one ability or strategy that will enable us to zip through a novel in one sitting or process an inbox full of emails over the course of a lunch break.

"There's no quick fix," says Schotter. "We urge people to maintain a healthy dose of skepticism and ask for supporting scientific evidence when someone proposes a speed reading method that will double or triple their reading speed without sacrificing a complete understanding."

[Travesty]

@NASA - I still think you are a Russian spy.

I found 700 wpm easy to follow on that sprint site.

I will say I have been a coder for 4 years or so now. Need to sift through text on a screen quickly and add it together is needed. I wonder if this increased my reading speed.

If I read fiction though I like to read probably twice as slow as a normal reader. I want to imagine what character voices sound like and build the scene imagery in my head.

This is great for dry factual knowledge. I think if you are dealing with textbooks and grasping concepts I don't know how valuable this is.

This seems great for reading a biography or history text, or a news article. So simple things. Event A happens with Players A, B, C. Outcome D.

Actionable info like investment reports or scientific papers (if you understand all the concepts) or any analysis this would be really valuable to cut down sift time to get the TLDR info.

[Vaun]

Spritz is interesting, but lots of studies have come out in the last few years since its launched saying comprehension plummets when using these devices. I am sure we will see more to come from Spritz as more devices and business uses come about, but I feel it will only be limited to solving user experience issues(reading on a watch, consuming large amounts of regulatory information, etc), rather than expanding or improving knowledge, or replacing books.

Doesn't the word "Intelligence" mean "the ability to acquire and apply knowledge". In that case you could rename this thread "Hacks for Increasing your Intelligence".

[Valentine]

(05-15-2016 03:52 PM)Vaun Wrote:  

Doesn't the word "Intelligence" mean "the ability to acquire and apply knowledge". In that case you could rename this thread "Hacks for Increasing your Intelligence".

Intelligence is highly related, but not the same topic.

For example, verbal fluency is a core component of intelligence but is unrelated to the topic title.

Similarly speed reading is unrelated to intelligence.