Brain Gym and Fizzical Challenges

Brain Gym

Any physical challenges similar to those below (rubbing your tummy while patting your head, etc) help wake you up by stimulating both hemispheres of the brain, but certain bilateral exercises, known as Brain Gym, have additional positive effects (by working on the body’s energy system). The ultimate bilateral brain gym exercise is juggling which helps with speed reading.

During breaks, challenge yourself by trying (and perfecting) one or more of the following Brain Gym fun exercises

Breaks are a very important part of speed reading and any learning. They help to relax, refocus and boost dopamine levels which is important for motivation and focus. Resting and exercising your eyes is also important for optimum speed reading.

Moving alphabet

Read the alphabet aloud as written on the chart. As you do so, raise your Right hand if the letter below is R, raise your Left hand if the letter below is L, and raise both hands Together if the letter below is T.

It’s harder than it looks, but if you can do it easily, then read the alphabet backwards – or read up and down the columns – or additionally lift your opposite knee (ie R = raise your right hand and left knee, L = raise your left hand and right knee, T = raise both hands and both legs/jump).

Brain Gym: moving alphabet

Brain Gym: moving alphabet

Cross crawl

Lift your left leg and touch your left knee with your right hand (arm crosses the body). Then lift your right leg and touch your right knee with your left hand. Keep going, touching alternate knees – as slowly as possible. (A more energetic variation is to touch elbows to the opposite knee.)

Cook’s hook ups

Put both hands out in front of you, backs of your hands together, thumbs facing down. Place one hand over the other so palms are facing, then interlace your fingers. Swivel your interlocked hands together towards you, and bring them up under your chin. Cross one leg over the other. Relax shoulders, tummy and face. Put the tip of your tongue on the roof of your mouth and take several deep breaths. This is a particularly calming and focusing exercise to end with before going back to work.

Juggling

Reseach suggests that juggling is one of the best (fun) ways to boost your brain power and learning. Learn more about the power of juggling and what it can do for your brain and learning

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Summary of The Runaway Species: How Human Creativity Remakes the World Kindle Edition by David Eagleman, Anthony Brandt

How the mind makes new ideas: Bending, breaking, blending

The Runaway Species: How Human Creativity Remakes the World Kindle Edition by David Eagleman, Anthony Brandt

The Runaway Species: How Human Creativity Remakes the World Kindle Edition
by David Eagleman, Anthony Brandt

David Eagleman: So what humans do that is special is we absorb all of these ideas, all these inputs, and we smoosh them up in various ways and come up with new things.

And so there are essentially three main ways that the brain does this, and we’ve summarized this as bending, breaking and blending.

So let’s start with bending. So bending is where you take something and you change it, you make it smaller, you make it bigger, you change something about it. When you look at statues across human culture you find that people bend the human form any which way, making it taller or skinnier or emphasizing certain portions over the other. They do that with all animal paintings and sculptures and so on.

You can bend lots of aspects of things. So the artist JR made a statue of the high jumper Mohammad Idris for the Olympics and he put that super huge and had him jumping over a building. And you have other sculptures that make extremely tiny little figurines.

And one of the arguments we make is that the exact same thing that’s happening in art, the same cognitive processes are happening in the sciences also.

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Summary of  THE MASTER ALGORITHM – How the Quest for the Ultimate Learning Machine Will Remake Our World by Pedro Domingos

THE MASTER ALGORITHM – How the Quest for the Ultimate Learning Machine Will Remake Our World by Pedro Domingos

THE MASTER ALGORITHM – How the Quest for the Ultimate Learning Machine Will Remake Our World by Pedro Domingos

Micro-summary: the ultimate master algorithm is an algorithm (or machine learning algorithm) that can learn anything (in minutes or seconds) given enough data, especially non-linear models or phenomena. 

Everyone a coder
Currently, machine learning algorithms do two things: one, where they improve the existing processes in order to do them more accurately and faster, and two, where machine learning can do entirely new things that have never been done before. For example, if you give a computer enough data about a particular health condition, it will learn in less than a minute how to diagnose a patient for that condition much better than any top doctor can do. In the future, machine learning algorithms will be embedded in everything from day one, in the same way as your subconscious mind with its neural network, which works in a similar way and learns all the time. At the moment, in order to program a computer, you need to know how to code or be a computer scientist. In the near future, anyone will be able to program a computer without any knowledge of coding because machine learning is learning the natural language and will enable you to understand your English or whatever language you choose to speak. You’ll just need to explain in plain English what you want your computer to do.

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Build your neuroplasticity with juggling and boost your speed reading

Build your neuroplasticity with juggling and boost your speed reading

Juggling builds neuroplasticity

A study on structural neuroplasticity suggests that adults who juggled three balls for three months (15-30min/day) increased gray matter (GM) in the mid-temporal area and left posterior intraparietal sulcus. 3 months of little or no juggling and the grey matter decreased and approached baseline values (Cassandra Sampaio-Baptista, et al, 2014; download the pdf of the paper). Juggling is a workout for your brain – a kind of brain gym.

Juggling helps with reading

Learning to track objects with your eyes improves your reading and ultimately speed reading. Juggling improves hand-eye coordination (so it’s useful for super-duper reading), peripheral vision (for the optimum state for speed reading) and a host of other motor skills and reflexes (Rosenberger, 2011).

Juggling is a bilateral exercise: brain gym

Juggling is a bilateral exercise like brain gym exercises which are good for waking up the brain, focusing and dopamine stimulation which is responsible for motivation.

Juggling builds multiple intelligences and self-esteem

Juggling exercises multiple intelligences and uses both sides of the brain. While you’re learning to juggle, you’re using the left side of the brain. When you’re juggling you’re using the right side and after a while, both sides of the brain are active. Kid’s self-esteem gets a boost from learning a new skill while they’re having fun.

It is also a good physical exercise – which this video suggests.

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Summary of Success and Luck: Good Fortune and the Myth of Meritocracy by Robert H Frank

Success and Luck: Good Fortune and the Myth of Meritocracy by Robert H Frank can be summarised that talent, hard work and skills are important but luck plays a huge role too. Interesting insights are that people who feel they’re lucky or have good fortune are more generous in charitable donations and being grateful makes people healthier, happier and more generous again. So start counting your blessings and good fortune. Can you think of a few examples of your good fortune or luck that you’ve experienced over the course of your life? Do it now and notice how you’ll feel.

Watch Robert H Frank summarising his book Success and Luck: Good Fortune and the Myth of Meritocracy

Success and Luck: Good Fortune and the Myth of Meritocracy by Robert H Frank

Also read: Summary of The Luck Factor by Dr Richard Wiseman and how to boost your luck with practical and scientific principles behind the luck factor

‘I increasingly suspect that the key to success isn’t talent, luck, nepotism or even showing up. It’s getting enough sleep.” Simon Kuper, FT

Top Books on Branding, Naming, Design, Logo Design, Marketing, Creativity, Presentation skills and Entrepreneurship

Top books on branding, naming, design, logo design, marketing, creativity, presentation skills and entrepreneurship
(my absolute favourites in bold)

Branding

Designing Brand Identity: An Essential Guide for the Whole Branding Team by Alina Wheeleer
Good and practical approaches to branding as well as all key branding concepts. The one to start with, and probably the best intro book into branding.

Brand Hijack: Marketing without Marketing by Alex Wipperfurth 
Practical and less traditional – where branding is/was going.

Kellogg on Branding: The Marketing Faculty of the Kellogg School of Management by Philip Kotler 
More academic but still practical with good summaries of different well-tested branding processes – this one I would buy later if you still need more info on branding.

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Why deep sleep is the most important aspect for learning, memory, speed reading and success

Why deep sleep is the most important aspect for learning, memory, speed reading and success.

We spend a lot of time in our bedrooms or sleeping
On average, a person sleeps for about 8 hours a day, which means that one sleeps for one-third of one’s life. 

Sleep is recognised as the most important aspect of physical, emotional, mental and spiritual health
There are tons of research on the importance of sleep for our health, wellness, relationships, learning and memory, as well as performance and success at work.

How a nap can boost your brain power
‘I’ll sleep on it’, common sense suggests, and now researchers discovered that this old adage really works. In a study at the University of Bristol, 16 participants were presented with a word recognition test on a computer screen. A word was shown at the subliminal level, beneath consciousness awareness for the human mind to register – just 50 milliseconds, followed by a second word that flashed up very quickly. Some groups of words were associated. The control group then had a 90-minute nap before they all repeated the assignment. The researchers used EEG equipment to measure the changes in participants’ brain activity throughout the study and found that the task was processed much more quickly in participants who had a nap. Significant results were found in the instances where the words were associated. The study suggests that information taken in during wakefulness is processed in some deeper, qualitative way during sleep. Researcher Dr Liz Coulthard says that the findings showed our minds are capable of working on cues presented ‘beneath our conscious awareness’.

Watch these eight videos below about the importance of sleep for health, learning, memory, speed reading, decision-making and success.

The benefits of deep sleep and how to get more of it
There’s nothing quite like a good night’s sleep. What if technology could help us get more out of it? Dan Gartenberg is working on tech that stimulates deep sleep, the most regenerative stage which (among other wonderful things) might help us consolidate our memories and form our personalities. Find out more about how playing sounds that mirror brain waves during this stage might lead to deeper sleep — and its potential benefits on our health, memory and ability to learn.

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Sleep – The Ultimate Key to Optimum Performance, Learning, Memory, Health and more… Summary of Why We Sleep, The New Science of Sleep and Dreams by Matthew Walker

Why We Sleep, The New Science of Sleep and Dreams by Matthew Walker Summary

orWhy We Sleep, The New Science of Sleep and Dreams by Matthew Walker

Sleep is the best medicine
It looks like sleep is the panacea that can solve most of your problems. Health-wise, sleep will protect you from flu and infections, heart disease, mental health problems, dementia, and accidents among other things as well as help you lose weight and make you look younger (beauty sleep). Sleep will boost your overall performance and make you more productive, creative and socially adept. When learning is concerned, sleep will boost your memory. One of the key functions of sleep is to process and consolidate your memory.

“Routinely sleeping less than six or seven hours a night demolishes your immune system, more than doubling your risk of cancer.”

Interestingly enough, the 108th Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine for 2017, has been awarded to a trio of American scientists, Jeffrey C Hall, Michael Rosbash and Michael W Young, for their discoveries on the molecular mechanisms controlling circadian rhythms – in other words, the 24-hour body biological clock, that helps to regulate sleep patterns, feeding behaviour, hormone release and blood pressure. Their discoveries have explained, “how plants, animals and humans adapt their biological rhythm so that it is synchronised with the Earth’s revolutions.”

“Sleep is the single most effective thing we can do to reset our brain and body health each day. Sleep is the best medicine.” Professor Matthew Walker

 

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Top 100+ Books on Prosperity and Wealth Creation

Prosperity booklist 

Prosperity, money and wealth creation or financial freedom – mean different things to different people. Whatever it means to you and if you want to have more of it, there is plenty of advice from people who have mastered the art of wealth creation. And what’s the best, easiest and cheapest way to learn how to do it – speed read their books or at least read the summaries of the books which counts as speed reading (we’ve summarised some of them for you). In an interview with Bill Gates, he was asked, “If you could have one superpower what would it be?” He responded with, “The ability to read super fast.”

Getting the information on how to become financially free or independent is the first step. Applying the principles of wealth creation is another. There are a few important aspects that people who have mastered the art of prosperity have in common: values (top prosperity tip: make sure that money/prosperity/wealth is one of your top values in life), beliefs, mindsets, thinking about money and prosperity as well as actual skills of investing, creating and managing wealth. And there is luck which most wealthy people value as well. You need a variety of books to cover these essential aspects to give you a solid foundation for your prosperity and financial freedom. Best of luck 🙂

Our personal choice for the top 8 books on prosperity, wealth creation and financial freedom

  1. Richard Wiseman The Luck Factor: The Scientific Study of the Lucky Mind (2004) – Read the summary
  2. 50 Prosperity Classics (summarised below)
  3. Anthony Robbins Unshakeable: Your Guide to Financial Freedom
  4. Paul McKenna I can make you rich (2007)
  5. Deepak Chopra Creating Affluence (1998)
  6. Shakti Gawain Creating True Prosperity (1997)
  7. Sanaya Roman and Duane Packer Creating Money: Attracting Abundance (2008)
  8. Anthony Robbins book Money: Master the Game – 7 Simple Steps to Financial Freedom (2014) – Read the summary

Top speed reading tip for prosperity
Download (prime yourself with) the top books on prosperity into your (unconscious/non-conscious) mind with intention of getting results – it’s called the direct/implicit learning technique.

From: 50 Prosperity Classics by Tom Butler-Bowdon

ATTRACT IT
Master the inner game/mindset of wealth and abundance with books such as

James Allen The Path of Prosperity (1905) In short: You will only become truly prosperous when you have disciplined your mind. Paradoxically, wealth (and happiness) comes most easily to those who forget themselves in their service to others.
Genevieve Behrend Your Invisible Power (1921)
Rhonda Byrne The Secret (2006)
T. Harv Eker Secrets of the Millionaire Mind (2005)
Charles Fillmore Prosperity (1936)
Esther Hicks & Jerry Hicks Ask and It Is Given (2004)
Napoleon Hill The Master-Key to Riches (1965)
Catherine Ponder Open Your Mind to Prosperity (1971)
John Randolph Price The Abundance Book (1987)
Sanaya Roman & Duane Packer Creating Money (1988) 
In short: If you know the universe to be an abundant place, you won’t fear not having the resources to pursue your purpose or mission in life.
Marsha Sinetar Do What You Love, the Money Will Follow (1987)
Max Weber The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (1904–5)

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Lighting for reading

Lighting is important for reading. And it can also be fun.

The late Zaha Hadid who was crowed as the Queen of Curves for her amazing, curvilinear designs, designed these simple and yet powerful book-shaped lamps for a shopping mall in Seoul. I want one.

Zaha Hadid - books lamps Seoul 2

Zaha Hadid – reading lamps Seoul

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SUMMARY of Teach Like Finland: 33 Simple Strategies for Joyful Classrooms by Timothy D. Walker

SUMMARY of Teach Like Finland: 33 Simple Strategies for Joyful Classrooms by Timothy D. Walker

Some books are so well written and clear that you can get the gist from just the TOC (table of content). If you need to know more – why  Finland’s school children are some of the smartest in the world? – get the book.

Finland is one of the happiest countries in the world with excellent state education and free universities. Also, Finland has been voted the third most innovative country in the world with a lifestyle that breeds creativity and innovation.

For starters: no homework, no exams. no shoes in class.

1 Well-being
Schedule brain breaks (Let kids disconnect from their work)
Learn on the move (Students should stand up or walk round in class)
Recharge after school (Keep homework to a minimum)
Simplify the space
Breathe fresh air (Open windows, let in natural light)
Get into the wild (Connect with nature, go outside)
Keep the peace

+ Keep speed reading

The top collections of summaries

Research suggests that reading summaries is a valid way of getting quality information and people who read summaries not only get more out of books but also remember the information for longer.

The best collection of summaries

Passing Time in the Loo volume 1, 2, 3 – each volume contains 150 summaries  which is an amazing deal for £5.87 or FREE on Amazon Kindle Prime

Book Summaries: Passing Time in the Loo - 150 summaries of classincs

Book Summaries: Passing Time in the Loo – 150 summaries of classincs

 

Passing Time in the Loo Vol 1

contains summaries of more than 200 books, including

Novels and plays, old and new, eg A Scarlet Letter (Nathaniel Hawthorne), A Farewell to the Arms (Ernest Hemingway), For Whom the Bell Tolls (Ernest Hemingway), Anna Karenina (Leo Tolstoy), Of Mice and Men (John Steinbeck), The Faerie Queene (Edmund Spenser), Beowulf, Prometheus Bound (Aeschylus), Tales of King Arthur (Thomas Mallory), El Cid, A Tale of Two Cities (Charles Dickens), The Lady of the Lake (Sir Walter Scott), The Good Earth (Pearl S. Buck), The Travels of Marco Polo, The Last of the Mohicans (James Fenimore Cooper), The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (Samuel Taylor Coleridge), Moby Dick (Herman Melville), The Old Man and the Sea (Ernest Hemingway), Don Quixote de la Mancha (Miguel de Cervantes), Peer Gynt (Henrik Ibsen), Great Expectations (Charles Dickens), Silas Marner (George Eliot), Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen), Far from the Madding Crowd (Thomas Hardy), Little Women (Louisa May Alcott), Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte), The Maltese Falcon (Dashiell Hammett), Call of the Wild (Jack London), The Great Gatsby (F. Scott Fitzgerald), King Solomon’s Mines (Sir Henry Rider Haggard), Robinson Crusoe (Daniel Defoe), The Picture of Dorian Gray (Oscar Wilde), Frankenstein (Mary Shelly), The Time Machine (H.G.Wells), The Turn of the Screw (Henry James), The Fall of the House of Usher (Edgar Allan Poe), The Grapes of Wrath (John Steinbeck), To Kill a Mockingbird (Nelle Harper Lee), Uncle Tom’s Cabin (Harriett Beecher Stowe), Candide (Voltaire), A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court (Mark Twain), 1984 (George Orwell), I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (Maya Angelou), One Hundred Years of Solitude (Gabriel Garcia Marquez), Lord of the Flies (William Golding), Henderson the Rain King (Saul Bellow), Invisible Man (Ralph Ellison), The Joy Luck Club (Amy Tan), The Shell Seekers (Rosamunde Pilcher), The Sound of Waves (Yukio Mishima), Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant (Anne Taylor), The Courtship of Miles Standish (Henry Wadsworth Longfellow), The Importance of Being Earnest (Oscar Wilde), Our Town (Thornton Wilder), Death of a Salesman (Arthur Miller) … and plays by William Shakespeare, including Hamlet, King Lear, Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth, Othello, The Taming of the Shrew, The Tempest, As You Like It, The Merchant of Venice, Much Ado About Nothing … and many more

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Das Kapital by Karl Marx (1818-1883) – Summary

Das Kapital by Karl Marx (1818-1883) – Summary 

Summary of Das Kapital by Karl Marx

Summary of Das Kapital by Karl Marx

2017 and Das Kapital is in vogue again, as modern Marxists try to keep the revolution permanent. Since the financial crash, people’s thinking has changed and they are trying to understand if the capitalist system is going to destroy itself. Former Greek financial minister Yanis Yaroufakis, has described himself as an ‘erratic Marxist’ and Jeremy Corbyn described Karl Marx as a ‘great economist’ and even the shadow chancellor John McDonnell suggested that there was ‘a lot to learn’ from Marx’s most famous work, Das Kapital. Read this short summary of this classic to join the conversation…

Summary of Das Kapital by Karl Marx
In the mid-19th century when Karl Marx wrote Das Kapital – an exhaustive work of more than a thousand pages – factory conditions were often intolerable, wages were at best barely adequate, and there were few groups or governments who advocated reform. Therefore, Marx took it upon himself to define “Capitalism,” explain and condemn Capitalist methods, predict the inevitable doom of the system, and issue the rallying cry “Workers of the world, unite!”

When Marx simply describes what he sees, his analyses and criticisms appear most lucid. In contrast, his theories become confusing as he attempts to prove even the vaguest point using mathematics. He felt that these elaborate equations and proofs were necessary because his book does not purport to be merely a moral prescription for society’s ills, but a scientific description of the unavoidable course of history. It is, of course, actually not only a “prescription” but a passionate exhortation.

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Summary of Peak: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise by Anders Ericsson and Robert Pool

Summary of Peak: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise by Anders Ericsson and Robert Pool

Peak: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise by Anders Ericsson and Robert Pool

Peak: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise by Anders Ericsson and Robert Pool

Get the message / summary of the book from popular highlights
One simple way of getting a quick summary of any ebook is to read the popular highlights on Kindle. Read all the popular highlights below and decide for yourself if that’s enough to get the message of the book and navigate yourself to a greater expertise. Crowd wisdom rocks.

10,000-hour rule
10,000-hour rule was the original Ericsson’s research on expert violinists which was popularised by Malcolm Gladwell in his book Outliers. In short, if you practice for 10,000 hours (about 3 hours a day for 10 years), you will become a world leading expert.

Three types of practice: naive, purposeful, deliberate
According to Ericsson there are three types of practice: naive (generic, with mindless repetition), purposeful ( well-defined, with specific goals) and deliberate (pushes you out of your comfort zone and involves feedback and focus). The key to expertise is deliberate practice: “Deliberate practice is purposeful practice that knows where it is going and how to get there.”

Popular highlights from Peak: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise by Anders Ericsson and Robert Pool
“Purposeful practice requires getting out of one’s comfort zone. This is perhaps the most important part of purposeful practice.” 559 popular highlights (the number of popular highlights at the time of writing this blog summary)

“The right sort of practice carried out over a sufficient period of time leads to improvement. Nothing else.” 1616 popular highlights

“Purposeful practice is all about putting a bunch of baby steps together to reach a longer-term goal.” 1864 popular highlights

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Download books into your non-conscious mind – Speed Reading Technique 28

Speed reading technique 28  – Download books into your non-conscious mind

Download or photoreading books

Download or photoread books

SUMMARY
Download the book into your non-conscious mind by looking quickly at each double page without making any conscious effort to see or understand the text. Trust that the information has gone into your non-conscious mind. Use the other conscious spd rdng techniques as before and gradually notice how much more information you know as the downloaded knowledge comes to conscious awareness. 

“We have 300 million pattern recognisers in the neocortex.” Ray Kurzweil, Futurist

This is the easiest technique in the book to do – and possibly the hardest to understand. It is different from all the other techniques and strategies in that you rely on your non-conscious mind. You do not consciously have to ‘read’ anything.

The purpose of downloading is to expose your non-conscious mind to all the information in the book so that it can go directly into your long-term memory. It ‘primes’ your brain with the information in the text.

‘Priming’ refers to the passive, subtle, and unobtrusive activation of relevant mental representations by external, environmental stimuli. Priming research has shown that the mere, passive perception of environmental events, inputs and cues directly trigger higher mental processes in the absence of any involvement by conscious, intentional processes.

Over 200 studies have shown such priming effects on impression formation as well as on social behaviour. An extraordinarily wide range of behaviours can be affected by subtle environmental stimuli, such as walking  speed, speech volume, academic performance, economic decisions.”  John Bargh, Professor of Psychology and Cognitive Science, Yale University

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Rapid reading: speed reading technique 24. Rapid reading from cover to cover.

Rapid reading: speed reading technique 14. Rapid reading from cover to cover.

Summary
Look quickly (2-10 seconds per page) at every page, searching for ‘hot spots’ of key information. Do this after a work session to collect any final bits of information.

Reading from cover to cover means going quickly through the book sequentially looking at every page for key information. This is what most people think speed reading is (whereas it is just as valid to go backwards and forwards through the book or only go to specific sections to look for relevant information.)

HOW TO rapid read

Look quickly through the book, looking consciously at every page (2-10 seconds per page). Use the speed-reading patterns (speed reading technique 15) to look for hot spots (speed reading technique11) of key information. Any time you find key information you can slow down and read around it (dip) until you have grasped the point, and then resume rapid reading.

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Post-truth: the word of the year 2016

‘Post-truth’ is the word of the year 2016

Oxford Dictionaries states that post-truth might have been first used in 1992, but the frequency of its usage increased by 2,000% in 2016 compared with last year!

The definition as an adjective relates to circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than emotional appeals.

Other shortlisted words included: Adulting, Alt-right, Brexiteer, Chatbot,Coulrophobia, Glass cliff, Hygge, Latinx and Woke.

Read more about the word of the year 2016: post-truth

The Divided Brain – Asymmetry of the Brain and Human Meaning & Why Are We so Unhappy? – by Dr Iain McGilchrist

The Divided Brain – Asymmetry of the Brain and Human Meaning & Why Are We so Unhappy? – by Dr Iain McGilchrist, the author of The Master and His Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World and The Divided Brain and the Search for Meaning – Why Are We so Unhappy? (only £0.99 – but is very short too and it kind of answers the question: why are we so unhappy? Spoiler: because we use our left brain too much – kind of…)

Left brain vs right brain in speed reading
McGilchrist findings and all the research he sites confirm what we’ve been advocating for the last 18 years. When using speed reading, you need to get the big picture, overview and context first and then look at the details (in a similar way as you’d read a newspaper – that’s why newspapers are written like that, otherwise nobody would read them if what you get is only details). The key speed reading techniques for overview are the overview, downloading, rapid reading and summaries. Top speed reading techniques for getting details are the purpose, underlining and search.

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Toby L’Estrange speed reading review of Harry Potter the Cursed Child

Toby L’Estrange speed reading review of Harry Potter the Cursed Child

10-year-old speed-reader Toby L’Estrange’s review of The Cursed Child

Speed reader Toby L’Estrange

Speed reader Toby L’Estrange

“Phew. Just finished speed reading the new Harry Potter book. My score on a scale of 1-10? I think it’s a 6. My favourite is still Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire – it had lots of fun challenges and you got the best glimpse of Hogwarts).This one’s a bit different from all the others.

Firstly it’s the script for a play, so it’s quite different from reading a novel. The whole story is told through what the characters say to each other – plus some stage directions. But once you get over that, you read it just the same as the others – except the play is in two parts, so the book is too.

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How to speed read Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (or anything else)

How to speed read Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (or anything else)

How to speed read Harry Potter and the Cursed ChildToby L’Estrange is the 10-year-old Spd Rdr in the newspapers who was asked by Amazon to read the new Harry Potter book on their new Kindle device. Toby was taught speed reading by his Grandma – Susan Norman – one of the authors of Spd Rdng: The Speed Reading Bible. 

WATCH TOBY L’Estrange talking about speed reading the new Harry Potter and the Cursed Child below

Toby will download ‘Harry Potter and the Cursed Child’ as soon as possible after midnight very first thing on Sunday 31 July (Harry Potter’s birthday!) and as soon as he’s read it will put up a review on Amazon. At 1000 words per minute it should take him about two hours. 

You too can learn how to speed read Harry Potter…

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Summary of Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare

Summary Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare (1564-1616)
(from Passing Time in the Loo: Volume 1 – Summaries of All-Time Great Books)

Rome & JulietType of work Romantic tragedy
Setting Verona, Italy; 15th century
Principal characters
Romeo, son of the house of Montague
Juliet, daughter of the Capulet household
Benvolio, Romeo’s cousin
Mercutio, Romeo’s friend
Tybalt, Juliet’s cousin
Lady Montague, the clan’s matriarch
Lady Capulet, Juliet’s mother
Juliet’s ribald nurse
Friar Lawrence, a Franciscan Monk


Story overview
For a very long time the Capulets and the Montagues had been feuding. Harsh words often led to violence between the two houses, who were sworn as deadly enemies. Prince Escalus of Verona happened upon one such bloody brawl and angrily pronounced, “If ever you disturb our streets again, your lives shall pay the forfeit of the peace.”

Shortly after this, Romeo and his cousin Benvolio met on the street, and Romeo sadly confessed his unrequited love for an aloof and indifferent young woman. “[Give] liberty unto thine eyes; Examine other beauties,” was Benvolio’s curative. But Romeo was unmoved: “Thou canst not teach me to forget.”

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How to speed read the Chilcot report

How to speed read the Chilcot report

The full Chilcot report consists of 12 volumes and contains 2.6 million words. Thank God, a 150-page (Chilcote report 2016) executive summary is being published as well and that’s where I would start to get an overview of the whole document.
Once I’ve got the big picture and overview of the whole document and how it’s structured (hopefully it’s well laid out with good TOC/table of content and index, etc) I would ask myself some basic question such as: What specifically do I want to know? and What will I do with this information?

2.6m words

It’s about 4.5 times bigger than War and Peace (587,00 words) and about three times bigger than the Bible (775,00 words) and the complete works of Shakespeare (885,000 words).

Speed reading of the Chilcot Report 2016

Speed reading of the Chilcot Report 2016

Speed reading is information extraction so there is no point of reading the Chilcot report, from cover to cover – just for the sake of it. It would take a long, long time. Just think, if an average, educated person reads about 240wpm (word per minute) – it would take about 180 hours to read it from cover to cover (that is about seven full 24-hour days of non-stop traditional reading).

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Set High Expectations and Push yourself Beyond your Comfort Zone – Speed Reading Technique #34

Set High Expectations and Push yourself Beyond your Comfort Zone – Speed Reading Technique #34

Summary
Expectations (what you want) usually exceed your actual results – which tends to lead people to reduce their expectations. But then results go down again – until you’re back to old, slow traditional reading habits. Increase your expectations, set tighter time limits, strive for more, read faster – and see your results improve.

A woman went up to Gary Player, the golfer, after he’d just played a particularly difficult shot very successfully. “You were lucky there,” she said. Gary Player looked at her thoughtfully and replied, “You know, it’s a funny thing. I find that the more I practise, the luckier I get.”

"If you never push yourself beyond your comfort zone, you will never improve."

“If you never push yourself beyond your comfort zone, you will never improve.”

As you put the techniques in this book into practice, make sure you raise your expectations about what you can achieve in a limited amount of time. If you have already experienced how much you can achieve in a 20-minute session (speed reading technique >18) working with a book or in a 75-minute syntopic processing session (speed reading technique >22) working with several books, you will also have noticed how much more you achieve in the last third of the time compared to the first two-thirds.

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Summary of Does your Family Make You Smarter?: Nature, Nurture, and Human Autonomy by James R. Flynn

Summary of Does your Family Make You Smarter?: Nature, Nurture, and Human Autonomy by James R. Flynn 

Summary of Does your Family Make You Smarter?by James Flynn

Summary of Does your Family Make You Smarter?by James Flynn

James R Flynn in his book ‘Does your Family Make You Smarter?: Nature, Nurture, and Human Autonomy’ states that “Intelligence has always been thought to be static. However, the new evidence shows that this is wrong. The brain seems to be rather like a muscle – the more you use it, the stronger it gets. That means you can upgrade your own intelligence all through life.” And your environment, especially your family plays a big part in it. This summarises the whole premise of the book, ie you can improve yourself and your IQ, and the surrounding environment has a significant effect on your intelligence.

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Speed Reading Technique 10 – Take your awareness to your concentration point

Speed Reading Technique 10 – Take your awareness to your concentration point

SUMMARY: Focus on a point about 15 cms above and slightly behind the top of your head (your concentration point) – take a deep breath in and relax your eyes as you breathe out. Then start reading.

Many people can increase their reading speed simply by taking their attention to the concentration point about 15 cms above and slightly behind the top of the head. Many notice a different quality to their reading, saying the text is ‘clearer’ and ‘easier to understand’. Their ability to concentrate is also enhanced.

TEST YOURSELF …
… before and after doing this technique to see the difference it makes to you – see QUICK TEST

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Pbook Comeback – Paper books are making a comeback

Pbook Comeback – Paper books are making a comeback
For the first time since the advent of ebooks, we’re beginning to see the comeback of ‘pbooks’ (as published/paper books are coming to be known in the industry).  The CEO of Waterstones admitted that the chain came within hours of collapse and that their 11th hour turnaround was as a result of a renewed focus on the retail experience, rather than just selling books. In addition local managers throughout the country have been released from following a ‘company line’ and given autonomy to buy stock relevant to their local market and display it as they see fit.
The ebook revolution has also forced publishers to completely rethink their products and there is now much greater emphasis on design and publishing books that you want to hold and enjoy, so that they genuinely compete with ‘soulless’ ebooks.
Check out the full report by accessing ‘What Britain Buys’ with Mary Portas, 9pm Monday 9 May, Channel 4

Summaries of Shakespeare’s works

Passing Time in the Loo: Shakespeare - Summaries of Shakespeare's Greatest Sonnets and Plays (Comedies, Tragedies, Histories) (Passing Time in the Loo: ... Glimpse Of His World And Greatest Plays)

Passing Time in the Loo: Shakespeare – Summaries of Shakespeare’s Greatest Sonnets and Plays (Comedies, Tragedies, Histories) (Passing Time in the Loo: … Glimpse Of His World And Greatest Plays)

“Brevity is the soul of wit.” said William Shakespeare himself. So read summaries of all his works in this compact volume:

Passing Time in the Loo: Shakespeare – Summaries of Shakespeare’s Greatest Sonnets and Plays (Comedies, Tragedies, Histories) (Passing Time in the Loo: … Glimpse Of His World And Greatest Plays)

Read Summary of Macbeth by William Shakespeare

Summary of Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare

Spd Rdng = State + Purpose + Download + pReview + Detail + Notes + Gist

Spd Rdng = State + Purpose + Download + pReview + Detail + Notes + Gist

STATE

• Get in a good state for reading. Take a deep breath. Smile and open your peripheral vision – so you can take in more information at one time
• 
Change your mindset from reading to information gathering. Don’t worry about how many books you’ve read (you can do the 5-minute preview) – just look for information you need now (eg to prepare for a lecture or seminar, or to write an essay).
• Speed up your brain and eyes. Sit back from the text and look through it much faster than you can consciously comprehend – follow your finger with your eyes. After a few pages when you begin to see words and phrases, you are ready to start reading ‘at your best comprehension speed’. 

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Rhizomapping, Rhizomaps, Rhizomatic Learning, Mindmapping – New ways to take and make notes and learn more effectively with mindmapping and rhizomapping – Speed reading tip 17: Take notes with mindmaps and rhizomaps

Rhizomapping, Rhizomaps, Rhizomatic Learning – New ways to take and make notes and learn more effectively with mindmapping and rhizomapping – Speed reading tip 17:  Take notes with mindmaps and rhizomaps

Speed reading technique 17:  Take notes with mindmaps and rhizomaps

Summary Taking notes is the first step to fixing information in your memory. Mindmaps and rhizomaps are more memorable and lead to greater creativity than linear notes. If you’re away from your desk, then write notes (on post-its) in your book.

A tried and tested way of helping you remember what you read is to take notes. It engages your mind which makes it easier to take in information – you have to think critically to decide which notes to write. Noting which ideas are important to you helps fix them in your brain – and therefore helps you remember them. Also the physical act of writing itself helps form memories, since it brings into play additional parts of the brain and helps embody the information.

Difference between Mindmaps & Rhizomaps

Difference between Mindmaps & Rhizomaps

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Get in a good state for reading and learning – Speed Reading Technique #14  

Get in a good state for reading and learning – Speed Reading Technique #14  

Micro-summary: Having a relaxed, alert, questioning, purposeful mind is the ideal state for reading if you want to understand and remember information. Many of the other spd rdng techniques are also designed to get your mind and body in an optimal state for reading.

Get into a good state for reading

Get into a good state for reading and get engaged in it

The optimal state for understanding and taking in information is to be alert, relaxed, positive, purposeful and questioning and many of the techniques in our 200-page speed reading book are about getting into a good state for reading: Continue reading

War and Peace – Book & Plot Summary – Read in 5 minutes

If you’re watching BBC One drama War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy and want to get a quick overview or summary of the plot (to enjoy it more as research suggests), here it is 587,287 words of the book summarised in just 1,945 words (which is 0.33% of the total book which means you can read this summary in about 5-10 minutes as opposed to an average of 32 hours for the whole book):

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WAR AND PEACE – SUMMARY (from Passing Time in the Loo COMPACT CLASSICS – SUMMARIES OF ALL-TIME GREAT BOOKS)
by Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910)

Type of work Epic and romantic Russian novel
Setting Russia; the Napoleonic Era
Principal characters
Prince Andrey Bolkonsky, a cynical, intellectual soldier-prince
Pierre Bezuhov, a sensitive nobleman and seeker of truth
Natasha Rostov, Pierre’s beautiful and well-to-do lover
Nikolay Rostov, a soldier, Natasha’s older brother
Sonya, a relative of the Rostovs who falls in love with Nikolay
Anatole Kuragin, a womanizing, high-ranking officer

Commentary
Tolstoy’s purpose in writing his 1600-page War and Peace was to present a historical account of the French invasion of Russia and also to provide himself a forum for his own intellectual and spiritual insights and theories. He accomplishes this through the characters’ searches for identity as well as in the volume’s two extensive epilogues. 

Tolstoy fought in the Crimean War, adding to the realism of his accounts of the Napoleonic struggle. Soon after, he experienced a religious conversion, gave up all his material wealth, and lived out his remaining days in the simple life of a peasant.

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The Future of the Professions: How Technology Will Transform the Work of Human Experts by Richard Susskind and Daniel Susskind – Summary of the book

The Future of the Professions: How Technology Will Transform the Work of Human Experts by Richard Susskind and Daniel Susskind – Summary of the book in video format

If speed reading there are many ways to get the information in – usually from books but videos and audio presentations are valid ways of getting useful information (TED is a good example). If you don’t want to read the book (Kindle suggests that most non-speed readers will take 7 hours and 14 minutes to read this 362-page book) The Future of the Professions: How Technology Will Transform the Work of Human Experts by Richard Susskind and Daniel Susskind watch this presentation (1 hour and 28 minutes – so you’re saving almost 6 hours) for Oxford Martin School and the University of Oxford where they explain the key concepts behind their book.
One-line summary: whatever your profession is – it may not be safe – it can be automated, done by an algorithm or computers much better in the near future. Read about How computers are writing books, articles and PhDs

Get the overview before the details (with timelines) – Speed Reading Technique number 25

Get the overview before the details – with timelines – Speed Reading Technique number 25

Timeline A Visual History of Our WorldWhen learning a new subject, make sure you understand the overview, the big picture, before you look at the details. Since most books are written sequentially (ie detail following detail), this usually means starting by previewing and looking at chapter and section headings and first and last chapters for a general understanding. Syntopic processing is excellent for getting an overview of a new subject.

This technique is the key to getting a good purpose (spd rdng tech 4) and can make the difference between success and failure when putting other techniques into practice. When you are learning something new, the brain learns most easily if it starts by getting an overall picture of what the subject is about before you go into detail.

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Talk about what you read – to remember – Spd Rdng Technique number 19

Talk about what you read – to remember – Spd Rdng Technique number 19

Summary: Talking about what you read helps crystallise your understandings in your mind – which is the first step to remembering. Do it twice:
1) as you read, summarise the information to yourself – it keeps you actively engaged.
2) after reading, tell someone what you’ve read – it helps you understand and remember it better.

Talk to somebody to remember Spd Rdng 19

Talk to somebody to remember

 Although reading is traditionally viewed as a passive activity, it is important to engage with the material if you want to learn and remember things from it. Verbalising is an important part of clarifying, consolidating and retaining information you read.

Research is now backing up what we’ve been teaching for over 14 years
Canadian researchers (Alexis Lafleur and Victor Boucher)suggest that those who talk to themselves or others may have better memories than those who don’t. So if you want to remember something talk to yourself our loud or share it with others. Professor Victor Boucher of the University of Montreal in Quebec states that by increasing the number of aspects to the information (i.e. the effort of talking and moving lips) we make it more memorable. This links to the speed reading technique number 16 (remember by doing something) which states that the more things you do to remember information the more likely you will recall it later. The research paper (The ecology of self-monitoring effects on memory of verbal productions: Does speaking to someone make a difference?) published in the Journal of Consciousness and Cognition states: “The simple fact of articulating without making a sound creates a sensorimotor link that increases our ability to remember, but if it is related to the functionality of speech, we remember even more. The added effect of talking to someone shows that in addition to the sensorimotor aspects related to verbal expression, the brain refers to the multisensory information associated with the communication episode.”

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Summary of The Brand Flip: Why customers now run companies and how to profit from it by Marty Neumeier

Summary of The Brand Flip: Why customers now run companies and how to profit from it by Marty Neumeier

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Branding is evolving. Marty Neumeier’s new book (and previous ones) is a good testament of that. Marty starts with acknowledging (like all good writers) the function of any factual book – that is to communicate ideas in the most profound, efficient and direct way. To read The Brand Flip, using traditional reading methods, will take you about two hours to get the key messages. Unless you start at the end and read the key messages first – which is always a good idea to prime and give your mind a big picture – you can finish it in about 20 minutes. Read those key messages below. I do recommend going through the whole book though. If you’re new to branding, you’ll get a good understanding of how branding evolved over the last century and what branding is and isn’t. There are practical branding tips – for example, how much your logo is worth (a price of a good car – but you need to decide what kind of car). If you think branding doesn’t apply to your life, think again. We are all personal brands now and social media platforms are our market places.

“Any effort to get customers is marketing. Any effort to KEEP THEM is branding.”

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Top 10 Most Read Books in The World

Top 10 most read books in the world

Top 10 most read books in the world

Top 10 Most Read Books in The World are: The Holy Bible, Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-Tung, Harry Potter, The Lord of The Rings, The Alchemist, The Da Vinci Code, The Night Saga, Gone with the Wind, Think and Grow Rich, and The Diary of Anne Frank (according to writer James Chapman who created a list of the most read books in the world based on the number of copies each book sold over the last 50 years.). Read about more top bestsellers

Top 10 Most Read Books in The World
1) The Bible – 3.9 Billion Copies
2) Quotations from the Works of Mao Tse-tung – 820 Million Copies
3) Harry Potter – 400 Million Copies
4) Lord of the Rings – 103 Million Copies
5) The Alchemist – 65 Million Copies
6) The Da Vinci Code – 57 Million Copies
7) Twilight – The Saga – 43 Million Copies
8) Gone With the Wind – 33 Million Copies
9) Think and Grow Rich – 30 Million Copies
10) Diary of Anne Frank – 27 Million Copies

Learn how to speed read so you can read all the books you want to read in half of the time or less.

Spd Rdng – The Speed Reading Bible – Speed Reading Techniques, Tips & Strategies For Ultra Fast Reading
by Susan Norman and Jan Cisek available as an ebook on Amazon Kindle  £6.99

Summary of Spd Rdng – The Speed Reading Bible on Amazon Kindle £1.99

Paperback version of Spd Rdng – The Speed Reading Bible is also available.

Rapid Reading

Rapid Reading

There are numerous terms for reading faster: Rapid Reading, Speed Reading, PhotoReading, skimming, scanning … and our own system, Spd Rdng. In many cases the terms are used indiscriminately, but for those in the know, there are differences. Read on. You’ll learn about them, and also learn how to do some of the techniques. Spd Rdng – which includes both ‘reading more quickly’ and numerous techniques for getting the information from large quantities of text swiftly – incorporates everything that follows.

Speed Reading – the most commonly used term – usually involves techniques for moving the eyes faster in order to gather information more quickly. This might include ‘skimming’ (glancing quickly down the page to get the message and see what it’s about) or ‘scanning’ (looking for specific information).

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Summary of How We Learn: The Surprising Truth about When, Where, and Why It Happens by Benedict Carey

Summary of How We Learn: The Surprising Truth about When, Where, and Why It Happens by Benedict Carey

Summary of How We Learn by Benedict Carey

Summary of How We Learn by Benedict Carey

How We Learn, written by a science journalist Benedict Carey, promises to offer well-tested techniques that help us learn more effectively with less effort. It shatters some preconceptions about the ‘enemies of learning’, such as distraction, interruption, laziness, ignorance, restlessness, forgetfulness and even quitting – all of which can actually work in your favour.

For example, forgetting is good. You would think that remembering everything is a good skill. Not so. “Using memory changes memory— and for the better. Forgetting enables and deepens learning, by filtering out distracting information and by allowing some breakdown that, after reuse, drives retrieval and storage strength higher than they were originally,” states the book. Or, as the American psychologist William James noted, “If we remembered everything, we should on most occasions be as ill off as if we remembered nothing.”

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Speed reading for kids. Is speed reading recommended for 12 year olds or kids?

Speed reading for kids

Speed reading for kids

Speed reading for kids

Speed reading for kids is not only about reading faster. It’s about reading at a speed appropriate to the age of the kids and the material and the purpose, it’s about having that purpose in the first place – in fact it’s mostly about how to think about what you’re reading so that you get from it what you want in a way which allows you to build your understanding, implement your new knowledge and remember what you need to remember.

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