New Year – New You – new opportunities! Even in these times of financial turmoil, with the right tools you can make this your happiest year yet. Start 2010 off right by jump-starting your PROSPERITY (using speed reading techniques)!
We’re offering a special one-day course on achieving greater PROSPERITY in 2010. Application is restricted to people who have previously completed a PhotoReading/Speed Reading course. It gives you a unique opportunity to experience ‘group syntopic processing’ and synergistic collaborative learning from which, in just one day, we can all embody the wisdom from the top books to boost our prosperity and wealth. Take this opportunity to refresh your Spd Rdng skills at the same time!
DATE: 20th February 2010 (Saturday)
TIMES: 9.30am – 5.30pm
VENUE: North London N2
SPECIAL PRICE: £102 (limited places)
Booking and more info on this one of its kind Prosperity course
Category Archives: #1 Blog On Speed Reading & PhotoReading, Summaries of Books, Good Books to Speed-Read, News, Research On Speed Reading
Speed reading blog by Jan Cisek and Susan Norman from London UK. Summaries of books and good books to speed read. News, blogs and latest research on speed reading and photoreading.
Scribble while learning – it will help you to remember
A study published in Applied Cognitive Psychology suggests that scribbling helps our overloaded brains to remember details. In this study people who were listening to a dull phone message while doodling were able to recall 29% more than the non-doodling group.
Winter is good for learning
The days may be cold and short (with lots of snow), but new research states that colder months are good for your brain. A study form Tromso University in Norway found that people’s reaction times, memory and attention span all improve in the winter. Take advantage and catch up on your learning and reading…
Dunce’s corner banned – but how did it all start? What’s the origin of the dunce cap?
Placing pupils in Dunce’s corner could breach a pupil’s human rights, say councils.
This has been used as a punishment in schools since Victorian times. But the original purpose behind ‘Dunces’ was to help pupils to learn better.
In the 13th century, a Franciscan monk and philosopher and theologian of great repute, John Duns Scotus (from the village of Duns in Scotland), developed a ‘duns cap’ to be worn by children who needed something to help them focus. Detractors of Scotus made fun of the cap. Over time the ‘dunce’s cap’ came to be associated with ‘stupid’ children or someone who is slow at learning, and was eventually misunderstood and used to stigmatise and make fun of such children. Most recently, when Ron Davis was working with children diagnosed as dyslexic, he discovered that asking the children to concentrate on this point was enough to allow many of them to start reading (see his book ‘The Gift of Dyslexia’).
How do we know about this point?
First think about this question: What do the following have in common? Dunces, wizards, saints, yogis. All (originally) knew the importance of focusing on a point above and behind the crown of the head in order to enhance their ability to concentrate and be fully aware. This point has been well known for many years. It is depicted as a halo in many pictures of Christian saints, yogis know it as the 8th chakra (which gives access to universal wisdom), and witches and wizards wore a hat which reminded them to focus on this point in order to enhance their magic powers.
In speed reading and photoreading this point of concentration is used to help to get into a better state for reading faster and understanding more. It also helps to open the peripheral vision which helps to see more text on a page.
Learn how to focus on the concentration point to double your reading rate
100,000 words we encounter every day – evolution of reading
The speed of modern life is 2.3 words per second, or about 100,000 words a day. That is the verbiage bombarding the average (American) person in the 12 hours they are typically awake and ‘consuming’ information, according to a new study ‘How Much Information?’ by the University of California, San Diego.
More great insights from the study:
– Americans read less print media as an overall percentage of their information consumption, but they’re actually reading more than ever in quantity.
– From 1980 to 2008, the number of bytes we consume has increased 6 percent each year. Over 28 years, that’s a 350 percent increase.
– Video game consumption saw the biggest leap in time spent. That’s not just video games as you know them, but also games on your phone and on social media sites such as Facebook.
The words that tell the story how we live – top words of the decade
The Global Language Monitor documents, analyzes and tracks trends in language the world over, with a particular emphasis upon Global English. For example, English passed the 1,000,000 threshold on June 10, 2009 at 10:22 am GMT. A US web monitoring firm has declared the millionth English word to be Web 2.0, a term for the latest generation of web products and services. English gains a new word every 98 minutes (or about 14.7 new words a day).
The Top Words of 2009
1. Twitter — The ability to encapsulate human thought in 140 characters
2. Obama — The word stem transforms into scores of new words like ObamaCare
3. H1N1 — The formal (and politically correct) name for Swine Flu
4. Stimulus — The $800 billion aid package meant to help mend the US economy
5. Vampire — Vampires are very much en vogue, now the symbol of unrequited love
6. 2.0 — The 2.0 suffix is attached to the next generation of everything
7. Deficit — Lessons from history are dire warnings here
8. Hadron — Ephemeral particles subject to collision in the Large Hadron Collider
9. Healthcare — The direction of which is the subject of intense debate in the US
10. Transparency — Elusive goal for which many 21st c. governments are striving
The Top Words of the Decade, as part of its annual global survey of the English language.
The Top Words were ‘Global Warming’, 9/11, and Obama followed by Bailout, Evacuee, and Derivative; Google, Surge, Chinglish, and Tsunami followed. “Climate Change” was the top phrase, while “Heroes” was the top name; bin-Laden was No. 2.
0.2 – the time in seconds taken by the brain to identify a written word.
Boutique bookshops – re-found pleasures of buying books
With online ordering, high-street chain discounts, (Borders closing down), recession – the future of traditional bookshops doesn’t look great. But according to The Bookseller there is a rise of the boutique bookshops. 34 new independent bookshops were open in the UK this year. In one bookshop in Notting Hill coffee is served in china cups and literary-inspired perfumes are sold with the Austen and Tolken. Down the road, Cinephilia West has a screening room, while Phaidon’s pop-up bookshop in Piccadilly is coffee-table-book nirvana. New bread of bookshops offering everything from cosy reading room to home-made biscuits. This is a return of book-buying as an enchanting experience.
The 100 Best Books of the Decade according to The Times
The top 10 books of the decade (according to The Times magazine):
1 The Road by Cormac McCarthy (2006)
2 Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi (2003)
3 Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance by Barack Obama (2004)
4 Masterworks of the Classical Haida Mythtellers trans Robert Bringhurst(2002
5 Suite Française by Irène Némirovsky(2006)
6 The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference by Malcolm Gladwell(2000) Speed-Read ‘Thin slicing’ of Malcolm Gladwell’s new book Outliers: The Story of Success
7 Life of Pi by Yann Martel(2002)
8 Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth by Margaret Atwood (2008)
9 Atonement by Ian McEwan (2001)
10 The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown(2003)
Check out the full list of the 100 best books of the decade by the Times
Read only summaries, not chapters – you’ll learn more
Students learn more from summaries than entire chapters – research on summaries confirms
“In a series of experiments, researchers at Carnegie Mellon University compared five-thousand-word chapters from college textbooks with one-thousand-word summaries of those chapters. The textbooks varied in subject: Russian history, African geography, macroeconomics. But the subject made no difference: in all cases, the summaries worked better. When students were given the same amount of the time with each – twenty to thirty minutes – they learned more from the summaries than they did from the chapters. This was true whether the students were tested twenty minutes after they read the material or one year later. In either case, those who read the summaries recalled more than those who read the chapters.” from Errornomics, Why we make mistakes and what we can do to avoid them by Joseph Hallinan
Good summaries are short – like miniskirts – short enough to retain the interest but long enough to cover the subject.
We’ve been saying that for some time now – just download the FREE summary of 37 Speed Reading Techniques
Food for thought and reading
The right diet can help with learning
Happy foods for boosting memory, learning power and concentration are bananas (excellent source of starchy carbohydrate, which encourages production of the ‘happy hormone’ serotonin), green vegetables such as broccoli, cabbage, spinach and nuts and seeds (great source of magnesium, which helps the body to make serotonin). Other serotonin producing foods are sardines, foie gras and cottage cheese. Of course, chocolate is the one snack that everyone knows instinctively will give them a lift. Chocolate, especially the dark, good quality organic variety, contains high quantities of phenols, antioxidants that boost mood, and N-acylethanoloamine chemicals, which stimulate the brain to release endorphins. But chocolate is fattening, so the key is to have a piece or tow, not a whole bar. Maintaining hydration is crucial to ensure an even mood. Even small decreases in hydration levels can leave your feeling grumpy. Keep water to hand to top up fluids regularly. Based on research published in the British Journal of Psychiatry (BJP) last week.
To sleep, perchance to learn
Call it the Doom learning effect. Volunteers who played the shoot ’em up video game dreamed about monsters and guns. Such reveries have now been found to predict higher scores the following day, backing the idea that dreams function to consolidate learning. Read more on the role of sleep in learning
The 10 best reference websites
1. The CIA Factbook
This offshoot of the American intelligence agency’s site gives a detailed overview of every country. It also provides information on the history, people, government, economy, geography, communications, transportation, military, and transnational issues for 266 world entities.
2. Biography.com
The website of the Biography Channel is an excellent place to gen up on historical figures and celebrities, while its “Dead Or Not” game shows that beyond a necessary obsession with factual accuracy it has a fun side, too.
3. Onelook.com
Type in a word or phrase and OneLook will offer a quick definition and link to reputable online sources, such as the Cambridge and Hutchinson dictionaries. Wildcard searches, meanwhile – where you need only key in a few words from a word – make it invaluable for Scrabble players and crossword solvers.
4. Onlineconversion.com
Sorted by more than 30 categories, from astronomical units to viscosity, this converts one unit of measurement to another. Google can do something similar – type “20kg in ounces” into the search box, for example -but this site is far more comprehensive.
5. 1911encyclopedia.org
The full 1911 version of the Encyclopaedia-Britannica is now online. Particularly interesting are the accounts of historical figures written while they were alive.
6. Britannica.com
Online access to the modern Britannica costs £49.95 a year, but that compares with £450 for the full set of 32 volumes. More comprehensive than Wikipedia, it also features thousands of audio and video clips.
7. About.com
About was set up in 1996 and can now call on a network of more than 750 experts to answer users’ questions. More than 60m people visit the site each month looking for help on pretty much anything.
8. Specialissues.com/lol
A collection of links to lists that have appeared somewhere in the world’s press. If you need to know the planet’s most valuable 15 football teams, head there.
9. Lii.org
The Librarians’ Internet Index is a US organisation with a collection of links to ‘websites you can trust’. The history and politics ones are a little US-centric, arts and science links are more comprehensive.
10. www.WhatsOnWhen.com
This lists upcoming event from all over the world. Search by date, destination, type of event, keyword or a combination of them all, and maybe discover that your trip to Tahiti coincides with its annual Tarantino week.
Bookworms’ dream: ATM for books
It’s not elegant and it’s not sexy – it looks like a large photocopier – but the Espresso Book Machine is being billed as the biggest change for the literary world since Gutenberg invented the printing press more than 500 years ago and made the mass production of books possible. Launched at Blackwell’s Charing Cross Road branch in London, the machine prints and binds books on demand in five minutes, while customers wait. It offers the best of both worlds: the virtually unlimited choice of books on the Internet and the traditional book format. In short, ATM for books.
Reading Trends: how non-fiction sales, by genre, have stocked up in the 21st century
Do we read less in recession? Publishing has suffered in the downturn, though not as much as one might think. In fact, over the past eight years, the umber of books bought in the UK has risen by nearly 50 per cent to just under 240 million. Adult non-fiction – now makes up 40 per cent of the sales, eclipsing fiction, which accounts for just 30 per cent (the remaining 30 per cent is accounted for by children’s books). In the graphic below, each full-sized book represents about 225,000 books purchased, meaning that in 2007 – our tallest shelf – the nation bought just under 23 million books across the genres selected. Some of the trends are clear. Su Doku – in “Puzzles” – catapults into the mainstream in 2005. Celebrity chefs continue their rise. Biographies and autobiographies spike in 2006, mostly because a lot of high-profile names among them Gordon Ramsey, Sharon Osbourne and Steven Gerrard – had books published. Then there are the small victories, such as Does Anything Eat Wasps?, a compendium of New Scientist columns, which in 2006 almost single-handedly increased sales of popular science books by 50 per cent.
Conscious vs subconscious processing power
How faster is your subconscious at processing information compared to the conscious mind? 500.000 times!
This is how I’ve calculated the difference. The subconscious mind can process 20 000 000 bits of info per second. The conscious mind can only process 40 bits of info/sec. So the subconscious mind can process 500 000 time more what the conscious mind is able to. This according to information from The Biology of Belief by Dr Bruce Lipton. There is no formal agreement on how fast is the subconscious mind. For example, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine estimate that the human retina can transmit visual input at at roughly 10 million bits per second. Another study suggests that the subconscious mind processes about 400 billion bits of information per second and the impulses travel at a speed of up to 100,000 mph! Compare this to your conscious mind, which processes only about 2,000 bits of information per second and its impulses travel only at 100-150 mph. We have 50 trillion cells in our body performing trillions of processes – so an enormous processing power is required. Another take: only about 0.01% of all the brain’s activity is experienced consciously. In other words, it is as if roughly 10’000 cinema films are actually going on in the brain all at once, while we are only consciously aware of one of them. Altogether then, the data rate processed by the brain is an astronomical 320 Gb/s! (read the full paper) Whatever the processing power and speed of subconscious mind, with speed reading and photoreading you can start to utilise the enormous powers of your subconscious mind.
A plan to scan – Google’s grand ebooks plan
On the shelf statistics: of the 40m titles in US libraries about 8m are out of copyright and 32m are still covered in copyright. Of these 32m, about 7m-9m are in print and 23m-25m are out of print. Of the23m-25m out-of-print titles still covered by copyright, about 2.5m-5m are ‘orphan works’ (copyright holders cannot be traced). Google wants to digitalise all books. Why? Read the full article in FT online
Bookworld – reading simulates reality
When we read books, our brains process the written information as if we were participating in or observing the scene for real. “Psychologists and neuroscientists are increasingly coming to the conclusion that when we read a story and really understand it, we create a mental simulation of the events described by the story.” says Professor Jeffrey Zacks, director of the Dynamic Cognitive Laboratory at Washington University in St Louis. Read more about this study
Relaxation is the key to speed reading
Getting into a good state for speed reading is essential. 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 speed reading techniques that we teach are also designed to get your mind and body in an optimal state for reading. The latest research backing up relaxation as the key to learning comes from Goldsmiths College in London and the Austrian Academy of Science where they studied the brain rhythms of 25 volunteers while they were asked to solve verbal problems. Those who displayed higher alpha brain waves – associated with a relaxed brain – were more likely to find the correct solution to the problem. Download our 37 speed reading techniques now
Dr. Larry Dossey The Power of Premonitions: How knowing the Future Can Shape Our Lives Vs Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking by Malcolm Gladwell
From an interview with Dr. Larry Dossey: Your book sounds a lot like the bestselling book Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking by Malcolm Gladwell. He says we can know something is going to happen and make accurate snap decisions without knowing why.
LD: You’re right. I love the examples Gladwell uses. Many of them are what I’m calling premonitions — firemen who leave a burning room before the floor collapses, without knowing why they are doing so; George Soros’s predicting world markets without rationally knowing why; Vic Braden, the famous tennis coach, who can predict double faults with extreme accuracy without a clue about how he does it. Gladwell regards this kind of knowing as a big fat mystery. He says we should “accept the mysterious nature of our snap judgments….[W]e’re better off that way”. I don’t think we’re better off that way. Gladwell literally endorses ignorance, which I find baffling. He completely ignores research such as the presentiment experiments. The term “premonition” does not even appear in his book. There is a great deal of evidence — an entire chapter in my book — that can shed light on what Gladwell dismisses as a total mystery. Why he won’t go there is unclear to me. Like many other science journalists, he’s reluctant to acknowledge that consciousness can operate outside the present and beyond the body. Although I agree with Gladwell that there’s mystery in all this, it’s not as dense as he says. We know a lot about premonitions — their characteristics, what favors them, andwhat purposes they serve. Some outstanding scientists are willing to consider premonitions as an explanation for the kind of knowing that Gladwell describes. Among them is Paul Drayson, Britain’s science minister. In discussing Gladwell’s book Blink, Drayson says he has personally known in advance that something is going to happen. He says, “In my life there have been some things that I’ve known and I don’t know why…like a sixth sense.’” “Sixth sense” is a common term for premonitions.
Download the whole article – Questions and answers on The Power of Premonitions with Dr Larry Dossey
Listen to an interview with Dr. Larry Dossey about his book on premonitions (12 parts) – this is the 1st part – the rest you can follow on YouTube
Literary Hardware
The term ‘literary hardware’ used to mean a novel as thick as your thigh – and perhaps a pipe to go with it. Today it refers to ebook readers and gizmos such as Elonex electronic reader, Kindle and Sony ebook reader. The full list of ebook readers
Book Summaries – 50 Prosperity Classics
Research suggests that people who read summaries rather than the whole books remember more details and for longer (Read summaries not chapters). There is a whole industry of book summaries in the world now. Passing Time in The Loo series was one of the first to spot the market for book summaries. Tom Butler-Bowen has written summaries many different classic categories of books from prosperity to self-help to success to spiritual and psychology.
Books that helped changed the world
Big ideas from Vance Packard, Edward de Bono, Germaine Greer, Richard Dawkins and Stephen Hawking altered modern thinking.
Good summary of some of the essential reading from The Power of Positive Thinking by Norman Vincent Peale to A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking to The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell to The Black Swan by Nassim Nicholas Taleb. Read the full article
Searching questions? Searching answers… How to Search on the Web.
The ability to use a web search engine effectively and efficiently is now so important that it’s taught in primary schools. It’s such a core part of the way we navigate and use the web that most of us don’t give it a second thought. However, there’s much more to searching the web than chucking a few words at Google. Learn how to search on Google – it will save you lots of time. Research shows that only 10% of population uses search well and intelligently i.e. 90% of Internet users don’t know/use Ctrl+F (search function) to help them to find something on a page. Also using the right type of search engines will make a difference. Check the 100 top search engines for searching anything. Start with Google Search Basics now
Listen to FREE audiobooks on Spotify (Free: The Economics of Abundance and Why Zero Pricing Is Changing the Face of Business by Chris Anderson)
Spotify says it’s using Free as a test to gauge interest in audiobooks. “This is the first audiobook we’ve ever included in our catalogue,” the company claims on the Spotify blog. “We’re going to trial it, see what people think and who knows, maybe this is the start of something new for us…”
I hope that in the future Spotify will have an option of speeding up listening of the audiobooks – a kind of speed reading of audiobooks.
How long before I can speed read well (learning without software)?
Nanette’s Spd Rdng answer: We do a two-day course without software and people walk away on the Sunday evening being able to do everything. (It’s better to learn in an intensive burst.) You don’t need to practise the techniques – you just need to do them. The more you do them in the course of your normal reading, the better you get. Everyone we’ve had on Spd Rdng courses (which include photoreading, speed reading and additional strategies using an accelerated learning approach so it’s all easy to learn) in the last three years has at least doubled their reading speed in those two days – and has loads of additional techniques which save much more time (typically getting info 10 times faster than before).
You can get a free download of the 37 techniques we teach (or contact me for more info) from our Spd Rdng website http://spdrdng.com
Is speed reading enjoyable? If I’m reading a novel, will I ‘get’ it? Is speed reading purely for knowledge and not for entertainment?
Nanette’s Spd Rdng answer: Lots of the Spd Rdng techniques that we teach are about getting information, but you can also read novels faster – and ‘get it’! Most people read as if they’re driving a car in first gear all the time. Much better to be able to vary the speed at which you read – so if you enjoy reading slowly, you’ll be able to do that too. Go for it – it’s fun to be able to do it – and it certainly beats getting dragged down by those piles of books, reports and journals that sit there making you feel guilty.
Should I learn to speed read instead?
Nanette’s Spd Rdng answer: Learn speed reading as well. Speed reading is about reading traditionally but faster. And in addition to both photoreading and speed reading, it makes sense to have (conscious, easy) strategies for remembering what you read, strategies for evaluating books, knowing WHY you’re reading, getting an overview of a subject before going into detail, etc.
Is learning to ‘photoread’ a waste of time?
Nanette’s Spd Rdng answer: No. But you need to understand what it can and can’t do.
Does Photoreading help with comprehension or memory?
Nanette’s Spd Rdng answer: Yes. But do speed reading as well. Oddly enough, reading faster helps comprehension, because you’ve got more information more quickly for the brain to make sense of. Spd Rdng courses teach photoreading, speed reading and additional techniques to speed up access to information, memory and comprehension.
Is photoreading a scam?
Just answered some questions on yahoo – thought I’d share them here.
Is photoreading a scam?
Nanette’s Spd Rdng answer: No. The non-conscious mind takes in all the information – but you don’t know it consciously, so it doesn’t feel as if you’ve learnt anything. Also, although the info goes straight to your long-term memory, it is only activated by need (need determined by your non-conscious mind, not your conscious mind – the bit that likes to think it’s on control). It therefore works best if you do in together with some conscious (eg speed reading) techniques.
The best book summaries
Don’t have time to read books or classics get Passing Time in The Loo. Volume 1 covers: Literary Classics, Contemporary Muliticultural Classics, Quotes and Anecdotes, Biographies, The Best of Business and Leadership, Classics in Personal Effectiveness, Health and Fitness Advice, Word Power, Expanding Knowledge. In total over 150 books are summaries. And what brilliant book summaries. For example, I was impressed with one book so I bought it and speed read from cover to cover and there was nothing that they’ve missed in the summary. Passing Time in The Loo. Volume 2 covers: Dreamscapes, Realityscapes, Walking Back in Time (the drama of history), They Made a Difference, Poets and Poetry, Thoughts Worth Pondering, Fantastic Facts. Again over 150 top books summaries. I just wish they published it as ebooks or an app for the iPhone.
How books make us better people?
By reading Shakespeare – which has dramatic effect on human brain
They function to uphold social order and spread altruistic genes, according to evolutionary psychologists. While the romantic era helped us evolve into more virtuous beings, reading Shakespeare can boost our brainpower. Shakerspeare used a technique known as functional shift, which involves making an adjective or a noun into a verb. In The Winter’s Tale, heavy thoughts are said to ‘thick my blood’. Researchers at Liverpool University revealed this technique causes a spark in the brain activity, as we’re forced to understand what a word means before we comprehand the function of it within a sentence. Source University of Liverpool
The effect of functional shift on the brain. Credit: University of Liverpool
Why Reading Matters – BBC program – watch it here
How modern neuroscience has revealed that reading unlocks remarkable powers in people.
Science writer Rita Carter tells the story of how modern neuroscience has revealed that reading, something most of us take for granted, unlocks remarkable powers. Carter explains how the classic novel Wuthering Heights allows us to step inside other minds and understand the world from different points of view, and she wonders whether the new digital revolution could threaten the values of classic reading. It’s not available on BBC iPlayer anymore but you can watch it below on YourTube – [BBC] Why Reading Matters in 6 parts.
Part 1
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdwFFFBCPzw
Part 2
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dt4_czM-UuM
Part 3
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFlTV_OPh1I
Part 4
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x0WDLsIZuZg
Part 5
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JuCtHUDW4fw
Part 6
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Owdqz8y98-0
ANLP Conference, London, 14 November 2009 – Top Ten Speed Reading Techniques
We’re presenting at ANLP Conference 13-15 November 2009, London
Sat 14 November 18.00 – 19.30 Top Ten Speed Reading Techniques
Learn the key techniques which turn ordinary readers into speed readers. Double your reading speed by the end of the workshop – and walk away with both the tools and the understanding to distil the knowledge and wisdom from the masters in less than a tenth of the time it would take with traditional reading. For more info on the ANLP Conference
Free app Stanza has more people reading ebooks on iPhones than on Amazon’s Kindle e-reader.
It’s official: The iPhone is more popular than Amazon Kindle. And not just in the obvious categories like listening to music, surfing the net or the other applications where Kindle barely competes. Now, the iPhone is also muscling into Amazon’s home turf: reading ebooks.
Stanza, an ebook reading application offered in Apple’s iPhone App Store since July, has been downloaded more than 395,000 times and continues to be installed at an average rate of about 5,000 copies a day, according to Portland, Ore.-based Lexcycle, the three-person start-up that created the reading software.
The future of speed reading e-books
Stanza, like Kindle, lets users download new content directly to their device. It has a snappy interface that allows readers to flip through a book simply by tapping the edges of the page and responds far faster than Kindle’s poky E-ink screen, which takes about a second to turn pages. And then there’s what some may call Stanza’s unfair advantage: the application is free, as are its many titles.
Question about Photoreading: Steps of Photoreading, not speedreading?
We’ve received a question today – here it is with our answer
Confucius on books
“Friends are like a book: they open up the whole world for us. But they can be divided into good and bad. The right sort can help you, but the bad sort will bring you a great deal of trouble and may even lead you down the wrong road. Being able to choose your friends wisely is extremely important.” Confucius as interpreted by Yu Dan, author of Confucius from the Heart
NLP Meta-Programs and Speed Reading / Spd Rdng
An NLP modelling project by Tom O’Connor – NLP TIMES (NLP Videos and Trainings)
NLP meta-programs are perceptions and mindsets and behavioural patterns that operate at an other-than-conscious level. Meta-programs are filters through which we perceive the world. An example is an old maxim is the glass half full or half empty. By understanding and appreciating other people’s models of the world that may differ dramatically from our own we can learn how to do things better.
Modelling subject: Jan Cisek – Master Reader, PhotoReader, Speed Reader and Spd Rdr
1. Chunk Size: Global vs. Specific
Spd Rdng Student: Global
When spd rdng speed readers tend to go global and take in the big picture. The field of vision is broad and the area of focus tends to be on “Concepts” and “Ideas”, getting a Gestalt view. You sort for information at a global level. Global chunk style tends to lead to deductive processing and permits the speed reader to take large mental quick cuts through large volumes of information. There is quite a high level of generalisation. This differs significantly from a person who’s meta-program who is detail based. They will tend to focus on the low-level information, needing to acquire all the details and feel the need for multiple examples and overlapping of information before they feel they are comfortable with the material.
Embrace change through education and self-improvement
Recessions are times of great change and sometimes upheaval.
People who struggle often do so because they cling to the past rather than embrace the ‘now’ and the future. It’s essential for us to stay on the cutting edge of innovation through a lifelong pursuit of education. The most successful people and entrepreneurs are those who are constantly reading, attending seminars, engaging with mentors, and exposing themselves to new ideas and adventures. What are you reading today?
“In a world that is constantly changing, there is no one subject or set of subjects that will serve you for the foreseeable future, or for the rest of your life. The most important skill to acquire now is learning to learn.” John Naisbitt
In a complex society, knowledge has come to mean knowing where and how to find out something, not just knowing.
Praise of s l o w – remedy to fast media?
Speed reading is about speed as much as about slow reading
With speed reading we create more time to reflect – our reflective intelligence is critical to learning and our moral standards. Read previous post. In Praise of Slow – How a Worldwide Movement Is Challenging the Cult of Speed by Carl Honore one can learn the importance of taking time to reflect and slow down.
Both me and Nanette can read very fast when we need to. But we take time to read slowely – usually for pleasure. Novels, poetry, philosophy, etc lend themselves to reading slowely. Never before the balance between fast and slow was so important. Spd rdng is like driving a car – sometimes we use the first gear, sometimes the second, the third, the fourth, etc. Most people though read like they would read in the first gear. Speed reading is about changing your gears of reading depending on the context of your reading.