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Comment by briga | Hacker News Reader

Some people are just really gifted readers. Whether through some combination of learning to read early or just being able to skip the ‘sub-vocalization’ part of reading, many are able to get through hundreds of books a year. It’s a kind of super-power if you think about it.

I don’t think I’ve gotten faster at reading as I’ve aged, but I’ve certainly gotten better at skimming through texts. If you’re relatively familiar with a subject you’ll know which sections of text you can skim over and which sections are worthy of careful reading

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I don’t subvocalize and haven’t for many years, but when I did (and more so now), the speed-limiting factor was never the time it took to read the word, but to comprehend what’s on the page in the sense of understanding it. You can probably get away with 200+ pages per hour if you’re not reading for comprehension, but it’s hard to imagine getting anything out of a difficult text at that speed.

I think that’s an important point, and not all texts are made equal. Reading and understanding 200 pages of Heidegger is very different than reading 200 pages of Harry Potter. Part of reading well is know what to spend the time on.

200 pages of math text is probably a year of full time undergrad study.

depends hugely on the math book

Heidegger was a Nazi, besides, and Being And Time and the concept of Dasein are rubbish -- he was a circular reasoner and a poor communicator -- and B&T really doesn't purport any new claim that hasn't already been made in some form or fashion since Socrates. 200 pages of Aristotle makes more sense. I would just watch Sugrue's Princeton lecture https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MaobMHescwg&t=476s if you're interested in getting the gist of Heidegger without having to slog through his nonsense. It all goes back to the Overman in some form or fashion. I'm rambling now.

I’m not sure avoiding sub vocalisation is an advantage unless your only priority is speed. If you’re reading poetry or rhetorical writing, i.e. a speech, and if you’re neither sub vocalizing nor reading aloud, then you’re missing most of what’s on offer: the careful arrangement of rhythm and sound to create literary effect.

It's sometimes called photo reading, and it's likely genetic and correlated with high IQ (which Tyler certainly possesses). Someone described it as not having to process the letters or words individually but as a chunk. For example, when you see a McDonald's logo, you don't have to mentally recite the word "McDonald's" but you instantly know what it is. So with photo reading, this can apply to entire sentences. I think this how some people can speed read and not sacrifice comprehension.

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