Ask HN: How do you speed read technical books?
What is your technique to speed read and finish technical books (such as on programming languages, cs theory etc.) as fast as possible?
If I'm looking something up for reference, I still use a speed reading technique I learned from my high school teacher back in the 80s.
She was on an episode of the 80s show, "That's Incredible" where a student of hers read War & Peace in some ridiculously short amount of time.
I have no information on what speed reading courses are legit or whatever, but hers certainly was, despite all the disbelief at the time. Of course, the featured student was a major exception. I think I was her top speed reader those semesters but couldn't come close to the guy on TV. It's also not a fun way to read.
On the first pass you read the TOC, chapter headings, section headings and so on. You are trying to absorb the structure of the book (or chapter if you want to do it 1 chapter at a time).
The next pass you are making sweeping scans of each page, taking in high-level information and building on the structure you've already established.
If you've developed vertical reading at all, you can use it for the last pass, or any other technique you've worked up to.
One thing to note, I don't use anything besides good old fashioned close reading when it comes to code examples. Dig through them in detail or risk missing the point. Code is not like natural language and you won't get the same benefits from speed reading it.