HACKER Q&A
📣 cf100clunk

Kwik Brain or speed reading courses?


I'm asking for a friend. Really. My own personal experience with rapid reading techniques began circa 1983 when an article I'd stumbled upon suggested I use a cursor (mine was a coffee stir stick). I wasn't looking for a speed boost per se, but my speed improved dramatically, and I have not had to use such a cursor in many years. Some people and studies say that speed reading is a fallacy. So, the friend for who I am asking about Kwik Brain is hoping someone can give a thumbs up or down about Kwik Brain or the notion of a speed reading course or system in general.

https://join.kwikbrain.com/


  👤 ksaj Accepted Answer ✓
Speed reading is really teaching you to skim. You can retain the main info but not so much of the finer details.

I've read about studies where they quantified how much was retained between people reading "normal" speed, and those speed reading after taking a course, and it didn't bode well for those "super memory" type courses that end up being just (surprisingly unrelated) speed reading. At first they seemed to have learned the material, but only a short time later it was only the "slow" readers that passed the same tests. And the slow readers had more complete recollections, resulting in richer descriptions of what they had read.

My take (which could be wrong) is that speed reading makes it easier to convince you that you suddenly have "mega memory" because you could apparently read faster and retain more information than you thought you would have been able to, but really only until the end of the testing period. They're much like other snake oil treatments such as anti-wrinkle creams that actually just puff you up with fats and lymph - the wrinkles are gone, but it's a mirage of sorts.

There are many of them known. Sometimes mentalists use knowledge of them in their tricks. As do "faith healers." Miraculous changes that end up only short term quirks of psychology.

How many people do you think have read Tony Robins' books and got super rich like he supposedly did using those same techniques? You'll apparently feel really confident while you still live the way you were otherwise, and blame every positive event that would have happened anyway on that book.

Snake oil. But good if you want to learn how to skim (or get rich quick, since that's usually the supposed end point any time such programs make it to TV).


👤 surprisetalk
It's not quite comparable, but you can get free audiobooks through your local library via the Libby app (US) and listen to books at 2x (300-400 WPM).

It's slower than speed-reading, but my ears are available for 2-3 hours per day, so I end up "reading" a lot more with this strategy.