Quote:
Originally Posted by Doku  Here's the issue that I have with the photoreading... This is a comment from another person's website who says that he's an advocate of it, and has been using it for over 4 years:
"With PhotoReading, you subconsciously take in the printed information out of a book, and then consciously ‘activate’ that information upon going back through the material in a number of short passes."
Um.. ok, so you skim the material, then go back and READ the material. How is this faster than skipping the skim step?
So, here are the steps that he lists:
1: Prepare (get in the right mental state)
2: Preview (dunno what he is talking about here)
3: PhotoRead (ie: glance at each page)
4: Activate (actually READ the material)
5: RapidRead (traditional speed reading)
Um... ok, so you "read" the material in three different ways, and this is faster exactly how? Scott Free Thinking » All About PhotoReading
Yes, I know that Steve Pavlina is also a proponent of the book, and has written his own articles in praise of the method, etc. I just don't see it. |
to explain briefly each of the steps, and how it DOES save you time...
1) the right mental - when you are in the relaxed-attentive state, you are more curious and want to learn the information. The critical part of your brain shuts off, and you don't perceive the passing of time. Everything you read and hear makes a deeper impression. You remember
easier.
2) preview - you take a look at the summary & table of contents. What in this book do you want to read? Based on that, you select a purpose. One of the things most speedreading courses do is make you more motivated, so you read faster. But that goes away when you leave the course. This is about you making yourself excited for every book you read, and focused, so you are concentrating more (or only) on this book.
3) photoread - when you do it, you are at the very least pulling in the right brain by looking at the empty space. Even if you skip this, I think the system will still help you a LOT. I can't really measure how much this helps, my activation has been pretty manual.
4) its not normally reading. its looking broadly and then skittering what seems useful, or "rhythmic perusal" which is a more idea-focused faster sort of reading.
5) if you think you STILL want more - I spent 1hr on a 400 page book (with my poor activation skills), and I got the gist of it. I will activate it another time or two. But if you still want more, you read it again. But some parts, you will be very familiar, or completely disinterested in, so you will skip.
Oh yeah - one huge thing in this system which is very cool is that knowledge comes in layers. Its much easier to remember details when you learned the gist of it first.
I "read" a 480 page book in 5 hours. I did it "wrong" - it took me too long. (Yes, I got ALL the material out of that book.) But thats a HUGE improvement over what it would have been without this system. And, I found (and remembered it all when I was done) what I was looking for in the book (and more.)
It's a great system.