Re:Ask HN: Do you guys use speed reading techniques?
by tom_rath on Monday January 05, 2009 @01:34AM
(#420083)
For understanding, repetition and context will help more than speed.
Read a number of articles on the subject. Write out the definition in your own words or explain it to a friend. Complete a few textbook exercises to calculate the values you want to understand.
Taking the time to internalize a subject is significantly more helpful than quickly scanning words you do not yet understand.
Re:Ask HN: Do you guys use speed reading techniques?
by yummyfajitas on Monday January 05, 2009 @10:16AM
(#420529)
Understanding isn't the issue for me. I have a solid math background, so I'm understanding things about as fast as I can read them. My main issue is the terminology, there is just lots of it.
A more traditional programming example is this; if you learn Java you need to understand, but learning the libraries is more a matter of remembering than understanding.
Some subjects are broad, not simply deep. Speed reading (or whatever) could help with the breadth.
Case in point, I'm trying to learn financial math. I get the concepts pretty well (just parabolic PDEs and similar things), but it would be helpful if I could more easily remember what the boundary conditions for "down and out barrier options" were or what the exact definition of "VaR" is.
Speed reading could help here, though I don't know how to do it.