digest
Short Summary
Main recommendation: Speed up reading by training your eyes and mechanics rather than relying on "speed reading" pseudo-science, using a pacer, narrowing the reading line, and deliberately reading slightly faster than comprehension allows to reset your comfort pace. Tim Ferriss claims most people can improve their reading speed by at least 50 percent, and some can double, triple, or quadruple it, without losing comprehension.
Key Points
- Measure your baseline first: count words in 10 lines to get words per line, multiply by lines per page, then read for one minute and multiply to get your words-per-minute (WPM) rate.
- Reduce the reading width by indenting one word from each margin, so you focus on the middle third of the page and skip the wasted peripheral margins.
- Exploit saccadic eye movement: the eye jumps between fixation points, so fewer fixations and fewer regressions (backward jumps) mean less time per page.
- Use a pacer such as a finger or marker under the line to keep your eyes moving forward and prevent back-skipping, especially when tired.
- Reset your comfort pace by reading about 10 percent comprehension loss for five minutes, then retest and read at full comprehension.
Details Worth Noting
- Concrete instructions:
- Count the words in 10 lines on a typical page, divide by 10 to get the average words per line, then multiply by the number of lines per page to get words per page.
- Establish your baseline by reading at your normal speed for one minute, then multiply the words read by 60 to get your WPM.
- Draw vertical lines or estimate boundaries one word in from each side of the page, and read only between those boundaries in a zigzag pattern.
- Once you read five to ten pages with no trouble, indent by another word and repeat.
- Use a finger or marker as a pacer, tracing beneath the line, and aim for about two fixation points per line.
- Practice for ten minutes using the narrowed margins and pacer.
- Then read for five minutes slightly faster than your comprehension allows, aiming to lose about 10 percent, and retest your WPM at full comprehension.
- Ferriss frames the method as understanding eye mechanics and optical perception rather than magic; he compares the gain to moving from a Yugo to a Ferrari, giving you more speed range to choose from.
- Ferriss notes that for poetry or fiction you can always read more slowly, and he recommends the books "How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia" and "Vagabonding" as examples to practice with.
Bottom Line
Reading speed gains come from changing how your eyes move across the page, not from speed-reading gimmicks: narrow the line, minimize fixations and regressions with a pacer, and practice reading slightly beyond comfort to reset your pace.
