Scott H Young

Reading is one of the best methods to gather new ideas. I usually read at least a book per week, and I’ve been known to read as much as a book per day. I generally consider a book to have been a successful read if I can get a couple interesting ideas from it. Great books will have dozens of new viewpoints and ideas that can change the way you think about your world.

Thriving in the world requires you to have a specific strategy towards your reading. I’ve found three particular methods allow me to optimize the information I get out of books, the “T” model, idea hierarchies and certainty building or certainty reducing ideas. Reading effectively is more than just reading fast, it is reading smart.

The T Model

Recently I’ve begun applying the “T” model to the ideas I gather through the books I’m reading. For those of you who missed my post on specializing versus generalizing, the “T” model basically says that you should have a smaller vertical area of expertise and a broad horizontal area with just a minor amount of knowledge. Pick which areas you want to develop a lot of focus in and develop a brief understanding of the rest.

Following this model I’ve begun expanding the types of ideas I look for in the books I’m reading. The surprising thing is that even when the subject is completely different than your area of focus, it can often give you completely new perspectives for looking at your old problems. This is really the power of broadening your reading base is that it can allow you to look at problems from a vantage point you may not have considered before.

I recently finished Niccolo Machiavelli’s, The Prince, his famous work on the art of war and statecraft. Considering history has made quite the infamy out of Machiavelli’s thinking I was surprised how his ideas were presented with logic and precision. Even if I disagree with Machiavelli on some of his methods, the insights offered were powerful. I found myself relating his ideas to business, seeing connections between foreign aide and venture capital. This ability to piece together completely new perspectives from a peripheral source is one of the best reasons to broaden your reading base.

I would say that all reading, and possibly all art, works on a scale between how dense the ideas are and how abstract they are. Generally the most idea dense works are usually fairly practical, otherwise you would miss a lot of the ideas. But really abstract ideas are also helpful as they can provide you insights you wouldn’t have received if it were communicated directly.

Reading works like Shakespear give you a fantastic picture of human nature and emotions that often lose their power when you translate the ideas directly. It is the process of digging out the ideas from these works that you create the insights yourself. Although it may be a more lengthy process than reading a self-help book, the insights you get from these sources are more rare.

Idea Hierarchies

Another way of grouping ideas is on a hierarchy. At the top of the hierarchy you have your global ideas that are esoteric and apply to everything. These are existential questions like the meaning of life, religion or the nature of reality. On the very bottom of the hierarchy you have practical ideas like how to maintain a website or build a birdhouse. Ideas tend to form somewhere between the details and the bigger picture.

I like to combine practical ideas with broad general ones when reading. So if I have just finished a book on web programming, I might read a book on Buddhism next. Oscillating between the most practical ideas and the most esoteric ones allows you to have a more unified worldview. You can move up and down the hierarchy as you need to.

You need to gather both types of ideas to function effectively. If you focus exclusively on the details, you may be really effective at certain things but you will lack the larger scope. If you focus entirely on big ideas you may lose sight of the things you need to do today. Having a balance between these types of ideas helps you both function and understand.

Certainty Reduction or Bolstering Ideas

Another way you can group ideas is whether they bolster or reduce your internal level of certainty. Having too little certainty in the outside world creates doubt, fear and can keep you from moving forward. Without certainty that the floor is going to support you, it isn’t going to be easy to walk over it.

Too much certainty can also be disastrous. When you are too certain of an idea, you are blinded by it’s potential flaws. Too much certainty makes your ideas rigid and incapable of growth. Often certainty builds up until it is so hard and brittle that a swift stroke of reality shatters it all at once. Although it feels nice to be certain of something, too much can lead to a painful blow later.

Idea gathering should walk the fine line between certainty reduction and bolstering. This line isn’t 50/50 either. It depends on your individual situation. If you are worried about not going forward with a goal or taking action, your need to start by bolstering your certainty. When I became a vegetarian, I sought out certainty enabling references so that I would stick with my commitment.

When your action is pretty much guaranteed, that is the time you need to reduce your certainty so you can observe possible flaws. After being a vegetarian for over a year, I am now willing to learn about ideas that may contradict my own so I can find flaws and make improvements.

Most people do the complete opposite approach when trying to manage certainty. When they aren’t likely to take action these people find a bunch of contradicting references that keep them from taking action. When they are already successful they reinforce their certainty and often ignore glaring flaws. You need to turn this process on it’s head to balance action and effectiveness.

Reading is a powerful method to gather ideas. Effectively gather ideas doesn’t just mean reading faster, but reading smarter. Using the T model, idea hierarchies and levels of certainty can help you decide what to read to optimize your approach.

My recent lifehacker.com feature has created a lot of buzz over my article, Double Your Reading Rate. But I’m afraid I’ve stirred up a bit of confusion over the idea of subvocalization. Subvocalization is saying the words inside your head as you read them. This is a distinct process from actual comprehension and isn’t strictly necessary for reading. But unfortunately I think I misguided a few people because of the lack of breadth of the article about how to read without subvocalization and what it really is.

First, you can only stop subvocalizing by doing practice reading. Trying to stop now is just going to result in blurred skimming of the material which really isn’t the point. Some of the people after hearing my suggestion tried to stop subvocalizing and missed the rest of the article. Focus on reading when you read, focus on improving speed reading when you practice — you can’t do both at the same time!

The next point is that subvocalization simply means reading every word inside your head. Many people who already read at a high rate (>400 words) already lapse out of subvocalization without realizing it. Once you stop and realize to yourself, “whoops! I’m subvocalizing, better stop…” you’ve already lost your focus and the ability to speed read is gone. Reading is all about focus and internal distractions by trying to speed read instead of just reading will screw you up. You should only focus on speed reading during practice sessions where you attempt to practice new techniques and read faster than you can comprehend.

How do you know when you stop subvocalizing. One person in the book Breakthrough Rapid Reading mentioned that she found the key to speed reading. She said to her instructor, “You just have to read only the important words.” The instructor replied, “But how do you know which words are important?” She had actually be interpreting the sentences but she had stop subvocalizing most of the words.

Similarly when you use advanced techniques that involve reading several lines at once or reading words backwards, you may still “hear” the words inside your head as you understand the sentences but when you look at how fast you are actually reading it along with the mechanics of reading, true subvocalization is impossible.

If you continue to hear the words you are reading inside your head, don’t worry about it, that is likely an illusion once you get up to 700-800 words per minute. It would be impossible to actually read every word in your head so the sounds you hear when reading are likely just your brain assembling the information. Subvocalization means hearing every… single… word… sounded out. Considering I have some very astute and skilled readers here you probably already lapse in and out of subvocalization without realizing it.

Subvocalization can be useful. Just like it isn’t always wise to read fast, sometimes it makes sense to subvocalize. My article focused on how to read faster, but sometimes you need to read slower. Better reading comes from having a brake and a gas pedal not just one or the other. If you are having trouble comprehending, slowing down so you start subvocalizing again can eliminate distractions and refocus your mind on the material.

A Side Note on Pointers

I mentioned that it is important to use a pointer to reduce eye movements and focus your reading. The book Breakthrough Rapid Reading promotes using your finger to read everything, even subtitles on a movie screen! I’ve found that this is impractical.

I talk about speed reading where it applies most, long books. Short website articles I frequently slow down on because I don’t have the time to get fully engaged and burn through it. If I am reading something like an e-book, sometimes I will use my mouse cursor to focus my eyes, but this requires a little more dexterity than your hand.

I believe it is important when you start out speed reading to always use some form of a pointer. This will make it a habit. After the habit is installed, you may decide certain mediums of writing just aren’t worth using your speed reading habits on. Just as you wouldn’t accelerate to 100 mph to go buy groceries around the corner, certain reading tasks don’t get much benefit from speed reading.

Speed reading is a useful skill, but that is all it is, a skill. It isn’t a new paradigm of reading, just another set of techniques for absorbing information more quickly. After learning this skill I use it where it serves me. Invest the time to practice the skill and you can receive the benefits.