• Andrei Alexandrescu (3/3) Aug 29 2012 Not directly related to D, but hopefully a hook :o).
• d_follower (3/6) Aug 29 2012 An excellent read! Thank you very much for the article!
• Andrei Alexandrescu (6/14) Aug 29 2012 Thank you.
• Torarin (3/6) Aug 29 2012 Loved it!
• Gary Willoughby (5/8) Aug 29 2012 A really great biographical read! Learning to learn sounds
• Nathan M. Swan (6/9) Aug 29 2012 Great article.
• MattCoder (6/8) Aug 29 2012 Andrei,
• Andrei Alexandrescu (4/12) Aug 29 2012 In no particular order or dependency: spend less time in crappy jobs, go...
• xenon325 (11/14) Aug 30 2012 In the context of learning to learn. Have anyone tried speed
• Walter Bright (3/9) Aug 30 2012 Speed reading works fine when reading a bestseller novel. It's a complet...
• bearophile (10/12) Aug 30 2012 But if the novel you have speed read was very good you have
• Nick Sabalausky (4/13) Aug 30 2012 Mostly because the headache you'll inevitably endure will divert all
• Charles Hixson (15/28) Aug 31 2012 If speed reading gives you a headache, either you're doing it wrong, or
• Kagamin (3/13) Aug 30 2012 Even when watching a movie I usually rewind and rewatch intense
• Nick Sabalausky (11/28) Aug 31 2012 I do that constantly :) (Netflix is a PITA with that though since
• Nick Sabalausky (40/53) Aug 30 2012 I can usually identify speed readers when emailing because they're the
• Chris Cain (8/13) Aug 30 2012 Look, I'm sure you've just met some poor speed readers. And your

Andrei Alexandrescu <SeeWebsiteForEmail erdani.org> writes:

Not directly related to D, but hopefully a hook :o).

http://www.informit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=1945828


Andrei

"d_follower" <d_follower fakemail.com> writes:

On Wednesday, 29 August 2012 at 14:53:39 UTC, Andrei Alexandrescu 
wrote:
 Not directly related to D, but hopefully a hook :o).

 http://www.informit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=1945828


 Andrei

An excellent read! Thank you very much for the article!

Andrei Alexandrescu <SeeWebsiteForEmail erdani.org> writes:

On 8/29/12 9:09 AM, d_follower wrote:
 On Wednesday, 29 August 2012 at 14:53:39 UTC, Andrei Alexandrescu wrote:
 Not directly related to D, but hopefully a hook :o).

 http://www.informit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=1945828


 Andrei

 An excellent read! Thank you very much for the article!

Thank you.

It's now on reddit too: 
http://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/z0uvb/the_best_programming_advi
e_i_ever_got_with/. 
Bit nervous :o).


Andrei

Torarin <torarind gmail.com> writes:

2012/8/29 Andrei Alexandrescu <SeeWebsiteForEmail erdani.org>:
 Not directly related to D, but hopefully a hook :o).

 http://www.informit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=1945828


 Andrei

Loved it!

Torarin

"Gary Willoughby" <dev kalekold.net> writes:

On Wednesday, 29 August 2012 at 14:53:39 UTC, Andrei Alexandrescu 
wrote:
 Not directly related to D, but hopefully a hook :o).

 http://www.informit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=1945828


 Andrei

A really great biographical read! Learning to learn sounds 
strange when you explain the premise to others but i agree it is 
the key to becoming a great developer.

"Nathan M. Swan" <nathanmswan gmail.com> writes:

On Wednesday, 29 August 2012 at 14:53:39 UTC, Andrei Alexandrescu 
wrote:
 Not directly related to D, but hopefully a hook :o).

 http://www.informit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=1945828


 Andrei

Great article.

Learning to learn is really what distinguishes vocational 
training from true education.

NMS

"MattCoder" <mattcoder hotmail.com> writes:

On Wednesday, 29 August 2012 at 14:53:39 UTC, Andrei Alexandrescu 
wrote:
 Not directly related to D, but hopefully a hook :o).

 http://www.informit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=1945828

Andrei,

About this: "If I could go back and change one thing, I'd do it 
all over again, just more radically."

What do you mean about "more radically"?

Andrei Alexandrescu <SeeWebsiteForEmail erdani.org> writes:

On 8/29/12 5:01 PM, MattCoder wrote:
 On Wednesday, 29 August 2012 at 14:53:39 UTC, Andrei Alexandrescu wrote:
 Not directly related to D, but hopefully a hook :o).

 http://www.informit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=1945828

 Andrei,

 About this: "If I could go back and change one thing, I'd do it all over
 again, just more radically."

 What do you mean about "more radically"?

In no particular order or dependency: spend less time in crappy jobs, go 
back to school sooner, create a startup, start working on D sooner.

Andrei

"xenon325" <1 mail.net> writes:

On Wednesday, 29 August 2012 at 14:53:39 UTC, Andrei Alexandrescu
wrote:
 Not directly related to D, but hopefully a hook :o).

 http://www.informit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=1945828


 Andrei

In the context of learning to learn. Have anyone tried speed
reading [1] ?

I'm thinking about taking a course. Seems to be extremely useful,
but effort is pretty big (few hours each day for few months, and
I'm ... let's say not really disciplined) and opponents bash it
quite heavy (e.g. very superficial understanding of the text)

P.S. Good article. *A lot* of people I know seems to miss that
point.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speed_reading

Walter Bright <newshound2 digitalmars.com> writes:

On 8/30/2012 1:45 AM, xenon325 wrote:
 In the context of learning to learn. Have anyone tried speed
 reading [1] ?

 I'm thinking about taking a course. Seems to be extremely useful,
 but effort is pretty big (few hours each day for few months, and
 I'm ... let's say not really disciplined) and opponents bash it
 quite heavy (e.g. very superficial understanding of the text)

Speed reading works fine when reading a bestseller novel. It's a complete 
failure at reading intellectually dense material.

"bearophile" <bearophileHUGS lycos.com> writes:

Walter Bright:

 Speed reading works fine when reading a bestseller novel. It's 
 a complete failure at reading intellectually dense material.

But if the novel you have speed read was very good you have 
missed most of the enjoyment. It's like eating a very good 
traditional handmade ice cream: if you gulp it down in few 
seconds you miss most of the point of eating it :)

Better to read one good novel slowly and appreciate and 
understand it well, than quickly read three of them, and forget 
them in few weeks.

Bye,
bearophile

Nick Sabalausky <SeeWebsiteToContactMe semitwist.com> writes:

On Fri, 31 Aug 2012 03:04:58 +0200
"bearophile" <bearophileHUGS lycos.com> wrote:

 Walter Bright:
 
 Speed reading works fine when reading a bestseller novel. It's 
 a complete failure at reading intellectually dense material.

 
 But if the novel you have speed read was very good you have 
 missed most of the enjoyment. It's like eating a very good 
 traditional handmade ice cream: if you gulp it down in few 
 seconds you miss most of the point of eating it :)

Mostly because the headache you'll inevitably endure will divert all
your attention away from the taste! :)

Charles Hixson <charleshixsn earthlink.net> writes:

On 08/30/2012 06:09 PM, Nick Sabalausky wrote:
 On Fri, 31 Aug 2012 03:04:58 +0200
 "bearophile"<bearophileHUGS lycos.com>  wrote:

 Walter Bright:

 Speed reading works fine when reading a bestseller novel. It's
 a complete failure at reading intellectually dense material.

 But if the novel you have speed read was very good you have
 missed most of the enjoyment. It's like eating a very good
 traditional handmade ice cream: if you gulp it down in few
 seconds you miss most of the point of eating it :)

 Mostly because the headache you'll inevitably endure will divert all
 your attention away from the taste! :)

If speed reading gives you a headache, either you're doing it wrong, or 
you need your eyes checked.  Probably the latter.

OTOH, it isn't pleasurable.  The only use I ever had for it was reading 
text in classes I didn't want to take, where I couldn't have forced 
myself to read the text while thinking about it.  (So it had better NOT 
be information dense.)  Note that good speed reading requires sufficient 
concentration, that one gets neither pleasure nor "disgust" from it.  (I 
don't know what the correct antonym for pleasure is in this context, but 
it isn't pain.)  I believe that if one were to do it for very long that 
it would cease to be any more stressful than other things requiring 
intense concentration.  I don't believe that it would ever be pleasurable.

FWIW, it's been decades since I've speed read for more than a page or 
two.  I like to understand what I'm reading, not just absorb it as raw 
sensory input.

"Kagamin" <spam here.lot> writes:

On Friday, 31 August 2012 at 01:05:00 UTC, bearophile wrote:
 Walter Bright:

 Speed reading works fine when reading a bestseller novel. It's 
 a complete failure at reading intellectually dense material.

 But if the novel you have speed read was very good you have 
 missed most of the enjoyment. It's like eating a very good 
 traditional handmade ice cream: if you gulp it down in few 
 seconds you miss most of the point of eating it :)

 Better to read one good novel slowly and appreciate and 
 understand it well, than quickly read three of them, and forget 
 them in few weeks.

Even when watching a movie I usually rewind and rewatch intense 
scenes several times.

Nick Sabalausky <SeeWebsiteToContactMe semitwist.com> writes:

On Fri, 31 Aug 2012 08:41:58 +0200
"Kagamin" <spam here.lot> wrote:

 On Friday, 31 August 2012 at 01:05:00 UTC, bearophile wrote:
 Walter Bright:

 Speed reading works fine when reading a bestseller novel. It's 
 a complete failure at reading intellectually dense material.

 But if the novel you have speed read was very good you have 
 missed most of the enjoyment. It's like eating a very good 
 traditional handmade ice cream: if you gulp it down in few 
 seconds you miss most of the point of eating it :)

 Better to read one good novel slowly and appreciate and 
 understand it well, than quickly read three of them, and forget 
 them in few weeks.

 
 Even when watching a movie I usually rewind and rewatch intense 
 scenes several times.

I do that constantly :)  (Netflix is a PITA with that though since
seeking an internet-streamed media just...doesn't naturally work well
like with local media. 'Course Netflix doesn't offer alternate
languages or dvd extras, which can be really annoying too on stuff
with mediocre dubs.)

In my case the constant rewinding is usually due to dialog being
mumbled or muddy or too fast or drowned out by sfx/music (which has
become unfathomably common these days) or when I just wasn't paying
attention and missed something ;)

Nick Sabalausky <SeeWebsiteToContactMe semitwist.com> writes:

On Thu, 30 Aug 2012 10:45:13 +0200
"xenon325" <1 mail.net> wrote:
 
 In the context of learning to learn. Have anyone tried speed
 reading [1] ?
 
 I'm thinking about taking a course. Seems to be extremely useful,
 but effort is pretty big (few hours each day for few months, and
 I'm ... let's say not really disciplined) and opponents bash it
 quite heavy (e.g. very superficial understanding of the text)
 
 P.S. Good article. *A lot* of people I know seems to miss that
 point.
 
 [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speed_reading

I can usually identify speed readers when emailing because they're the
ones whose responses clearly indicate they totally missed at least half
of what I wrote.

Based on that wikipedia page, it sounds like "speed reading" doesn't
really mean anything at all, but is just a catch-all term for any
technique for improving reading speed. I didn't know that before.

A speed reading fan once told me that speed reading is all about
reading one sentence at a time instead of one word at a time (note that
unless you're learning to read, nobody reads one letter at a
time). I don't know if that's a fair description of "speed reading" or
not, but it's definitely a flawed approach: We can read whole words at
a time because:

- There are only so many letters (even in Chinese/Kanji
the characters are constructed out of only so many common radicals).

- There are only so many commonly-used sequences of letters (Ie, words),
and half the words used are VERY common. (Ex: Consider the previous
sentence: "are, so, the, and, most, many, there" Ie, half the words
are extremely common.) Sure, there are MANY valid words, but most of
them are fairly uncommon.

- It's uncommon that getting a couple letters wrong will result in a
radically altered, and still contextually-valid, meaning. That means
there's built-in error-correction, which is why we don't read
every letter and can still get away with it. Reading the overall word
instead of it's component parts typically work just fine.

But extending the above to whole sentences, or even phrases, doesn't
work:

- There are nearly limitless ways of combining words to make phrases
and sentences, unlike combining letters (or radicals) to make
words. (We have dictionaries of words. Think it's even remotely possible
to have a dictionary of sentences?) You're going to see the same
sequence of letters over and over and over and over...but
there's very few sentences, if any, that get re-used like words do.
There are common phrases, but even the most common phrases are no where
near as common as the most common words.

- Getting a word wrong or a couple words flip-flopped is far more
likely to result in a radically altered meaning, than doing to same to
mere letters. And such altered meanings will typically be far less
obvious. Unlike words, there's very little built-in error correction.

"Chris Cain" <clcain uncg.edu> writes:

On Thursday, 30 August 2012 at 23:18:34 UTC, Nick Sabalausky 
wrote:
 I can usually identify speed readers when emailing because 
 they're the
 ones whose responses clearly indicate they totally missed at 
 least half
 --snip--

Look, I'm sure you've just met some poor speed readers. And your 
point about speed readers not being good at reading dictionaries 
and something about wearing flip flops is wrong. I wear normal 
shoes, thank you very much.

...

:p