I grew up in the era when Speed Reading was all the rage. To a certain extent, I'm kinda-sorta-almost quasi using some of this speed-reading stuff, learned half-heartedly, back when steam engines drove a thing called the Internet. Or was it Pine? Something like that...
Well, as these things do, two thoughts met, sat down and had a coffee or three using my cranial matter as cheap rent. The outcome was rather astounding.
The realisation was that, a lot of times (most of the time?) when we think, we actually have a verbal conversation in our head. This is called 'subvocalisation' by the need-to-know-everything crowd. It turns out to be one of the main reasons why our thinking goes so slowly. Naturally, granted, it sometimes is useful to slow thought processes down, run, rewind, disassemble and reassemble them. There can be sheer joy in that. But most of the time, this 'subvocalisation' thing just gets in the road to proper thinking.
To paraphrase the Red Queen, it should really be possible to think of Six Impossible Things in the space of a heartbeat - or at least before breakfast. It should be further possible to extract the most promising of these six things, and work on these for the next heartbeat, and so on.
Imagine the possibility of thinking at Hyper Speed! Imagine creating a fully fledged Idea, complete with theory and rebuttals, all but written hypotheses - virtually published and ready, all before lunchtime. Genius! We would cry! Freak of Nature! We would venture! Impossible to the ordinary man! We would comfort ourselves.
Well - I think we can. Let's look at the framework around speed reading and insert "thinking" into it as well..
- Get rid of distractions,
- Adjust speed according to the content,
- Learn to 'skim' to separate the fillers from the facts,
- Discipline yourself not to re-read (re-think),
- Discipline yourself not to subvocalise,
- Practise reading (thinking) in blocks of words (ideas), and finally
- Practice pushing the envelope!
So - let's see what happens! At least it's an interesting experiment to try!
Of course this will take a certain amount of discipline. A throttling forward of our usual peripatetic rhythms and an embrace of things thought in the Fast Lane. There will be necessary adjustments, I'm sure. Tea, and copious amounts of it will be required, I'm adamant!
Oh.. and leave me your thoughts on this... WHAT an experiment to share! One lump, or two?
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