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Growth

  • in Growth
  • 1 min read

Everything is a Story

Blog #0005 - Stories in our mind, shape how we see the world.

To make sense of anything and store it in our mind, we subconsciously convert it to a story. The stories shape who we are, categorized by Dr. John Delony as:

  • Inherited (cultural, familial, political).
  • Imposed (by others' judgement).
  • Experienced (real events like loss, success, trauma).
  • Self-Told (internal narratives about identity and purpose).

Conversely, we can also shape the stories, by re-examine it. You'll realize how much of it in the stories are actually gaps, and we fill it with imagination. This is not just useful to break through the trap of negative thinking, it is also crucial to see the world clearly.

Luke Smith wrote about Science of the Gaps, showing how things we treated as facts, can be imaginations. We always have the illusion on scientific certainty, such as most people weirdly confident in Darwinian evolution. We do have evidence that point towards evolution as a possibility, but they are far from undebatable. Even if so, the mechanism is still unknown (e.g. gradualism vs. punctuated equilibrium).

I don't lean towards evolutionist or creationist, and I think only those who deeply studied in these fields can pick a side if they wish. Whenever something is still under debate, let's be honest, it's often straw/steel man each other point of views. In the end of the day, we still have to admit the best we can say is, we don't know, yet.

  • in Growth
  • 2 min read

Speed Reading

Blog #0003 - How human read (non-fiction/research paper) faster and understand better.

A review of research: How Do We Read, and Can Speed Reading Help? on Journal "Psychological Science in the Public Interest".

Classic speed reading courses, like those from Jim Kwik, centred around reducing subvocalization, using peripheral vision to reduce eye movement, or more contemporary Rapid Serial Visual Presentation (RSVP). Those techniques are even in conflict, where RSVP focus on single words, while peripheral vision method utilize word chunks.

The research in review shows there is no proven magic bullet that allows speed reading without compromising comprehension. Speed reading is basically skimming through text, which is very useful when we're trying to get a bird-eye view of a paper, or to quickly move through book paragraphs that doesn't bring us much value.

When encounter important information where we have less prior knowledge, slowing down to grasp the gist of it is crucial. Speed reading comes in handy where we don't waste time reading every single line, just for the sake of reading it. You're not a failure if you didn't read every single line of a book!

Mark Manson:

"Reading is to serve you, not for you to serve the book."

Always focus on getting information out of what you read, fulfilling the "why" you read it. The research shows the only proven way to be better reader is just read more and increase knowledge in different domain, which also strengthen your language skill, so we waste less time pondering on vocabulary and can quickly grasp the meaning out of a writing.