I currently am completing psychological studies for credit in my university psych course. The entire time, all I can think is “I wonder if that detail is the one they’re using to trick me with?”

I wonder how this impacts results. I can’t imagine being in a heightened state of looking out for deception has no impact.

I’ve got a few questions.

1. What is “WRT brain function”?
2. How does someone train themself out of subvocalising?
3. If you think critically, has speed reading actually increased your learning rate for semantic knowledge?
4. Most things have downsides, what are the downsides of speed reading?
5. What are your Words Per Minute (WPM)?
6. Did you test WPM before learning speed reading?
7. If this was an RPG, what level do you think you are in speed reading from 1-100?
8. How long did it take you to reach your current level in this skill?

Sorry that’s a lot of questions. I’ve been curious about this topic for a while. But the sources I hear it recommended from aren’t ones I completely trust. So it feels like a good opportunity getting to ask a LWer about it.

In my head I was thinking a tree branch moving in the wind.

I think it would be correct to say that therapy was effective for my reading. By the end of primary school I could read at a normal level. However, my reading out loud ability seems not to have improved too much since then. I hadn’t realised until just now. But I still have to memorise how to say new words. I can, with a small effort, look at a simple word I have never encountered and pronounce it. Though, the word has to be quite simple. I host trivia as a side gig, and any question with a name that isn’t spelled traditionally trips me up badly. It can be pretty embarrassing trying to say “Sarrah” and not realising it’s just pronounced “Sarah”.

That’s the thing that leads me to think, at least with reading out loud, I have to explicitly memorise a words pronunciation before I can say it. Instead of what I assume others can do, and just look at a word and know how to say it.

In writing, it was necessity and cultural pressure. By the time I was reading out loud alright I was still writing like “i fond how to Mack a YouTube account” “ken i”. That’s a real quote my mother sent me a few weeks ago. When I realised I wasn’t getting what I wanted, (Winning MC battles, Reddit upvotes, winning Facebook wars, girls would comment on my spelling and I didn’t want them to) I would look around at the way others were writing things and cargo cult type copy whatever they were doing. Actually, that’s still what I do.

I don’t think it was high intelligence that caused me to notice these fixes. It took far too long to be intelligence. Instead, I think I’m really competitive and like showing off. Eventually I found methods that got the results I was going for.

I also watched a lot of JacksFilms YGS https://youtu.be/NARxgXEdlzs?si=1rGyQMAnMxQo0x-2

Ramble dot points of thoughts I had around this.

1. I like this idea

2. When I listen to very high power or smart people debate, what I’m looking for is to absorb their knowledge.

   1. Tacit and semantic.

3. Instead, as the debate heats up, I feel myself being draw into one of the sides.

   1. I spend more time thinking about my bias than the points being made.
   2. I’m not sure what I’m picking up from heated debate is as valuable as it could be.

4. If the interlocutors are not already close friends, perhaps having them complete a quick bonding exercise to gain trust?

   1. I image playing on the same team in a video game or solving a physical problem together.
   2. Really let them settle into a vibe of being friends. Let them understand what it feels like to work with this new person toward a common goal.

Big fan of Cal’s work. He’s certainly someone who is pushing the front lines in the fight against acrasia. I’m currently reading “how to win at college”. It’s a super information dense package. Feels a bit like rationality from a-z, if it were specifically for college students trying to succeed.

Why did you decide to share this quote? I feel like I’m missing some key context that could aid my understanding.

Is it not normal to sub vocalise?

Could people react to this comment with a Tick if they do, and a cross if they don’t?

I was diagnosed as a kid. I went through a. lot. of. therapy. Lots of special classes and making two thumbs up then pushing your knuckles together to make a bed that spells bed. That all helped a lot. But three things helped to the point where I hardly think about it these days.

1. Minecraft PVP servers. You need to be able to effectively communicate with your team and taunt the enemy. And you need to be able to do it while someone is running at you with a sword.

2. Fighting with Antivax people as a teenager on Facebook. The biggest slip up someone could make in a Facebook argument was mixing up “you’re” and “your”

3. Talking to girls I liked who could actually spell things correctly. I got very good at rapidly googling how to spell words as I was typing a response.

That’s a great idea, Thank you!

And here it is: https://manifold.markets/keltan/will-there-be-a-lessonline-2025

“Whiteboards everywhere” and my non-ironic favourite band are debuting songs!!!

But, I’m only a year old rationalist and I live in Australia on a uni student budget. Still… I’m considering flying out. It would be pretty incredible to run some abstract improv workshops with other truth seeking nerds. I think I need to sit down and calculate.

Is this the type of event that a first year rationalist could attend and get value from/be welcome at? What is the likelihood that it will run again next year? Is there a prediction market for that?

Edit: There is now. https://manifold.markets/keltan/will-there-be-a-lessonline-2025