How to Speed Read - And When NOT To | Ask Altucher! EP06

[00:00:01] [SPEAKER_01]: This isn't your average business podcast and he's not your average host. This is the James Altucher Show.

[00:00:18] [SPEAKER_00]: Alright, James, I have a question for you. I always want to ask this question.

[00:00:22] [SPEAKER_00]: Sure, ask away.

[00:00:24] [SPEAKER_00]: I felt like every time I read it takes me a billion years to finish a book.

[00:00:28] [SPEAKER_00]: So when I start a book, I only read one word and then I'm done.

[00:00:33] [SPEAKER_00]: And then I just can never finish.

[00:00:36] [SPEAKER_01]: Wait, does this incur in only English? Like how are you when you're reading a book in Malaysian?

[00:00:41] [SPEAKER_00]: It's the same. In Chinese.

[00:00:44] [SPEAKER_01]: There's no language, Malay language or anything?

[00:00:46] [SPEAKER_00]: There's but like I'm not interested in reading in Malay. Somehow it's more interesting in English and in English in Chinese.

[00:00:53] [SPEAKER_00]: But it's the same. I read one word, my mind's wander and then I'm like, okay, I guess it's five o'clock now. I'm do something else.

[00:01:00] [SPEAKER_01]: It's interesting because think about this podcast. We do about 150 podcasts a year and I've been doing this for eight years, nine years.

[00:01:13] [SPEAKER_01]: And this is the so it's eight and a half years actually since January of 2014.

[00:01:18] [SPEAKER_00]: Right.

[00:01:19] [SPEAKER_01]: On average, every podcast, the authors written one book now sometimes they were in zero books and sometimes they've written three books.

[00:01:26] [SPEAKER_01]: So I'm saying on average one. So I have to read a couple of books a week to just keep up with this podcast.

[00:01:33] [SPEAKER_01]: Plus, I like to read for enjoyment. So I read more than three books a week.

[00:01:37] [SPEAKER_01]: Now, let me just say as a caveat, I don't think people should speed read.

[00:01:42] [SPEAKER_01]: I think it's very important to read the entire book and for this podcast 90% of the time I'll read the entire book plus do other research for each guest.

[00:01:53] [SPEAKER_01]: I think it's really important to get the full details and also to show respect for the guest to read the full book.

[00:01:58] [SPEAKER_00]: I'm just curious why shouldn't someone speed read?

[00:02:01] [SPEAKER_00]: Like let's say, you know how people have those weird resolutions.

[00:02:05] [SPEAKER_00]: I want to read 60 books in this year type of thing.

[00:02:08] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

[00:02:09] [SPEAKER_00]: Why shouldn't they speed read all the books and finish the 60 books in like what two months?

[00:02:14] [SPEAKER_01]: If it's a good writer fiction or nonfiction, every sentence is there for a reason.

[00:02:18] [SPEAKER_01]: Like let's say it's fiction. Every sentence should move the plot forward.

[00:02:22] [SPEAKER_01]: And if you miss a sentence, you're not really fully grasping the beauty and the subtleties of the novel or in genre fiction, you're missing some important clues, you know, and some important information that you need to understand later on in the novel.

[00:02:38] [SPEAKER_01]: So particularly for fiction, I don't think anybody should speed read.

[00:02:41] [SPEAKER_01]: For nonfiction, if you're just reading a book to absorb the bulk of the information, then it might be okay to speed read.

[00:02:49] [SPEAKER_01]: And again, I hardly ever resort to speed reading for a podcast.

[00:02:53] [SPEAKER_01]: I can't remember the last time I did it, but there has been occasions where let's say I have five podcasts scheduled in a week.

[00:02:59] [SPEAKER_01]: There's no way I could read all the books completely for that week.

[00:03:04] [SPEAKER_01]: And I mean we've been working really hard to avoid that in the scheduling.

[00:03:07] [SPEAKER_01]: So it hasn't happened lately.

[00:03:08] [SPEAKER_01]: But there are occasions where I've had to speed read the book to get enough information and to get the important information of the book in order to ask interesting questions in the podcast.

[00:03:19] [SPEAKER_01]: And again, this is rare and I don't recommend it particularly for fiction.

[00:03:24] [SPEAKER_01]: For fiction, let me just hold off for a second.

[00:03:26] [SPEAKER_01]: For fiction, I don't think you should ever speed read either read the book or don't read the book because speed read, you're going to miss something.

[00:03:33] [SPEAKER_01]: And I'm just going to take as an example two important books by Ernest Hemingway.

[00:03:39] [SPEAKER_01]: Ernest Hemingway, he writes in this very spare kind of style.

[00:03:43] [SPEAKER_01]: He uses as few words as necessary.

[00:03:47] [SPEAKER_01]: He doesn't use any fancy words.

[00:03:48] [SPEAKER_01]: He writes in a very simple style and that's why people love him so much.

[00:03:52] [SPEAKER_01]: That's why he won the Nobel Prize.

[00:03:54] [SPEAKER_01]: I'm going to show you an example from his first book.

[00:03:56] [SPEAKER_01]: This is just for fiction.

[00:03:57] [SPEAKER_01]: This is a segue away from speed reading.

[00:03:59] [SPEAKER_01]: I'm going to take an example from his very first book, The Sun Also Rises.

[00:04:03] [SPEAKER_01]: And then take an example from his very last book, The Moveable Feast.

[00:04:07] [SPEAKER_01]: So The Sun Also Rises, there's a chapter that begins in the morning it was raining.

[00:04:14] [SPEAKER_01]: A fog had come over the mountains from the sea.

[00:04:16] [SPEAKER_01]: So very simple sentences, just a few words in each sentence.

[00:04:19] [SPEAKER_01]: But that phrase, a fog had come over the mountains from the sea.

[00:04:23] [SPEAKER_01]: Prior to this point in the book, things were going pretty well for the main character.

[00:04:28] [SPEAKER_01]: But after this it's like almost like a foreshadowing.

[00:04:32] [SPEAKER_01]: A fog had come over the mountains from the sea.

[00:04:34] [SPEAKER_01]: You read this and you realize later in the book that the fog was not only the weather

[00:04:39] [SPEAKER_01]: but the fog was over the lives of the characters in the book.

[00:04:42] [SPEAKER_01]: So it's a very simple example using the weather, using images of kind of like a rainy day

[00:04:48] [SPEAKER_01]: and the fog to say that a fog had come over the lives of the characters.

[00:04:52] [SPEAKER_01]: And so if you're skipping around just for the plot,

[00:04:56] [SPEAKER_01]: you would have missed this kind of beautiful foreshadowing and so on.

[00:05:00] [SPEAKER_01]: And in A Moveable Feast, the very first chapter begins, then there was the bad weather.

[00:05:08] [SPEAKER_01]: It would come in one day when the fall was over.

[00:05:10] [SPEAKER_01]: We'd have to shut the windows in the night against the rain

[00:05:12] [SPEAKER_01]: and the cold wind would strip the leaves from the trees in the plos contra-scarp.

[00:05:17] [SPEAKER_01]: And that sentence, then there was the bad weather.

[00:05:19] [SPEAKER_01]: Again, life had been good in Paris at the point when the moveable feast begins

[00:05:24] [SPEAKER_01]: but this is foreshadowing and then there was the bad weather.

[00:05:27] [SPEAKER_01]: Things would not be good after this

[00:05:30] [SPEAKER_01]: and that's how he sets the tone for the rest of the book.

[00:05:33] [SPEAKER_01]: So what I'm saying is in fiction you should slow read instead of speed read.

[00:05:38] [SPEAKER_01]: You should read every sentence and try to figure out the beauty of that sentence

[00:05:42] [SPEAKER_01]: when it's a really great writer and that includes genre fiction.

[00:05:45] [SPEAKER_00]: So does that mean that if you want to be a writer, then you shouldn't be speed read at all?

[00:05:51] [SPEAKER_01]: Well if you want to be a writer, you need to read good quality writing and learn from the best

[00:05:56] [SPEAKER_01]: and then you definitely shouldn't speed read.

[00:05:58] [SPEAKER_01]: But even if you want to be a good reader, don't speed read fiction.

[00:06:02] [SPEAKER_01]: Nonfiction is another story.

[00:06:04] [SPEAKER_01]: First off, nonfiction is not always written by the best writers.

[00:06:09] [SPEAKER_01]: That's because let's say someone's writing a book about neuroscience.

[00:06:13] [SPEAKER_01]: They spent their entire lives trying to get good at neuroscience

[00:06:16] [SPEAKER_01]: not spending their entire lives getting good at writing.

[00:06:19] [SPEAKER_01]: So it's natural that their books might not be as well written

[00:06:22] [SPEAKER_01]: so you don't need to kind of hang on to every sentence and figure out its beauty

[00:06:26] [SPEAKER_01]: and its meaning and so on.

[00:06:28] [SPEAKER_01]: I'm just curious, why don't they hire writers, actual writers?

[00:06:31] [SPEAKER_01]: Most of them do or many people do.

[00:06:33] [SPEAKER_01]: They hire ghost writers.

[00:06:34] [SPEAKER_01]: Like we had Josh Lisek last week where he described how he specifically ghost writes

[00:06:40] [SPEAKER_01]: nonfiction writers who are experts in their fields.

[00:06:42] [SPEAKER_01]: By the way, even if you don't use a ghost writer,

[00:06:44] [SPEAKER_01]: I would recommend if you're an expert in your field, listen to that podcast

[00:06:48] [SPEAKER_01]: because he basically talks about how to approach your material

[00:06:52] [SPEAKER_01]: if you're the best in the world at what you do.

[00:06:55] [SPEAKER_00]: I just wanted to mention that that podcast is episodes 1,060.

[00:07:00] [SPEAKER_00]: It's called So Good They Call You Fake.

[00:07:03] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, So Good They Call You Fake because people can't believe like everybody

[00:07:07] [SPEAKER_01]: who's the best in the world at something or leads an interesting life

[00:07:11] [SPEAKER_01]: is living a life outside of the normal routine

[00:07:13] [SPEAKER_01]: and if you're good at expressing what you do and what kind of life you lead

[00:07:18] [SPEAKER_01]: then people are going to say that can't be true.

[00:07:21] [SPEAKER_01]: You're a fake.

[00:07:22] [SPEAKER_01]: Josh's point is that's when you know you're doing something good.

[00:07:24] [SPEAKER_01]: When you're telling the truth and everyone calls you a fake.

[00:07:27] [SPEAKER_01]: So, if you're a fake and everyone calls you a fake

[00:07:30] [SPEAKER_01]: then you know you're doing a bad job because people can see right through you.

[00:07:33] [SPEAKER_01]: So, but back to speed reading.

[00:07:36] [SPEAKER_01]: First off, it's a very important statistic which is

[00:07:40] [SPEAKER_01]: and I'm going to add to this statistic as well.

[00:07:42] [SPEAKER_01]: People remember like how much do you remember from a book on average?

[00:07:46] [SPEAKER_01]: First off, people remember about 10% of what they hear.

[00:07:51] [SPEAKER_01]: So, Jay if someone's listening to our podcast

[00:07:54] [SPEAKER_01]: and then afterwards someone asks hey what was that podcast about

[00:07:58] [SPEAKER_01]: the average person could remember about 10% of it which is good.

[00:08:02] [SPEAKER_01]: You'll remember the important points

[00:08:04] [SPEAKER_01]: and you'll be able to get information out of it and 10% is a good number.

[00:08:08] [SPEAKER_01]: If you read something, you remember about 20% of what you read

[00:08:11] [SPEAKER_01]: and if you look at something like if you look at a painting or a picture

[00:08:16] [SPEAKER_01]: or maybe even a YouTube video, you'll remember about 80% of what you see.

[00:08:21] [SPEAKER_01]: So, that's why a picture is worth a thousand words.

[00:08:24] [SPEAKER_01]: But I don't think that's completely true because what happens is

[00:08:27] [SPEAKER_01]: that's only in the first hour or so after you read something

[00:08:32] [SPEAKER_01]: you'll remember 20% of what you read.

[00:08:34] [SPEAKER_01]: In the long term, unless you remind yourself every day of what you read

[00:08:39] [SPEAKER_01]: what you remember from a book sharply declines.

[00:08:44] [SPEAKER_01]: So in the long run instead of you remember 20% of what you read

[00:08:47] [SPEAKER_01]: you do remember about 2% of what you read in the long run.

[00:08:50] [SPEAKER_01]: You read a book today, a month from now you might remember 2% of what you read.

[00:08:54] [SPEAKER_01]: There's nothing wrong with that either.

[00:08:56] [SPEAKER_01]: That's true for everybody and you're not going to remember a random 2%.

[00:09:01] [SPEAKER_01]: You're going to remember the most important 2% of the book that had an effect on you.

[00:09:05] [SPEAKER_01]: So even my all-time favorite nonfiction books in the long run

[00:09:08] [SPEAKER_01]: I'll remember 2% of what the book was about but it'll be the most important 2%.

[00:09:13] [SPEAKER_01]: Just why it's good occasionally to reread books that you, nonfiction books that you love.

[00:09:18] [SPEAKER_01]: So again this is about nonfiction not fiction because I don't think it's important.

[00:09:23] [SPEAKER_01]: I don't think you should speed read any fiction book.

[00:09:25] [SPEAKER_01]: You should just read the book.

[00:09:26] [SPEAKER_00]: I'm just curious what are the books that you mostly read?

[00:09:30] [SPEAKER_01]: Well I'll reread fiction books all the time because there's very few fiction books

[00:09:36] [SPEAKER_01]: that are like let's say in the top.

[00:09:39] [SPEAKER_01]: Like let's say, you know I read fiction books not only to enjoy them

[00:09:43] [SPEAKER_01]: but also to learn from them as a writer.

[00:09:45] [SPEAKER_01]: Like I want to read the best fiction books and learn from them

[00:09:49] [SPEAKER_01]: and every time I read a great fiction book then I'm going to learn more

[00:09:53] [SPEAKER_01]: even if I've read it a hundred times.

[00:09:55] [SPEAKER_01]: There are some fiction books I've read over 200 times just because I learned to be a writer

[00:09:59] [SPEAKER_01]: and I get better as a writer.

[00:10:00] [SPEAKER_01]: But nonfiction books, I've said, I say we have, we have had most of the authors

[00:10:06] [SPEAKER_01]: like Matt Ridley, he's somebody I always reread you know the rational optimist,

[00:10:12] [SPEAKER_01]: the evolution of everything.

[00:10:13] [SPEAKER_01]: He's been a podcast guest I've often read his books that that's just an example.

[00:10:17] [SPEAKER_01]: Ryan Holiday, Robert Green, Robert Green I'll I've reread every single one of his books

[00:10:22] [SPEAKER_01]: at least three or four times and there's many others like very there's some very good

[00:10:27] [SPEAKER_01]: nonfiction books out there that I don't want to pick out too many because I

[00:10:31] [SPEAKER_01]: don't want anybody to think I've left them off but I would say most of our

[00:10:33] [SPEAKER_01]: podcast guests have written such great nonfiction books that I try to

[00:10:38] [SPEAKER_01]: reread them occasionally so I could learn more from them.

[00:10:40] [SPEAKER_01]: But let's say we have six podcasts we're recording in a week

[00:10:45] [SPEAKER_01]: and each one of the guests have written two books and I've got to read all of them.

[00:10:50] [SPEAKER_01]: I'm probably gonna and that hasn't happened to us in at least a year

[00:10:55] [SPEAKER_01]: but I'm probably going to have to speed read some of those books.

[00:10:58] [SPEAKER_01]: Now there are official techniques, I say official because these are the techniques

[00:11:04] [SPEAKER_01]: that are taught in schools and stuff.

[00:11:06] [SPEAKER_01]: There are techniques to speed read that are known out there.

[00:11:10] [SPEAKER_01]: I don't agree with any of those techniques and my technique for speed

[00:11:13] [SPEAKER_01]: reading is very different from the usual techniques from speed reading.

[00:11:16] [SPEAKER_01]: So one technique for speed reading is called the pointer method and this is

[00:11:21] [SPEAKER_01]: the most popular method and the method is essentially use your finger as a pointer

[00:11:25] [SPEAKER_01]: while you read and move your finger very fast because your eyes will tend to

[00:11:29] [SPEAKER_01]: follow your finger and you'll read very fast or use an index card to cover up

[00:11:36] [SPEAKER_01]: the sentences after the sentence you're reading but you move the index

[00:11:40] [SPEAKER_01]: card down very fast and your eyes will follow the index card and what

[00:11:44] [SPEAKER_01]: happens is then your eyes get used to reading three or four words at a time

[00:11:48] [SPEAKER_01]: and absorbing the meaning and you'll read very fast.

[00:11:52] [SPEAKER_01]: This method is awful, I hate this method.

[00:11:54] [SPEAKER_00]: I'm just curious, so I'm sure there's a speed reading contest out there right?

[00:11:58] [SPEAKER_00]: I'm sure there's speed reading competitions or whatever?

[00:12:02] [SPEAKER_01]: Probably and then maybe your quiz and I will say here's the thing about speed reading

[00:12:09] [SPEAKER_01]: is that the average person reads about let's call it 240 words per minute.

[00:12:17] [SPEAKER_01]: So 240 words is about two thirds of a page.

[00:12:21] [SPEAKER_01]: The average page is like 300 to 400 words in a page and so again

[00:12:27] [SPEAKER_01]: the average person reads about 240 words per minute and a speed reader

[00:12:31] [SPEAKER_01]: like a top-notch speed reader using the method I just described,

[00:12:35] [SPEAKER_01]: the pointer method will read about a thousand,

[00:12:40] [SPEAKER_01]: a great speed reader will read about a thousand words per minute.

[00:12:43] [SPEAKER_01]: So about three pages per minute.

[00:12:45] [SPEAKER_00]: Do they ever burn their finger just reading it that fast?

[00:12:49] [SPEAKER_01]: It must be pay-to-cut right?

[00:12:50] [SPEAKER_01]: No because you don't have to touch the page.

[00:12:52] [SPEAKER_01]: You just use your finger as a pointer and your eyes

[00:12:56] [SPEAKER_01]: and you practice reading as fast as the...

[00:12:59] [SPEAKER_01]: And so what happens is you chunk the words.

[00:13:01] [SPEAKER_01]: So if the sentence says there have been 46 presidents,

[00:13:06] [SPEAKER_01]: the last president is Joe Biden and instead of just reading that one word at a time

[00:13:10] [SPEAKER_01]: you get used to reading three or four words at a time

[00:13:13] [SPEAKER_01]: because that's how fast the pointer is moving.

[00:13:16] [SPEAKER_00]: I would imagine like the champion of the speed reader has like callus and finger.

[00:13:22] [SPEAKER_00]: Only one finger have callus because they have to...

[00:13:24] [SPEAKER_01]: No, no. You can use a pointer or anything or you can use an index card.

[00:13:27] [SPEAKER_01]: But again, I think this is a very bad method and I don't agree with it

[00:13:33] [SPEAKER_01]: and I don't think it increases your under...

[00:13:35] [SPEAKER_01]: The method I'm about to describe is a method I sort of developed on my own

[00:13:39] [SPEAKER_01]: because I was forced to read so many books fast

[00:13:43] [SPEAKER_01]: particularly when I first started podcasting

[00:13:47] [SPEAKER_01]: and I got very good at it.

[00:13:49] [SPEAKER_01]: But again, I don't like to do it but I got good at it.

[00:13:53] [SPEAKER_00]: What is it bad using the pointer?

[00:13:55] [SPEAKER_01]: Because I don't think you actually learn more and I think it's also very stressful.

[00:14:00] [SPEAKER_01]: Like imagine like you're constantly feeling like stressed.

[00:14:03] [SPEAKER_01]: Oh my God, I have to keep up with the pointer.

[00:14:05] [SPEAKER_01]: I have to keep up with the pointer.

[00:14:06] [SPEAKER_01]: So I think actually you learn and remember less from the book when you speed read

[00:14:11] [SPEAKER_01]: and the method I'm about to describe

[00:14:13] [SPEAKER_01]: you could potentially even learn more than 20% from a book.

[00:14:18] [SPEAKER_01]: You know they say again, the average reader learns about 20% of what they read.

[00:14:23] [SPEAKER_01]: I would say I learned more like 30 or 40% the first time through.

[00:14:27] [SPEAKER_01]: Again, my memory will degrade just like anyone else's

[00:14:30] [SPEAKER_01]: after I've read the book and in a couple days go by or a couple weeks go by

[00:14:35] [SPEAKER_01]: I'll go down to what everybody goes down to which is about 2%.

[00:14:40] [SPEAKER_01]: But with my method I figured out that I actually in the short term

[00:14:46] [SPEAKER_01]: learn a lot more

[00:14:48] [SPEAKER_01]: and if I spend even a little bit more time in the very, very short term

[00:14:53] [SPEAKER_01]: I'll learn up to 50% of what's in the book

[00:14:55] [SPEAKER_01]: which is more than enough to do a podcast with the information.

[00:15:15] [SPEAKER_01]: Okay, so let me just describe my method

[00:15:17] [SPEAKER_01]: and then maybe I can describe some examples.

[00:15:20] [SPEAKER_01]: My method is what's called a fractal.

[00:15:24] [SPEAKER_01]: So what's a fractal?

[00:15:25] [SPEAKER_01]: A fractal is this idea from chaos theory

[00:15:28] [SPEAKER_01]: that some pattern emerges

[00:15:32] [SPEAKER_01]: but on whether it's a book or an object or a picture

[00:15:36] [SPEAKER_01]: there's some pattern, but even if you magnify the image

[00:15:41] [SPEAKER_01]: you'll still see the exact same pattern

[00:15:43] [SPEAKER_01]: and if you magnify it like a thousand times even more

[00:15:46] [SPEAKER_01]: and look you'll still see the same pattern.

[00:15:48] [SPEAKER_01]: So no matter how much you magnify an image

[00:15:51] [SPEAKER_01]: you'll see the same pattern.

[00:15:53] [SPEAKER_01]: And I'm going to describe what I mean.

[00:15:54] [SPEAKER_01]: So my method works if you're trying to read a book

[00:15:57] [SPEAKER_01]: but the exact same method works

[00:15:59] [SPEAKER_01]: if you're trying to read a chapter of the book

[00:16:01] [SPEAKER_01]: or a paragraph of the book.

[00:16:03] [SPEAKER_01]: You could still learn using the exact same method I'm describing

[00:16:06] [SPEAKER_01]: you'll learn what a paragraph said

[00:16:09] [SPEAKER_01]: just as easily as you can learn what a chapter said

[00:16:11] [SPEAKER_01]: just as easily as you can learn what the entire book said.

[00:16:13] [SPEAKER_01]: So you'll see what I mean in a second.

[00:16:15] [SPEAKER_01]: So here's the method.

[00:16:17] [SPEAKER_01]: Basically, if you only have five minutes

[00:16:20] [SPEAKER_01]: or 10 minutes to read an entire book

[00:16:23] [SPEAKER_01]: and this is going to seem kind of obvious

[00:16:25] [SPEAKER_01]: but if you only have 10 minutes to read an entire book

[00:16:27] [SPEAKER_01]: you obviously can't read it.

[00:16:28] [SPEAKER_01]: You can't even skim it.

[00:16:29] [SPEAKER_01]: But here's what you do.

[00:16:31] [SPEAKER_01]: Read the first chapter

[00:16:33] [SPEAKER_01]: and read the last chapter

[00:16:35] [SPEAKER_01]: because in a nonfiction book

[00:16:37] [SPEAKER_01]: the first chapter always describes

[00:16:41] [SPEAKER_01]: what the book is about

[00:16:42] [SPEAKER_01]: and why they wrote the book.

[00:16:44] [SPEAKER_01]: They might be writing a book about

[00:16:46] [SPEAKER_01]: I'll use James Clear's Atomic Habits as an example.

[00:16:50] [SPEAKER_01]: Great book by the way.

[00:16:51] [SPEAKER_01]: People should read the entire book.

[00:16:53] [SPEAKER_01]: There's no excuse not to read the entire book

[00:16:55] [SPEAKER_01]: unless you're rushing for a podcast.

[00:16:56] [SPEAKER_01]: But I'll just use this as an example.

[00:16:58] [SPEAKER_01]: I randomly picked it off.

[00:17:00] [SPEAKER_01]: Knowing that we were going to do this podcast later

[00:17:02] [SPEAKER_01]: I randomly picked this book off the bookshelf

[00:17:05] [SPEAKER_01]: decided to see if my speed reading technique

[00:17:07] [SPEAKER_01]: would work on it.

[00:17:09] [SPEAKER_01]: Basically, in most nonfiction books

[00:17:11] [SPEAKER_01]: the very first chapter gives a little bit of a story

[00:17:14] [SPEAKER_01]: why the author decided to write this book

[00:17:17] [SPEAKER_01]: or why the author felt he needed to write this book

[00:17:20] [SPEAKER_01]: and there's usually a little story involved

[00:17:22] [SPEAKER_01]: and then there's a summary

[00:17:24] [SPEAKER_01]: and then often the very first chapter in a nonfiction book

[00:17:27] [SPEAKER_01]: gives a brief overview of what every chapter is about.

[00:17:31] [SPEAKER_00]: So they pretty much already spoiled the book

[00:17:34] [SPEAKER_00]: before you read the book?

[00:17:35] [SPEAKER_01]: Not spoiled.

[00:17:36] [SPEAKER_01]: They'll say something like

[00:17:38] [SPEAKER_01]: in the book Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman

[00:17:40] [SPEAKER_01]: and this is essentially the book

[00:17:42] [SPEAKER_01]: which helped them win the Nobel Prize in economics.

[00:17:45] [SPEAKER_01]: He'll say in the introduction,

[00:17:46] [SPEAKER_01]: the first chapter,

[00:17:47] [SPEAKER_01]: this book is divided into five parts

[00:17:49] [SPEAKER_01]: part one represents the basic elements

[00:17:51] [SPEAKER_01]: blah, blah, blah

[00:17:52] [SPEAKER_01]: part two updates the study of blah, blah, blah

[00:17:55] [SPEAKER_01]: part three does this, part four is this

[00:17:57] [SPEAKER_01]: part five is this.

[00:17:58] [SPEAKER_01]: So basically in Daniel Kahneman's book

[00:18:00] [SPEAKER_01]: Thinking Fast and Slow

[00:18:01] [SPEAKER_01]: the introduction talks about

[00:18:05] [SPEAKER_01]: his background a little bit

[00:18:06] [SPEAKER_01]: he talks about how people make very easy mistakes sometimes

[00:18:10] [SPEAKER_01]: so why do they make these mistakes

[00:18:12] [SPEAKER_01]: and what's the difference between

[00:18:13] [SPEAKER_01]: thinking fast and thinking slow?

[00:18:16] [SPEAKER_01]: Basically in chapter one

[00:18:17] [SPEAKER_01]: he talks about there are two systems of thinking

[00:18:20] [SPEAKER_01]: system one, system one

[00:18:22] [SPEAKER_01]: operates automatically and quickly

[00:18:24] [SPEAKER_01]: system two for more difficult

[00:18:26] [SPEAKER_01]: thinking activities it allocates attention

[00:18:29] [SPEAKER_01]: from different parts of the brain allocates

[00:18:31] [SPEAKER_01]: resources from different parts of the brain to focus

[00:18:33] [SPEAKER_01]: on the problem and this is

[00:18:35] [SPEAKER_01]: more difficult thinking system two is slower

[00:18:37] [SPEAKER_01]: thinking system one is fast

[00:18:39] [SPEAKER_01]: thinking and then he gives examples

[00:18:41] [SPEAKER_01]: a system one example answer to two plus two equals

[00:18:44] [SPEAKER_01]: and your intuition kicks in

[00:18:46] [SPEAKER_01]: you instantly think four

[00:18:48] [SPEAKER_01]: but system two might be

[00:18:50] [SPEAKER_01]: what's 17 times 24

[00:18:52] [SPEAKER_01]: then you have to kind of use more resources

[00:18:55] [SPEAKER_01]: and more energy in the brain

[00:18:56] [SPEAKER_01]: so that's system two thinking

[00:18:58] [SPEAKER_01]: system one thinking if you have to

[00:19:00] [SPEAKER_01]: answer which object is

[00:19:02] [SPEAKER_01]: more distant than another object

[00:19:04] [SPEAKER_01]: it's very fast oh

[00:19:06] [SPEAKER_01]: that tree in the distance is closer

[00:19:09] [SPEAKER_01]: that chair in my office

[00:19:10] [SPEAKER_01]: and so that's system one

[00:19:12] [SPEAKER_01]: system two is

[00:19:15] [SPEAKER_01]: you know fill out a

[00:19:16] [SPEAKER_01]: tax form that's system two like

[00:19:18] [SPEAKER_01]: usually have to think about it it takes more time

[00:19:20] [SPEAKER_01]: and so on sometimes when

[00:19:22] [SPEAKER_01]: system two happens the whole point

[00:19:24] [SPEAKER_01]: of the book is it takes shortcuts called cognitive biases

[00:19:27] [SPEAKER_01]: or like with illusions

[00:19:28] [SPEAKER_01]: we use kind

[00:19:30] [SPEAKER_01]: of shortcuts to determine

[00:19:32] [SPEAKER_01]: we don't take out a ruler and measure

[00:19:34] [SPEAKER_01]: two images to see which one's bigger

[00:19:35] [SPEAKER_01]: we use shortcuts and sometimes we're fooled

[00:19:38] [SPEAKER_01]: by optical illusions

[00:19:39] [SPEAKER_01]: because the cognitive bias is taken

[00:19:41] [SPEAKER_01]: so you read

[00:19:43] [SPEAKER_01]: the first chapter and then you read the last chapter

[00:19:46] [SPEAKER_01]: so the last chapter

[00:19:47] [SPEAKER_01]: is obviously usually a summary

[00:19:49] [SPEAKER_01]: or a conclusion of everything

[00:19:51] [SPEAKER_01]: you write it might have a story as well

[00:19:53] [SPEAKER_01]: or it might refer back to

[00:19:55] [SPEAKER_01]: other stories so that is

[00:19:58] [SPEAKER_01]: and that's it

[00:20:00] [SPEAKER_01]: if you just read the first chapter

[00:20:01] [SPEAKER_01]: and the last chapter

[00:20:04] [SPEAKER_01]: of

[00:20:05] [SPEAKER_01]: a book like the last chapter of thinking fast

[00:20:07] [SPEAKER_01]: and slow by the way thinking fast and slow is

[00:20:09] [SPEAKER_01]: almost 500 pages

[00:20:10] [SPEAKER_01]: in some cases a complex

[00:20:13] [SPEAKER_01]: book in some cases it's a little easier to

[00:20:15] [SPEAKER_01]: read but essentially it's written by academics

[00:20:17] [SPEAKER_01]: so it's more complex than easy

[00:20:19] [SPEAKER_01]: if you just read the first

[00:20:21] [SPEAKER_01]: chapter and the last chapter

[00:20:23] [SPEAKER_01]: of thinking fast and slow and you're at

[00:20:25] [SPEAKER_01]: a cocktail party

[00:20:27] [SPEAKER_01]: after work and anyone asks

[00:20:29] [SPEAKER_01]: hey does anyone did anyone here

[00:20:31] [SPEAKER_01]: someone's trying to brag saying they say did anyone hear

[00:20:33] [SPEAKER_01]: thinking fast and slow by Daniel

[00:20:36] [SPEAKER_01]: Kahneman you could always say oh yeah I read it

[00:20:38] [SPEAKER_01]: system one versus system two

[00:20:40] [SPEAKER_01]: thinking and you could describe very easily

[00:20:42] [SPEAKER_01]: what system one and system two is

[00:20:44] [SPEAKER_01]: you could talk about different cognitive biases

[00:20:45] [SPEAKER_01]: you could give examples let me ask this James

[00:20:48] [SPEAKER_00]: does it work on biography though

[00:20:49] [SPEAKER_00]: or like a history type of

[00:20:52] [SPEAKER_00]: nonfiction absolutely because

[00:20:54] [SPEAKER_01]: a history will still have

[00:20:55] [SPEAKER_01]: an introduction like why

[00:20:57] [SPEAKER_01]: this period in history is important

[00:20:59] [SPEAKER_01]: and it'll also have

[00:21:01] [SPEAKER_01]: a conclusion which is what did you

[00:21:04] [SPEAKER_01]: learn summary of the big

[00:21:06] [SPEAKER_01]: things you learn don't forget a history

[00:21:07] [SPEAKER_01]: book is usually just not

[00:21:10] [SPEAKER_01]: chapter one this happened chapter

[00:21:11] [SPEAKER_01]: two then this happened chapter three then this

[00:21:14] [SPEAKER_01]: happened there's usually a reason why they're

[00:21:15] [SPEAKER_01]: writing a history book like

[00:21:17] [SPEAKER_01]: let's say a book is about World War One it's not

[00:21:19] [SPEAKER_01]: going to just be a history of World War One

[00:21:21] [SPEAKER_01]: it'll be World War One

[00:21:23] [SPEAKER_01]: set the stage for America to become the

[00:21:25] [SPEAKER_01]: dominant superpower of the world for the next

[00:21:28] [SPEAKER_01]: hundred years so there'll be

[00:21:29] [SPEAKER_01]: an introduction which describes World War

[00:21:31] [SPEAKER_01]: War One and the major events of World War One

[00:21:34] [SPEAKER_01]: that catapulted the US

[00:21:35] [SPEAKER_01]: to being a dominant superpower

[00:21:37] [SPEAKER_01]: and then the conclusion will go over

[00:21:39] [SPEAKER_01]: those major events and why they made

[00:21:41] [SPEAKER_01]: the US to be a dominant

[00:21:43] [SPEAKER_01]: superpower and

[00:21:45] [SPEAKER_01]: so yes you can get the gist of most

[00:21:47] [SPEAKER_01]: biographies and histories I can't say

[00:21:50] [SPEAKER_01]: 100% because I haven't read

[00:21:51] [SPEAKER_01]: 100% of the books hold on to say let me

[00:21:53] [SPEAKER_01]: get like a biography

[00:21:55] [SPEAKER_01]: and I will tell you if I'm going to pick a

[00:21:57] [SPEAKER_01]: random biography hold on this is

[00:21:59] [SPEAKER_00]: the house of a writer right like

[00:22:01] [SPEAKER_00]: writer and reader you can just like hey

[00:22:03] [SPEAKER_00]: let me pick out random thing real quick

[00:22:05] [SPEAKER_00]: let me pick up random books real quick

[00:22:07] [SPEAKER_01]: yeah although back in

[00:22:09] [SPEAKER_01]: 2015 when I threw out all my belongings

[00:22:11] [SPEAKER_01]: or you know got rid of all my belongings

[00:22:13] [SPEAKER_01]: I also got rid of all my books so it's

[00:22:15] [SPEAKER_01]: just in the past year since I got

[00:22:17] [SPEAKER_01]: this new house that I've been

[00:22:19] [SPEAKER_01]: rebuilding my books but

[00:22:21] [SPEAKER_01]: I picked out randomly a book that was right behind

[00:22:23] [SPEAKER_01]: me Jay Shetty's book

[00:22:25] [SPEAKER_01]: Think Like A Monk so Jay

[00:22:27] [SPEAKER_01]: Shetty essentially wrote

[00:22:29] [SPEAKER_01]: sort of memoir of his experiences

[00:22:31] [SPEAKER_01]: and what he learned as a monk

[00:22:33] [SPEAKER_01]: the book is over

[00:22:35] [SPEAKER_01]: 300 pages long and I never

[00:22:37] [SPEAKER_01]: read it because I got it in anticipation

[00:22:39] [SPEAKER_01]: you know I've been on Jay's podcast

[00:22:42] [SPEAKER_01]: and I thought maybe Jay

[00:22:43] [SPEAKER_01]: would come to my podcast but he didn't really do that many

[00:22:45] [SPEAKER_01]: podcasts when the book came out

[00:22:47] [SPEAKER_01]: and whatever it never happened

[00:22:48] [SPEAKER_01]: okay I'm looking at so

[00:22:51] [SPEAKER_01]: I've never read this book so I'm looking at the very first

[00:22:53] [SPEAKER_01]: page and it says when I was 18

[00:22:55] [SPEAKER_01]: years old in my first year of college

[00:22:56] [SPEAKER_01]: at Cass Business School in London

[00:22:58] [SPEAKER_01]: one of my friends asked me to go with him to hear a

[00:23:01] [SPEAKER_01]: monk give a talk

[00:23:03] [SPEAKER_01]: I resisted why would I want to go

[00:23:05] [SPEAKER_01]: hear some monk and then he says

[00:23:07] [SPEAKER_01]: third paragraph I often went to see CEO

[00:23:09] [SPEAKER_01]: celebrities and other successful people lecture

[00:23:11] [SPEAKER_01]: on campus but I had zero interest

[00:23:13] [SPEAKER_01]: in a monk I preferred to hear speakers

[00:23:15] [SPEAKER_01]: who'd actually accomplish things in life

[00:23:17] [SPEAKER_01]: okay so just from these three

[00:23:19] [SPEAKER_01]: paragraphs what have we learned

[00:23:21] [SPEAKER_01]: well Jay you tell me what have we learned

[00:23:23] [SPEAKER_01]: in these first three paragraphs

[00:23:26] [SPEAKER_00]: he only listened

[00:23:27] [SPEAKER_00]: to people that are successful

[00:23:28] [SPEAKER_00]: and then he has some sort of judgmental

[00:23:31] [SPEAKER_00]: mind that like

[00:23:33] [SPEAKER_00]: he thinks that monk is not

[00:23:35] [SPEAKER_00]: you know successful

[00:23:36] [SPEAKER_00]: and eventually he's going to be monk

[00:23:38] [SPEAKER_00]: because that's how it usually started to play

[00:23:40] [SPEAKER_01]: out right well the book is titled

[00:23:42] [SPEAKER_01]: Think Like a Monk so

[00:23:44] [SPEAKER_01]: we assume at some point

[00:23:46] [SPEAKER_01]: he learned to think like a monk

[00:23:48] [SPEAKER_01]: whether he became a monk or he interviewed monks

[00:23:50] [SPEAKER_01]: we technically don't know that yet

[00:23:52] [SPEAKER_01]: if we don't know anything about Jay

[00:23:53] [SPEAKER_01]: but there's a lot of things I will point out about these first three paragraphs

[00:23:57] [SPEAKER_01]: first off

[00:23:58] [SPEAKER_01]: you have to respect when a good writer writes something

[00:24:00] [SPEAKER_01]: every sentence is important

[00:24:02] [SPEAKER_01]: as Kurt Vonnegut once said

[00:24:04] [SPEAKER_01]: every sentence must either give you more

[00:24:06] [SPEAKER_01]: information about a character

[00:24:07] [SPEAKER_01]: or must move the plot forward

[00:24:09] [SPEAKER_01]: so we know he's 18 years old

[00:24:12] [SPEAKER_01]: so he's fairly young and he's at the

[00:24:14] [SPEAKER_01]: cast business school so that tells me a lot

[00:24:16] [SPEAKER_01]: he wants to be a businessman

[00:24:18] [SPEAKER_01]: he wants to be rich so he went to business

[00:24:20] [SPEAKER_01]: school instead of some other kind of college

[00:24:22] [SPEAKER_01]: in the second line it says I resisted

[00:24:25] [SPEAKER_01]: why would I want to go here

[00:24:26] [SPEAKER_01]: some monk so now we know

[00:24:28] [SPEAKER_01]: two things from that one is we think

[00:24:30] [SPEAKER_01]: about the arc of the hero so in the arc

[00:24:32] [SPEAKER_01]: of the hero the hero

[00:24:34] [SPEAKER_01]: in the very first section is reluctant

[00:24:36] [SPEAKER_01]: to go on an adventure so

[00:24:38] [SPEAKER_01]: Luke Skywalker is reluctant

[00:24:41] [SPEAKER_01]: he wants to explore

[00:24:42] [SPEAKER_01]: space he wants to be a

[00:24:45] [SPEAKER_01]: you know a pilot in space

[00:24:47] [SPEAKER_01]: but his uncle tells him

[00:24:49] [SPEAKER_01]: you know you have to work on the farm

[00:24:51] [SPEAKER_01]: another year at least so he's

[00:24:53] [SPEAKER_01]: he's reluctant to go on

[00:24:54] [SPEAKER_01]: in an Obi-Wan-Kurumi he says later to him

[00:24:57] [SPEAKER_01]: you have to go save the empire

[00:24:58] [SPEAKER_01]: rescue the princess and he says I can't do that

[00:25:01] [SPEAKER_01]: he's reluctant because

[00:25:02] [SPEAKER_01]: I've got to help my I promise my uncle

[00:25:04] [SPEAKER_01]: so every hero

[00:25:06] [SPEAKER_01]: is a reluctant hero at first so Jay

[00:25:08] [SPEAKER_01]: Shetty is saying I resisted

[00:25:10] [SPEAKER_01]: why would I want to go here some monk

[00:25:12] [SPEAKER_01]: and he describes even further he likes to see

[00:25:15] [SPEAKER_01]: CEOs, celebrities he defines

[00:25:17] [SPEAKER_01]: success by money or

[00:25:19] [SPEAKER_01]: fame he uses the example

[00:25:20] [SPEAKER_01]: of CEOs and celebrities what CEOs usually

[00:25:23] [SPEAKER_01]: have money and they're usually leaders of some

[00:25:25] [SPEAKER_01]: sort and celebrities are famous that's

[00:25:27] [SPEAKER_01]: why they're celebrities and then he even

[00:25:28] [SPEAKER_01]: further underlines that he had zero

[00:25:30] [SPEAKER_01]: interest in a monk and then he further

[00:25:33] [SPEAKER_01]: underlines it doesn't think a monk

[00:25:35] [SPEAKER_01]: accomplished anything he says I

[00:25:37] [SPEAKER_01]: prefer to hear speakers who actually

[00:25:38] [SPEAKER_01]: accomplish things in life and so

[00:25:40] [SPEAKER_01]: you learn a lot from

[00:25:42] [SPEAKER_01]: the first three paragraphs so

[00:25:45] [SPEAKER_01]: now what I also can guess

[00:25:46] [SPEAKER_01]: from these first three paragraphs is obviously

[00:25:49] [SPEAKER_01]: he's wrong

[00:25:50] [SPEAKER_01]: okay because the arc of the hero usually

[00:25:52] [SPEAKER_01]: turns the opposite

[00:25:54] [SPEAKER_01]: of reluctant later so

[00:25:56] [SPEAKER_01]: we have to assume based on the

[00:25:58] [SPEAKER_01]: title in these first three paragraphs that

[00:26:01] [SPEAKER_01]: he's going to completely reverse his opinion

[00:26:02] [SPEAKER_01]: about monks and then his friend

[00:26:04] [SPEAKER_01]: persisted and finally said as long as we go to a

[00:26:06] [SPEAKER_01]: bar afterwards I'm in

[00:26:08] [SPEAKER_01]: but he says but that night as I listen to the monk

[00:26:10] [SPEAKER_01]: talk about his experience I fell in love

[00:26:12] [SPEAKER_01]: his head was shaved he wore a saffron

[00:26:15] [SPEAKER_01]: rope he was intelligent eloquent and charismatic

[00:26:17] [SPEAKER_01]: so and he said

[00:26:18] [SPEAKER_01]: he spoke about the principle of selfless

[00:26:20] [SPEAKER_01]: sacrifice when he said that we should

[00:26:22] [SPEAKER_01]: plant trees I felt an unfamiliar

[00:26:25] [SPEAKER_01]: thrill run through my body

[00:26:26] [SPEAKER_01]: I was especially impressed when I found out

[00:26:28] [SPEAKER_01]: he'd been a student at IIT Bombay

[00:26:31] [SPEAKER_01]: which is the MIT of India

[00:26:32] [SPEAKER_01]: nearly impossible to get into he

[00:26:34] [SPEAKER_01]: traded that opportunity to become a monk

[00:26:37] [SPEAKER_01]: walking away from everything that my friends

[00:26:39] [SPEAKER_01]: and I were chasing either he was

[00:26:41] [SPEAKER_01]: crazy here was onto something so

[00:26:43] [SPEAKER_01]: I almost don't even have to read anymore

[00:26:45] [SPEAKER_01]: of the first chapter I know what this book

[00:26:47] [SPEAKER_01]: is going to be we're not talking about

[00:26:49] [SPEAKER_01]: super speed reading we're just talking

[00:26:51] [SPEAKER_01]: about speed reading so if you continue

[00:26:52] [SPEAKER_01]: reading this first chapter and I'm just kind of now

[00:26:54] [SPEAKER_01]: moving along I see he has examples

[00:26:57] [SPEAKER_01]: of Matthew

[00:26:59] [SPEAKER_01]: Ricard who's labeled the world's

[00:27:01] [SPEAKER_01]: happiest man was a was a biologist

[00:27:02] [SPEAKER_01]: and then he became some sort of

[00:27:05] [SPEAKER_01]: monk again I'm not trying to speed read

[00:27:06] [SPEAKER_01]: right here but he became a Buddhist monk

[00:27:09] [SPEAKER_01]: then he talks about

[00:27:10] [SPEAKER_01]: how he didn't grow up in an ashram he had

[00:27:13] [SPEAKER_01]: a very normal upbringing

[00:27:14] [SPEAKER_01]: he talks about Albert Einstein said

[00:27:17] [SPEAKER_01]: if you can't explain something simply

[00:27:18] [SPEAKER_01]: you don't understand it well enough so he's starting

[00:27:20] [SPEAKER_01]: to bring in stories of other people

[00:27:22] [SPEAKER_01]: maybe had a monk way

[00:27:25] [SPEAKER_01]: of thinking and then

[00:27:26] [SPEAKER_01]: nonfiction writers will often

[00:27:28] [SPEAKER_01]: do something to help you speed read

[00:27:30] [SPEAKER_01]: they'll have charts and diagrams remember

[00:27:33] [SPEAKER_01]: you you remember

[00:27:34] [SPEAKER_01]: 80% of what you see versus

[00:27:36] [SPEAKER_01]: 20% of what you read so right

[00:27:39] [SPEAKER_01]: in the chapter one in the introduction

[00:27:40] [SPEAKER_01]: Jay Shetty has a chart which

[00:27:42] [SPEAKER_01]: lists the differences between the monkey

[00:27:44] [SPEAKER_01]: mind and the monk mind

[00:27:46] [SPEAKER_01]: so the monkey mind over things and

[00:27:48] [SPEAKER_01]: procrastinates the monk mind

[00:27:50] [SPEAKER_01]: analyzes and articulates the monkey mind

[00:27:53] [SPEAKER_01]: is distracted by small things

[00:27:54] [SPEAKER_01]: the monk mind is disciplined

[00:27:56] [SPEAKER_01]: the monkey mind focuses on short

[00:27:59] [SPEAKER_01]: term gratification the monk

[00:28:00] [SPEAKER_01]: mind looks at long term

[00:28:02] [SPEAKER_01]: and then of course

[00:28:05] [SPEAKER_01]: Jay decides

[00:28:06] [SPEAKER_01]: to become a monk and he says

[00:28:08] [SPEAKER_01]: I vividly remember my first day of

[00:28:10] [SPEAKER_01]: monk school I had just shaved

[00:28:12] [SPEAKER_01]: my head but I wasn't wearing robes yet and I still

[00:28:14] [SPEAKER_01]: looked like I was from London we know later

[00:28:16] [SPEAKER_01]: on in the book we're going to learn all about his experiences

[00:28:18] [SPEAKER_01]: in monk school finally

[00:28:20] [SPEAKER_01]: he puts in bold remember the visual

[00:28:22] [SPEAKER_01]: how would a monk think

[00:28:24] [SPEAKER_01]: about life this may

[00:28:26] [SPEAKER_01]: not be a question you ask yourself right now he says

[00:28:28] [SPEAKER_01]: probably isn't close at all but it will

[00:28:30] [SPEAKER_01]: be by the end of the book so now

[00:28:32] [SPEAKER_01]: we know we have a guide this

[00:28:34] [SPEAKER_01]: first chapter tells us everything we're going to learn

[00:28:36] [SPEAKER_01]: from the book we're going to learn how a monk

[00:28:38] [SPEAKER_01]: thinks and we're going to learn Jay's

[00:28:40] [SPEAKER_01]: first experiences

[00:28:42] [SPEAKER_01]: getting into the mindset

[00:28:44] [SPEAKER_01]: of a monk and we were learning his story

[00:28:46] [SPEAKER_01]: about Einstein about Matthew

[00:28:48] [SPEAKER_01]: Ricard there's a few other people I didn't mention

[00:28:50] [SPEAKER_01]: we're going to remember this chart between the monkey mind

[00:28:52] [SPEAKER_01]: in the monk mind we already have enough

[00:28:54] [SPEAKER_01]: information that potentially if Jay Shetty was

[00:28:57] [SPEAKER_01]: in five minutes going to be on this

[00:28:58] [SPEAKER_01]: podcast we have a good start about what

[00:29:00] [SPEAKER_01]: questions to ask now I could look at the

[00:29:02] [SPEAKER_01]: table of contents okay this is

[00:29:04] [SPEAKER_01]: a little bit more let's not look at the

[00:29:06] [SPEAKER_01]: table of contents yet let's just go immediately

[00:29:08] [SPEAKER_01]: to the last chapter I said

[00:29:10] [SPEAKER_01]: the first thing to be a super

[00:29:12] [SPEAKER_01]: speed reader is read

[00:29:14] [SPEAKER_01]: just the first and last chapter so the

[00:29:16] [SPEAKER_01]: conclusion which is the last chapter I hope

[00:29:19] [SPEAKER_01]: this book has inspired you

[00:29:20] [SPEAKER_01]: and that's in the first sentence

[00:29:22] [SPEAKER_01]: and then he has a section

[00:29:24] [SPEAKER_01]: and it's in bold the monk method

[00:29:26] [SPEAKER_01]: so he gives a technique for that monks

[00:29:28] [SPEAKER_01]: I guess use for

[00:29:30] [SPEAKER_01]: meditation and visualization and it's a

[00:29:32] [SPEAKER_01]: whole steps one through 12 and then he

[00:29:34] [SPEAKER_01]: has a section how to know if it's working

[00:29:35] [SPEAKER_01]: and then he says try this

[00:29:38] [SPEAKER_01]: two depth meditations and that's

[00:29:40] [SPEAKER_01]: a section in in gray and

[00:29:42] [SPEAKER_01]: bold so it stands out

[00:29:44] [SPEAKER_01]: so basically if I read this conclusion

[00:29:46] [SPEAKER_01]: and by the way I haven't read the conclusion

[00:29:48] [SPEAKER_01]: I just read these these highlighted points

[00:29:50] [SPEAKER_01]: and he already also has stories about

[00:29:52] [SPEAKER_01]: Mr. Miyagi and the karate kid

[00:29:54] [SPEAKER_01]: I'm just seeing what stands out as I

[00:29:56] [SPEAKER_01]: skim through this life begins

[00:29:58] [SPEAKER_01]: with breath so I know the meditation techniques

[00:30:00] [SPEAKER_01]: are going to be

[00:30:02] [SPEAKER_01]: related to how you use your breath and then

[00:30:04] [SPEAKER_01]: why does he want to do depth meditations

[00:30:06] [SPEAKER_01]: you know I read this section here

[00:30:08] [SPEAKER_01]: how long will it take me to attain enlightenment

[00:30:09] [SPEAKER_01]: the teacher applied 10 years

[00:30:11] [SPEAKER_01]: but what if I work very hard the teacher says

[00:30:13] [SPEAKER_01]: 20 years so again I haven't

[00:30:15] [SPEAKER_01]: read the conclusion but just

[00:30:17] [SPEAKER_01]: from even the small sections

[00:30:20] [SPEAKER_01]: of the introduction and the conclusion

[00:30:21] [SPEAKER_01]: that I read almost have

[00:30:23] [SPEAKER_01]: enough information to interview Jay Shetty

[00:30:26] [SPEAKER_01]: I can I could talk to him

[00:30:27] [SPEAKER_01]: about his early life and what

[00:30:29] [SPEAKER_01]: was different from being in monk school

[00:30:31] [SPEAKER_01]: I could also talk about why is death meditation

[00:30:33] [SPEAKER_01]: important why is breath meditation

[00:30:35] [SPEAKER_01]: important by the way if I wanted to

[00:30:37] [SPEAKER_01]: not read anything else in the

[00:30:39] [SPEAKER_01]: book have a really great interview with

[00:30:41] [SPEAKER_01]: let's say Jay Shetty based on this

[00:30:43] [SPEAKER_01]: book I'll look at the back cover

[00:30:46] [SPEAKER_01]: oh I see Will Smith

[00:30:48] [SPEAKER_01]: made a blurb oh

[00:30:49] [SPEAKER_01]: how did you get Will Smith to

[00:30:52] [SPEAKER_01]: write a blurb Deepak Chopra

[00:30:53] [SPEAKER_01]: wrote a blurb by the way

[00:30:55] [SPEAKER_01]: two people who have been on our

[00:30:57] [SPEAKER_01]: podcast wrote a blurb

[00:30:59] [SPEAKER_01]: Ariana Huffington and Robert

[00:31:02] [SPEAKER_01]: Waldinger remember Robert Waldinger

[00:31:04] [SPEAKER_01]: came on yeah yeah to talk about

[00:31:06] [SPEAKER_01]: happiness

[00:31:07] [SPEAKER_01]: yeah happiness right he Robert

[00:31:09] [SPEAKER_01]: says grab this book find a comfortable chair

[00:31:11] [SPEAKER_01]: Jay guides us with warmth and clarity

[00:31:13] [SPEAKER_01]: and a path to greater joy and purpose

[00:31:15] [SPEAKER_01]: so you learned a lot about the book from

[00:31:17] [SPEAKER_01]: what these people are saying are really important things to them

[00:31:36] [SPEAKER_00]: I'll leave it as is this so like you said the first chapter

[00:31:38] [SPEAKER_00]: last chapter and then you feel in the blank

[00:31:40] [SPEAKER_01]: sort of right well no you don't have

[00:31:42] [SPEAKER_01]: to fill in any blanks like if

[00:31:44] [SPEAKER_01]: I truly read the first chapter in the last

[00:31:46] [SPEAKER_01]: chapter I would know a lot more I would know

[00:31:47] [SPEAKER_01]: right I'm not saying that is enough

[00:31:50] [SPEAKER_01]: to know what is in the book

[00:31:51] [SPEAKER_01]: but just reading the first chapter in the last chapter

[00:31:53] [SPEAKER_01]: I probably know at least 10

[00:31:56] [SPEAKER_01]: percent maybe even more

[00:31:57] [SPEAKER_01]: of what the books about what

[00:32:00] [SPEAKER_01]: points the books making what else

[00:32:02] [SPEAKER_01]: in the book and then I'm about to interview Jay

[00:32:04] [SPEAKER_01]: let's say because I'm let's say I'm speed reading this

[00:32:06] [SPEAKER_01]: for a podcast you know I'll

[00:32:08] [SPEAKER_01]: have him fill in the blanks I'm just curious

[00:32:10] [SPEAKER_00]: like well let's say if I don't have to interview

[00:32:11] [SPEAKER_00]: anyone like I wonder if filling them blanks

[00:32:14] [SPEAKER_00]: sort of like a bad terms it's more like

[00:32:17] [SPEAKER_00]: your intuitions kind of know

[00:32:18] [SPEAKER_00]: what the books about is it is it from

[00:32:20] [SPEAKER_00]: experience your experience of reading

[00:32:22] [SPEAKER_00]: so many books no

[00:32:23] [SPEAKER_01]: because let's say I've never read a book on

[00:32:26] [SPEAKER_01]: Buddhism or

[00:32:27] [SPEAKER_01]: or Hinduism or whatever kind

[00:32:29] [SPEAKER_01]: of monkey was I if I again if I

[00:32:31] [SPEAKER_01]: read the first chapter I would have

[00:32:33] [SPEAKER_01]: there's several stories in the first chapter I didn't go

[00:32:35] [SPEAKER_01]: through there's Matthew Ricard story there's

[00:32:37] [SPEAKER_01]: Garanga Dasa story there's Albert Einstein

[00:32:39] [SPEAKER_01]: the Bhavagya Gita

[00:32:41] [SPEAKER_01]: there's Jay's experience

[00:32:43] [SPEAKER_01]: with reading the Bhavagya Gita before

[00:32:45] [SPEAKER_01]: and after he became a monk and there's

[00:32:47] [SPEAKER_01]: also this chart Monkey Mind

[00:32:49] [SPEAKER_01]: versus Monk Mind so

[00:32:51] [SPEAKER_01]: I'm gonna think about like if all you

[00:32:53] [SPEAKER_01]: did was read this first chapter it says Monkey

[00:32:55] [SPEAKER_01]: Mind the person with monkey

[00:32:57] [SPEAKER_01]: mind is self centered and

[00:32:59] [SPEAKER_01]: obsessed the monk mind

[00:33:01] [SPEAKER_01]: the person does self care in order

[00:33:03] [SPEAKER_01]: to be of more service the monkey mind

[00:33:05] [SPEAKER_01]: person looks for pleasure the monk

[00:33:07] [SPEAKER_01]: mind looks for meaning so you're actually going to

[00:33:09] [SPEAKER_01]: understand and then you're going to see about his

[00:33:11] [SPEAKER_01]: first day at monk school so you're going to learn

[00:33:13] [SPEAKER_01]: a little bit what monk school is like

[00:33:15] [SPEAKER_01]: you know and then he already starts

[00:33:16] [SPEAKER_01]: in the first chapter he says when we're born the first

[00:33:19] [SPEAKER_01]: thing we must do is breathe and

[00:33:21] [SPEAKER_01]: then I see in the last chapter in the conclusion

[00:33:23] [SPEAKER_01]: he talks about breath

[00:33:25] [SPEAKER_01]: meditation he has other

[00:33:27] [SPEAKER_01]: stories and there's other stuff

[00:33:29] [SPEAKER_01]: of the in the last chapter I

[00:33:31] [SPEAKER_01]: didn't mention there's a the Vedic

[00:33:33] [SPEAKER_01]: personality test and so on

[00:33:35] [SPEAKER_01]: also if I

[00:33:37] [SPEAKER_01]: wanted to spend a few more minutes on the

[00:33:39] [SPEAKER_01]: book I can read the table of contents

[00:33:41] [SPEAKER_01]: part one is about letting go

[00:33:43] [SPEAKER_01]: so letting go your identity your negativity

[00:33:45] [SPEAKER_01]: your fear your intention

[00:33:47] [SPEAKER_01]: and he gives a breathing meditation

[00:33:49] [SPEAKER_01]: the second part part two is

[00:33:51] [SPEAKER_01]: called grow and it's

[00:33:53] [SPEAKER_01]: talks about how you find your purpose

[00:33:55] [SPEAKER_01]: what's your routine how you

[00:33:57] [SPEAKER_01]: cleanse the mind how you

[00:33:59] [SPEAKER_01]: get rid of your ego and then there's a meditation

[00:34:01] [SPEAKER_01]: called visualize and then

[00:34:03] [SPEAKER_01]: the part three is called give

[00:34:05] [SPEAKER_01]: gratitude relationships

[00:34:07] [SPEAKER_01]: service so

[00:34:09] [SPEAKER_01]: from all of this if

[00:34:11] [SPEAKER_01]: you truly read and again

[00:34:13] [SPEAKER_01]: I'm only summarizing the first chapter I didn't

[00:34:15] [SPEAKER_01]: read it I'm only summarizing the conclusion

[00:34:17] [SPEAKER_01]: but even with what I just described

[00:34:19] [SPEAKER_01]: to you about the first chapter the last

[00:34:21] [SPEAKER_01]: chapter and the table of contents

[00:34:23] [SPEAKER_01]: you already have

[00:34:25] [SPEAKER_01]: a sense of what the book is about

[00:34:27] [SPEAKER_01]: you probably know about 10% of the

[00:34:29] [SPEAKER_01]: book maybe even 15% which

[00:34:31] [SPEAKER_01]: is close to what you would know about

[00:34:33] [SPEAKER_01]: the book even after you read the whole

[00:34:35] [SPEAKER_01]: thing so now this is part

[00:34:37] [SPEAKER_01]: one of speed reading if you only had

[00:34:39] [SPEAKER_01]: 20 minutes to get

[00:34:41] [SPEAKER_01]: if you want it let's say you're going to

[00:34:44] [SPEAKER_01]: okay this is what I

[00:34:45] [SPEAKER_01]: am ashamed to admit this is what I used to do

[00:34:47] [SPEAKER_01]: all the way back

[00:34:49] [SPEAKER_01]: in like let's say

[00:34:52] [SPEAKER_01]: 2009 I'm about to go on a

[00:34:53] [SPEAKER_01]: date with somebody and I look up

[00:34:55] [SPEAKER_01]: what their interests are on facebook

[00:34:57] [SPEAKER_01]: I would go to the bookstore

[00:34:59] [SPEAKER_01]: and I would if all I did

[00:35:01] [SPEAKER_01]: was pick out five books about their interests

[00:35:03] [SPEAKER_01]: and read the first chapter and the last chapter

[00:35:05] [SPEAKER_01]: of the table of contents and maybe even skim

[00:35:07] [SPEAKER_01]: through and find a story in the middle

[00:35:09] [SPEAKER_01]: that I could quote then boom

[00:35:11] [SPEAKER_01]: I could talk about their interests

[00:35:13] [SPEAKER_01]: almost as if I've read

[00:35:14] [SPEAKER_01]: the entire book they wouldn't

[00:35:16] [SPEAKER_01]: be able to tell if I've read the entire book or not

[00:35:18] [SPEAKER_01]: because it's normal for people to forget parts

[00:35:20] [SPEAKER_01]: of the book and or if I was going to a cocktail

[00:35:22] [SPEAKER_01]: party and people were

[00:35:24] [SPEAKER_01]: talking about being a monk

[00:35:26] [SPEAKER_01]: I could already talk about

[00:35:29] [SPEAKER_01]: you know at least cocktail

[00:35:30] [SPEAKER_01]: party level you know

[00:35:32] [SPEAKER_01]: Jay Shetty's biography

[00:35:34] [SPEAKER_01]: of what he learned

[00:35:36] [SPEAKER_01]: how he became a monk

[00:35:39] [SPEAKER_01]: and learn to be a monk now

[00:35:40] [SPEAKER_01]: if I wanted to be a little bit more sophisticated

[00:35:42] [SPEAKER_01]: and I haven't spoken

[00:35:44] [SPEAKER_01]: about the fractal aspect yet

[00:35:46] [SPEAKER_01]: but if I wanted to be a little bit more sophisticated

[00:35:48] [SPEAKER_01]: of course read the table of contents

[00:35:50] [SPEAKER_01]: but it's good to look

[00:35:52] [SPEAKER_01]: at the

[00:35:54] [SPEAKER_01]: acknowledgments

[00:35:55] [SPEAKER_01]: actually when you speed read because

[00:35:58] [SPEAKER_01]: then I know

[00:36:00] [SPEAKER_01]: how these different people helped him

[00:36:02] [SPEAKER_01]: so he thanks for instance

[00:36:04] [SPEAKER_01]: the Oxford Center for Hindu Studies

[00:36:06] [SPEAKER_01]: and specifically

[00:36:08] [SPEAKER_01]: Shanaka, Rishi, Das

[00:36:09] [SPEAKER_01]: for assisting in verifying our sources

[00:36:11] [SPEAKER_01]: and credits. Thank you, Laurie Santos

[00:36:13] [SPEAKER_01]: for her kindness and connecting

[00:36:15] [SPEAKER_01]: me with research on monks by some of the

[00:36:17] [SPEAKER_01]: world's leading scientists. So this may

[00:36:19] [SPEAKER_01]: or may not give me information

[00:36:21] [SPEAKER_01]: but for instance I know Laurie Santos

[00:36:23] [SPEAKER_01]: teaches the very famous course at Yale

[00:36:25] [SPEAKER_01]: about happiness

[00:36:27] [SPEAKER_01]: and so I know

[00:36:29] [SPEAKER_01]: that part of his quest

[00:36:31] [SPEAKER_01]: towards becoming a monk

[00:36:33] [SPEAKER_01]: was that he became a happier

[00:36:35] [SPEAKER_01]: person most likely

[00:36:36] [SPEAKER_01]: and also he

[00:36:38] [SPEAKER_01]: thanks the Dalai Lama

[00:36:40] [SPEAKER_01]: so he says he basically thanks

[00:36:42] [SPEAKER_01]: the Dalai Lama for meeting him

[00:36:44] [SPEAKER_01]: and so on. And then

[00:36:46] [SPEAKER_01]: here's another thing I will look at

[00:36:48] [SPEAKER_01]: I'll kind of just open up randomly

[00:36:50] [SPEAKER_01]: to the middle of the book and I'll try to find

[00:36:52] [SPEAKER_01]: one story. So like

[00:36:54] [SPEAKER_01]: on page 117

[00:36:57] [SPEAKER_01]: there's a story, Joseph Campbell

[00:36:58] [SPEAKER_01]: we just quoted the Ark of the Hero which was developed

[00:37:00] [SPEAKER_01]: by Joseph Campbell and growing

[00:37:02] [SPEAKER_01]: up Joseph Campbell had no model this is what

[00:37:04] [SPEAKER_01]: it's on page 117. Growing up Joseph

[00:37:07] [SPEAKER_01]: Campbell had no model of a career that fit

[00:37:08] [SPEAKER_01]: his diverse interests as a child

[00:37:11] [SPEAKER_01]: in the early 1900s he became fascinated

[00:37:12] [SPEAKER_01]: by Native American culture and said everything

[00:37:14] [SPEAKER_01]: he could about it. During college he became

[00:37:16] [SPEAKER_01]: entranced with the rituals and symbols

[00:37:18] [SPEAKER_01]: of Catholicism while studying abroad

[00:37:20] [SPEAKER_01]: his interest expanded to include the theories of young

[00:37:22] [SPEAKER_01]: and Freud and on and on

[00:37:24] [SPEAKER_01]: so what basically

[00:37:26] [SPEAKER_01]: and I'm just skimming along here

[00:37:28] [SPEAKER_01]: about Joseph Campbell but

[00:37:30] [SPEAKER_01]: why would he write about Joseph Campbell in his

[00:37:32] [SPEAKER_01]: quest to become a monk

[00:37:34] [SPEAKER_01]: and then describe what he learned becoming a

[00:37:36] [SPEAKER_01]: monk. First off what Joseph

[00:37:38] [SPEAKER_01]: Campbell discovered was that whether

[00:37:40] [SPEAKER_01]: he was looking at Native American

[00:37:42] [SPEAKER_01]: culture or young and

[00:37:44] [SPEAKER_01]: Freud or

[00:37:46] [SPEAKER_01]: you know Joseph Campbell's

[00:37:48] [SPEAKER_01]: interest in art or Joseph Campbell's

[00:37:50] [SPEAKER_01]: interest in religion

[00:37:52] [SPEAKER_01]: what Joseph Campbell noticed was that every

[00:37:54] [SPEAKER_01]: kind of storytelling whether it's religious

[00:37:56] [SPEAKER_01]: or from psychiatry

[00:37:58] [SPEAKER_01]: or from art

[00:38:00] [SPEAKER_01]: they all have the same structure

[00:38:02] [SPEAKER_01]: so if I was talking to Jay

[00:38:04] [SPEAKER_01]: I would say something like

[00:38:06] [SPEAKER_01]: you know talk a little bit about

[00:38:08] [SPEAKER_01]: the relationship between all

[00:38:10] [SPEAKER_01]: stories and how

[00:38:11] [SPEAKER_01]: Joseph Campbell discovered the art of the hero

[00:38:13] [SPEAKER_01]: in all stories and how

[00:38:15] [SPEAKER_01]: it applies to being a monk

[00:38:18] [SPEAKER_01]: that would be an interesting

[00:38:19] [SPEAKER_01]: thing to see how Jay connects

[00:38:21] [SPEAKER_01]: being a monk to how all religions

[00:38:23] [SPEAKER_01]: developed and even how art developed

[00:38:25] [SPEAKER_01]: and how theories about the mind developed

[00:38:27] [SPEAKER_01]: so if you just

[00:38:29] [SPEAKER_01]: kind of skim over a few stories

[00:38:31] [SPEAKER_01]: on random pages you're going to even have

[00:38:33] [SPEAKER_01]: more information about the book

[00:38:35] [SPEAKER_01]: so if you're at a cocktail party later and you want to prove

[00:38:37] [SPEAKER_01]: you read a book you could say oh

[00:38:39] [SPEAKER_01]: on page 117 when he talks about Joseph

[00:38:41] [SPEAKER_01]: Campbell he figures out how

[00:38:43] [SPEAKER_01]: you know what he found from being a monk

[00:38:45] [SPEAKER_01]: you can find in every religious

[00:38:47] [SPEAKER_01]: tradition it's common to all

[00:38:49] [SPEAKER_01]: man just like the art of the hero is

[00:38:51] [SPEAKER_01]: and on and on. So that's

[00:38:53] [SPEAKER_01]: the very basic

[00:38:55] [SPEAKER_01]: if you only had 10 to 20 minutes

[00:38:58] [SPEAKER_01]: to read a book

[00:38:59] [SPEAKER_01]: this is speed reading.

[00:39:01] [SPEAKER_01]: So a speed reader

[00:39:03] [SPEAKER_01]: if you use the pointer method I described earlier

[00:39:05] [SPEAKER_01]: a speed reader can

[00:39:07] [SPEAKER_01]: read a thousand

[00:39:09] [SPEAKER_01]: words a minute but using my method

[00:39:11] [SPEAKER_01]: right now and knowing the fact

[00:39:13] [SPEAKER_01]: that the average person only remembers

[00:39:15] [SPEAKER_01]: 10 to 20 percent of a book

[00:39:16] [SPEAKER_01]: you could speed read 60,000

[00:39:19] [SPEAKER_01]: this book here it's

[00:39:21] [SPEAKER_01]: like 300 pages this book here

[00:39:23] [SPEAKER_01]: is about

[00:39:24] [SPEAKER_01]: 80,000 words. So you could speed

[00:39:27] [SPEAKER_01]: read 80,000 words essentially

[00:39:29] [SPEAKER_01]: just using the simple technique I just

[00:39:31] [SPEAKER_01]: described. Now there's

[00:39:33] [SPEAKER_01]: one more step which is this

[00:39:35] [SPEAKER_01]: idea that's a fractal so I'm going to

[00:39:37] [SPEAKER_01]: turn to a random chapter

[00:39:39] [SPEAKER_01]: and so what I mean again by fractal is that

[00:39:41] [SPEAKER_01]: I could read the first chapter of a book

[00:39:43] [SPEAKER_01]: and the last chapter of a book and

[00:39:45] [SPEAKER_01]: I could tell you essentially what's the

[00:39:47] [SPEAKER_01]: book is about what the conclusions are

[00:39:49] [SPEAKER_01]: the book and then by the way

[00:39:51] [SPEAKER_01]: if I read the table of contents and I

[00:39:53] [SPEAKER_01]: focus on the highlighted parts in the chapters

[00:39:55] [SPEAKER_01]: I read then I'll even

[00:39:57] [SPEAKER_01]: be able to tell you more about

[00:39:58] [SPEAKER_01]: the book but now I'm going to open up to a random

[00:40:00] [SPEAKER_01]: chapter here chapter 5

[00:40:02] [SPEAKER_01]: purpose and so

[00:40:04] [SPEAKER_01]: how do I read this speed read this

[00:40:06] [SPEAKER_01]: chapter let's say I don't want to read the whole chapter

[00:40:08] [SPEAKER_01]: it's let me see how many pages is it

[00:40:10] [SPEAKER_01]: starts on page 93 it goes

[00:40:12] [SPEAKER_01]: to page

[00:40:16] [SPEAKER_01]: 120, 122

[00:40:16] [SPEAKER_01]: so it's almost 30 pages

[00:40:18] [SPEAKER_01]: so here's how you speed read

[00:40:21] [SPEAKER_01]: a chapter a 30 page

[00:40:22] [SPEAKER_01]: chapter I would read the first

[00:40:24] [SPEAKER_01]: 1 to 3

[00:40:26] [SPEAKER_01]: paragraphs and I would read the last

[00:40:29] [SPEAKER_01]: page the last

[00:40:30] [SPEAKER_01]: 1 to 3 paragraphs and so

[00:40:32] [SPEAKER_01]: again that

[00:40:34] [SPEAKER_01]: is just as powerful as reading the first chapter

[00:40:36] [SPEAKER_01]: of the book and the last chapter of the book

[00:40:38] [SPEAKER_01]: if I want to know so this chapter's purpose

[00:40:40] [SPEAKER_01]: and his first paragraph roughly

[00:40:42] [SPEAKER_01]: I'll just skim it being a monk

[00:40:44] [SPEAKER_01]: looks like it's fundamentally about letting go

[00:40:46] [SPEAKER_01]: like you shave your head you strip away all distractions

[00:40:49] [SPEAKER_01]: you give away your things you wear robes

[00:40:50] [SPEAKER_01]: it's not just about letting go he says

[00:40:52] [SPEAKER_01]: second paragraph we spent our days in

[00:40:54] [SPEAKER_01]: service in the course of the service we

[00:40:56] [SPEAKER_01]: weren't supposed to gravitate to our favorite ways to

[00:40:58] [SPEAKER_01]: serve rather to help out wherever

[00:41:00] [SPEAKER_01]: and however it was needed you know you do

[00:41:02] [SPEAKER_01]: chores you do cooking cleaning

[00:41:05] [SPEAKER_01]: gardening meditating

[00:41:07] [SPEAKER_01]: caring for the cows

[00:41:08] [SPEAKER_01]: studying praying teaching so

[00:41:10] [SPEAKER_01]: now I understand that a monk

[00:41:12] [SPEAKER_01]: is not just about surrendering

[00:41:14] [SPEAKER_01]: your old life and going into this monastic

[00:41:16] [SPEAKER_01]: kind of life but it's also about

[00:41:18] [SPEAKER_01]: service and so since the title

[00:41:21] [SPEAKER_01]: of the chapter is purpose

[00:41:22] [SPEAKER_01]: I'm assuming that service

[00:41:24] [SPEAKER_01]: is going to somehow lead

[00:41:26] [SPEAKER_01]: to purpose and

[00:41:28] [SPEAKER_01]: now and then in the third paragraph he says

[00:41:30] [SPEAKER_01]: look it becomes clear though that each of us

[00:41:32] [SPEAKER_01]: had natural affinities one person

[00:41:34] [SPEAKER_01]: one monk might be drawn to tending the animals

[00:41:36] [SPEAKER_01]: another might take pleasure in cooking

[00:41:38] [SPEAKER_01]: another might get great satisfaction from gardening

[00:41:40] [SPEAKER_01]: so you know why do we

[00:41:42] [SPEAKER_01]: have these natural affinities and

[00:41:44] [SPEAKER_01]: I'll go to the fourth paragraph here

[00:41:47] [SPEAKER_01]: basically you find

[00:41:48] [SPEAKER_01]: what your natural affinities are

[00:41:50] [SPEAKER_01]: you know that service is important

[00:41:52] [SPEAKER_01]: so that starts to become

[00:41:54] [SPEAKER_01]: you know your purpose in life

[00:41:56] [SPEAKER_01]: is that what the kind of

[00:41:58] [SPEAKER_01]: service you enjoyed was cooking it becomes

[00:42:00] [SPEAKER_01]: a compass towards what your real purpose in life

[00:42:02] [SPEAKER_01]: is which is to serve

[00:42:04] [SPEAKER_01]: but maybe you can best serve humanity

[00:42:06] [SPEAKER_01]: through cooking or through teaching

[00:42:08] [SPEAKER_01]: or whatever and he says exploring

[00:42:10] [SPEAKER_01]: our strengths and weaknesses in the self-contained

[00:42:12] [SPEAKER_01]: universe of the ashram help lead each

[00:42:14] [SPEAKER_01]: of us to our dharma

[00:42:15] [SPEAKER_01]: and dharma roughly means

[00:42:18] [SPEAKER_01]: your calling now let's

[00:42:20] [SPEAKER_01]: go to the very last chapter it's 30 pages

[00:42:23] [SPEAKER_01]: later he says

[00:42:24] [SPEAKER_01]: remember the whole equation of dharma

[00:42:26] [SPEAKER_01]: dharma isn't just passion and skills

[00:42:28] [SPEAKER_01]: dharma is passion in the

[00:42:30] [SPEAKER_01]: service of others your passion is for

[00:42:32] [SPEAKER_01]: you but your purpose for others

[00:42:34] [SPEAKER_01]: your passion becomes a purpose when

[00:42:36] [SPEAKER_01]: you use it to serve okay I just read

[00:42:38] [SPEAKER_01]: a few sentences from the last page

[00:42:40] [SPEAKER_01]: the last page also includes

[00:42:41] [SPEAKER_01]: the story of a woman

[00:42:43] [SPEAKER_01]: who gives a talk

[00:42:45] [SPEAKER_01]: about service she became a buddhist nun for a while

[00:42:48] [SPEAKER_01]: and it goes into her whole

[00:42:49] [SPEAKER_01]: thing and it describes how she

[00:42:52] [SPEAKER_01]: found her purpose I'm not going to read the whole thing

[00:42:54] [SPEAKER_01]: but you see now I was able

[00:42:56] [SPEAKER_01]: to skip 30 pages just by

[00:42:58] [SPEAKER_01]: reading the first page

[00:42:59] [SPEAKER_01]: and the last page I read two pages

[00:43:01] [SPEAKER_01]: out of 30 so about 8%

[00:43:04] [SPEAKER_01]: of the chapter but I basically

[00:43:06] [SPEAKER_01]: could tell you what this chapter is

[00:43:08] [SPEAKER_01]: about and I could discuss it with anybody

[00:43:10] [SPEAKER_01]: at a cocktail party and I can even

[00:43:12] [SPEAKER_01]: learn from it like I didn't know

[00:43:14] [SPEAKER_01]: that's how a monk necessarily finds

[00:43:16] [SPEAKER_01]: their purpose and by the way I've been on

[00:43:18] [SPEAKER_01]: meditation retreats and so on

[00:43:20] [SPEAKER_01]: and it brings we all have some experiences we

[00:43:22] [SPEAKER_01]: can relate to and they were this particular

[00:43:24] [SPEAKER_01]: section just reminded me of

[00:43:26] [SPEAKER_01]: how the monks at

[00:43:28] [SPEAKER_01]: this meditation retreat lived and

[00:43:30] [SPEAKER_01]: so on so I just

[00:43:32] [SPEAKER_01]: speed read

[00:43:34] [SPEAKER_01]: a chapter I

[00:43:35] [SPEAKER_01]: speed read in a very superficial

[00:43:37] [SPEAKER_01]: way the book by

[00:43:38] [SPEAKER_01]: reading the first and last chapter

[00:43:40] [SPEAKER_01]: now I speed read this chapter

[00:43:43] [SPEAKER_01]: in the middle by reading the first

[00:43:45] [SPEAKER_01]: page and the last page the first three paragraphs

[00:43:47] [SPEAKER_01]: and the last three paragraphs what if I wanted

[00:43:49] [SPEAKER_01]: to read the whole book but I didn't I still didn't

[00:43:51] [SPEAKER_01]: have time I only had a couple days I would

[00:43:53] [SPEAKER_01]: speed read each paragraph

[00:43:54] [SPEAKER_01]: and you probably know what I'm already going to say

[00:43:57] [SPEAKER_01]: how do you speed read a paragraph

[00:43:58] [SPEAKER_01]: read the first sentence and

[00:44:00] [SPEAKER_01]: the last sentence so I'm going to take a

[00:44:03] [SPEAKER_01]: random paragraph

[00:44:04] [SPEAKER_01]: in the middle of a random chapter so that he's a

[00:44:06] [SPEAKER_01]: chapter called intention

[00:44:09] [SPEAKER_01]: and I'm going to just read a random

[00:44:10] [SPEAKER_01]: paragraph I've never read this book before I've

[00:44:12] [SPEAKER_01]: never read this paragraph before the paragraph

[00:44:14] [SPEAKER_01]: starts the best way to research

[00:44:16] [SPEAKER_01]: the work required to fulfill your intention

[00:44:19] [SPEAKER_01]: is to look for role models

[00:44:20] [SPEAKER_01]: and then the last sentence of this paragraph

[00:44:22] [SPEAKER_01]: is focus especially on what they did

[00:44:24] [SPEAKER_01]: at your stage in order to get where

[00:44:26] [SPEAKER_01]: they are now okay

[00:44:28] [SPEAKER_01]: so if there's someone I admired

[00:44:30] [SPEAKER_01]: and I want to

[00:44:32] [SPEAKER_01]: figure out my way to figure out what my life's

[00:44:34] [SPEAKER_01]: intention is the best way to research

[00:44:36] [SPEAKER_01]: the work required to fulfill your intention

[00:44:38] [SPEAKER_01]: is to look for role models so let's say there's

[00:44:40] [SPEAKER_01]: someone I admired I can look

[00:44:42] [SPEAKER_01]: for you know let's say Gandhi

[00:44:44] [SPEAKER_01]: he his life's

[00:44:46] [SPEAKER_01]: meaning was to

[00:44:48] [SPEAKER_01]: stop the oppression that was happening

[00:44:50] [SPEAKER_01]: in India and

[00:44:52] [SPEAKER_01]: focus especially on what they did at your stage

[00:44:54] [SPEAKER_01]: in order to get where they are now well he started

[00:44:56] [SPEAKER_01]: doing these sit-ins and he started

[00:44:58] [SPEAKER_01]: he had a whole philosophy of

[00:45:00] [SPEAKER_01]: peaceful protest now I've taken

[00:45:02] [SPEAKER_01]: an important lesson from this chapter

[00:45:04] [SPEAKER_01]: by speed reading this paragraph

[00:45:06] [SPEAKER_01]: and finding for myself what

[00:45:08] [SPEAKER_01]: a good example is and presumably

[00:45:10] [SPEAKER_01]: by the way I've also read

[00:45:11] [SPEAKER_01]: the first page of this chapter

[00:45:14] [SPEAKER_01]: you know so I know what

[00:45:15] [SPEAKER_01]: intention means and so on so essentially

[00:45:18] [SPEAKER_01]: that's the basic technique

[00:45:20] [SPEAKER_01]: for speed reading an entire book

[00:45:22] [SPEAKER_01]: read the first and last chapter

[00:45:24] [SPEAKER_01]: and then if you want to go further

[00:45:26] [SPEAKER_01]: read the first and last page

[00:45:28] [SPEAKER_01]: of every chapter and if you want to go further

[00:45:30] [SPEAKER_01]: read the first and last sentence

[00:45:32] [SPEAKER_01]: of every paragraph now

[00:45:33] [SPEAKER_01]: in nonfiction books like I mentioned earlier

[00:45:35] [SPEAKER_01]: there's a technique

[00:45:37] [SPEAKER_01]: the author usually helps you so there are charts

[00:45:40] [SPEAKER_01]: and other techniques

[00:45:41] [SPEAKER_01]: so in the chapter on breathe

[00:45:43] [SPEAKER_01]: I see that in gray

[00:45:45] [SPEAKER_01]: and in bold there is

[00:45:48] [SPEAKER_01]: a section called try this breath work

[00:45:50] [SPEAKER_01]: and so he gives a whole exercise

[00:45:52] [SPEAKER_01]: for breath work so if I really

[00:45:54] [SPEAKER_01]: want to understand

[00:45:55] [SPEAKER_01]: this section breathe or this chapter

[00:45:58] [SPEAKER_01]: called breathe I'll probably read the first page

[00:46:00] [SPEAKER_01]: and then I'll read this kind of

[00:46:02] [SPEAKER_01]: section that is highlighted

[00:46:04] [SPEAKER_01]: here's a chapter on fear and he says try

[00:46:06] [SPEAKER_01]: this rate your fear and that's

[00:46:08] [SPEAKER_01]: highlighted so essentially just

[00:46:10] [SPEAKER_01]: then we didn't even

[00:46:11] [SPEAKER_01]: read the first and last chapter we didn't even

[00:46:13] [SPEAKER_01]: read the chapter on purpose but already

[00:46:16] [SPEAKER_01]: we probably know enough

[00:46:18] [SPEAKER_01]: about this book that we just

[00:46:20] [SPEAKER_01]: speed read 80,000 words

[00:46:21] [SPEAKER_01]: in a few minutes and I

[00:46:24] [SPEAKER_01]: wasn't even really speed reading I was just kind of

[00:46:25] [SPEAKER_01]: skimming the parts just

[00:46:27] [SPEAKER_01]: as an example what's what kind of

[00:46:29] [SPEAKER_01]: results speed reading can give but now

[00:46:32] [SPEAKER_01]: I know enough I understand

[00:46:33] [SPEAKER_01]: a little bit about what it's like

[00:46:36] [SPEAKER_01]: it sounds ludicrous to say

[00:46:38] [SPEAKER_01]: but I know a little bit about what

[00:46:39] [SPEAKER_01]: Jay Shetty learned on his quest

[00:46:41] [SPEAKER_01]: towards being a monk I learned why

[00:46:43] [SPEAKER_01]: he decided to become a monk more

[00:46:45] [SPEAKER_01]: or less I learned

[00:46:47] [SPEAKER_01]: about breath work I learned

[00:46:49] [SPEAKER_01]: about finding your intention

[00:46:51] [SPEAKER_01]: and finding your purpose in life

[00:46:53] [SPEAKER_01]: all from

[00:46:55] [SPEAKER_01]: mildly using this

[00:46:57] [SPEAKER_01]: speed reading technique and

[00:46:59] [SPEAKER_01]: it works now if

[00:47:01] [SPEAKER_01]: I really wanted to enjoy this

[00:47:03] [SPEAKER_01]: book and get all the information I would read

[00:47:05] [SPEAKER_01]: the entire book but if I had to go to a

[00:47:07] [SPEAKER_01]: cocktail party with Jay Shetty

[00:47:09] [SPEAKER_01]: in 15 minutes maybe I

[00:47:11] [SPEAKER_01]: would use this technique or if I had to do a podcast

[00:47:13] [SPEAKER_01]: with him and I forgot to read the book

[00:47:14] [SPEAKER_01]: maybe I would use this technique to do that

[00:47:17] [SPEAKER_00]: I'm just curious so

[00:47:18] [SPEAKER_00]: do you find it I don't know if you ever done this

[00:47:21] [SPEAKER_00]: like do you find it you retain more information

[00:47:22] [SPEAKER_00]: after you speed read a book

[00:47:24] [SPEAKER_00]: and then you go back and reread it again

[00:47:28] [SPEAKER_01]: well

[00:47:28] [SPEAKER_01]: first off when you speed read

[00:47:31] [SPEAKER_01]: by the way you might even

[00:47:32] [SPEAKER_01]: remember more than if you've read the

[00:47:34] [SPEAKER_01]: book and why is that because

[00:47:37] [SPEAKER_01]: you only have to focus on

[00:47:38] [SPEAKER_01]: 10 things as opposed to 200

[00:47:40] [SPEAKER_01]: things there might be 200 great points

[00:47:42] [SPEAKER_01]: that Jay makes in the book

[00:47:44] [SPEAKER_01]: and then you might forget some of them but

[00:47:47] [SPEAKER_01]: I'm pretty sure right now

[00:47:48] [SPEAKER_01]: I can tell you 100%

[00:47:50] [SPEAKER_01]: of the points that I just

[00:47:52] [SPEAKER_01]: in by quote-unquote

[00:47:54] [SPEAKER_01]: roughly speed reading this

[00:47:56] [SPEAKER_01]: book so it could be the case that you

[00:47:58] [SPEAKER_01]: remember more but again if you're very

[00:48:00] [SPEAKER_01]: excited about a subject and you

[00:48:02] [SPEAKER_01]: read the whole book and it's very inspirational

[00:48:04] [SPEAKER_01]: to you you might read more but no matter

[00:48:06] [SPEAKER_01]: what short term memory degrades

[00:48:08] [SPEAKER_01]: and the only way it goes from short

[00:48:10] [SPEAKER_01]: term memory to long term memory is if you

[00:48:12] [SPEAKER_01]: repeat meaning you read

[00:48:14] [SPEAKER_01]: it over or maybe I listen

[00:48:16] [SPEAKER_01]: to the my own podcast that I did with him

[00:48:18] [SPEAKER_01]: or if I love the subject

[00:48:20] [SPEAKER_01]: more likely to form

[00:48:23] [SPEAKER_01]: myelin which is

[00:48:24] [SPEAKER_01]: thicker connections between neurons

[00:48:26] [SPEAKER_01]: I might form a thicker connection between the neurons

[00:48:28] [SPEAKER_01]: about this topic by reading

[00:48:30] [SPEAKER_01]: this book because I love the topic

[00:48:32] [SPEAKER_01]: hypothetically if I love the topic

[00:48:34] [SPEAKER_01]: memory is really more about repetition

[00:48:36] [SPEAKER_01]: and how much you love something

[00:48:38] [SPEAKER_01]: and then you're more likely to remember

[00:48:41] [SPEAKER_01]: more but in this case because I don't have

[00:48:43] [SPEAKER_01]: when you speed read you don't have to remember as many

[00:48:45] [SPEAKER_01]: things a more likely to remember

[00:48:46] [SPEAKER_01]: the fewer things I read rather than reading

[00:48:48] [SPEAKER_01]: the whole book particularly if I'm not interested

[00:48:50] [SPEAKER_00]: in the topic right let me ask you

[00:48:52] [SPEAKER_00]: can you speed read the article that if you use

[00:48:54] [SPEAKER_00]: the same technique with the article does it work

[00:48:56] [SPEAKER_01]: well let me ask you that question how

[00:48:58] [SPEAKER_01]: I describe speed reading can I speed read an article

[00:49:01] [SPEAKER_00]: I think you could

[00:49:02] [SPEAKER_00]: but like I felt like article has like

[00:49:04] [SPEAKER_00]: a lot more so let's say if it's not

[00:49:06] [SPEAKER_00]: academic like let's say if it's a newsletter

[00:49:09] [SPEAKER_00]: article that will have random stats

[00:49:11] [SPEAKER_00]: in there like so does that mean

[00:49:13] [SPEAKER_00]: like take your technique you just

[00:49:14] [SPEAKER_00]: break it down to a smaller scale treating

[00:49:16] [SPEAKER_00]: one article as in like it's whole book and

[00:49:19] [SPEAKER_01]: then just focus on an article might be like

[00:49:21] [SPEAKER_01]: a chapter in a book here's the

[00:49:22] [SPEAKER_01]: speed reading technique for an article read the first paragraph

[00:49:25] [SPEAKER_01]: read the whole first paragraph

[00:49:26] [SPEAKER_01]: read the whole last paragraph maybe read

[00:49:28] [SPEAKER_01]: the second paragraph too I don't know maybe read the

[00:49:30] [SPEAKER_01]: second glass paragraph as well depends on how

[00:49:32] [SPEAKER_01]: the article is then what's

[00:49:35] [SPEAKER_01]: the next reading technique read

[00:49:36] [SPEAKER_01]: the first sentence and last sentence

[00:49:39] [SPEAKER_01]: of every paragraph in the article

[00:49:40] [SPEAKER_01]: and read anything that's highlighted

[00:49:42] [SPEAKER_01]: so I guarantee you if there's a statistic and it's

[00:49:45] [SPEAKER_01]: important it'll be highlighted or it'll be

[00:49:46] [SPEAKER_01]: in the first sentence or the last sentence

[00:49:48] [SPEAKER_01]: of a paragraph or it'll be in the introduction

[00:49:50] [SPEAKER_01]: that the or the conclusion

[00:49:52] [SPEAKER_01]: of the article so yes you can absolutely

[00:49:55] [SPEAKER_01]: speed read an

[00:49:57] [SPEAKER_01]: article I'm looking at the website

[00:49:58] [SPEAKER_01]: for the Atlantic magazine

[00:50:00] [SPEAKER_01]: okay and I'm gonna pick a random article

[00:50:03] [SPEAKER_01]: it's about some 60 minutes

[00:50:05] [SPEAKER_01]: correspondent named Lara Logan

[00:50:07] [SPEAKER_01]: and the first

[00:50:08] [SPEAKER_01]: sentence is Lara Logan was once a respected

[00:50:11] [SPEAKER_01]: 60 minutes correspondent

[00:50:12] [SPEAKER_01]: now she trades in conspiracy theories that

[00:50:15] [SPEAKER_01]: even far-right media disavow

[00:50:16] [SPEAKER_01]: what happened so now I know a lot

[00:50:19] [SPEAKER_01]: about what this article

[00:50:21] [SPEAKER_01]: is about it's about someone named Lara

[00:50:23] [SPEAKER_01]: Logan who was a 60 minutes correspondent

[00:50:25] [SPEAKER_01]: now she's big into conspiracy theories

[00:50:27] [SPEAKER_01]: oh I can't read the end of the article because

[00:50:29] [SPEAKER_01]: you have to you have to be a member

[00:50:31] [SPEAKER_01]: you have to be a subscriber to the Atlantic magazine

[00:50:33] [SPEAKER_01]: but I'm assuming

[00:50:34] [SPEAKER_01]: by the end of the article the last paragraph

[00:50:37] [SPEAKER_01]: it's gonna be a conclusion like oh

[00:50:39] [SPEAKER_01]: you know this is how she became

[00:50:41] [SPEAKER_01]: a conspiracy theorist right that's

[00:50:43] [SPEAKER_01]: basically it the answer is yes you could speed

[00:50:45] [SPEAKER_01]: read an article the same way and again

[00:50:47] [SPEAKER_01]: don't forget in an article I wouldn't just

[00:50:49] [SPEAKER_01]: read the first paragraph and last paragraph

[00:50:51] [SPEAKER_01]: I would also read the first sentence and last sentence

[00:50:53] [SPEAKER_01]: of every paragraph note

[00:50:55] [SPEAKER_01]: in the Jay Shattery paragraph that I read

[00:50:57] [SPEAKER_01]: if I when I read the first sentence

[00:50:59] [SPEAKER_01]: and the last sentence it almost

[00:51:01] [SPEAKER_01]: sounded like a complete paragraph by itself

[00:51:03] [SPEAKER_01]: right the paragraph was a big paragraph

[00:51:05] [SPEAKER_01]: there were many more sentences but I didn't

[00:51:07] [SPEAKER_01]: have to read any of the other sentences

[00:51:09] [SPEAKER_01]: for you to understand completely what that

[00:51:11] [SPEAKER_01]: paragraph was about I think that was in the

[00:51:12] [SPEAKER_01]: purpose section you know what

[00:51:15] [SPEAKER_00]: because he didn't take your writing course

[00:51:17] [SPEAKER_00]: he didn't write a whole passage

[00:51:19] [SPEAKER_00]: and then take out the first paragraph and last

[00:51:21] [SPEAKER_00]: paragraph and see if it makes sense

[00:51:23] [SPEAKER_01]: right because then then you avoid the people

[00:51:25] [SPEAKER_01]: who are trying to speed read too they have to read the whole

[00:51:27] [SPEAKER_01]: thing now you leave them on cliffhangers

[00:51:29] [SPEAKER_01]: it's a better way to leave them on cliffhangers

[00:51:31] [SPEAKER_01]: so they have to keep reading but so I will

[00:51:34] [SPEAKER_01]: admit like with with really

[00:51:35] [SPEAKER_01]: great writers people who focus their lives

[00:51:38] [SPEAKER_01]: on writing it is much

[00:51:40] [SPEAKER_01]: harder to do a speed reading technique

[00:51:42] [SPEAKER_01]: on what they're writing because they're

[00:51:44] [SPEAKER_01]: going to so again like Kurt Vonnegut

[00:51:46] [SPEAKER_01]: said every sentence is going to be

[00:51:47] [SPEAKER_01]: important this is why you cannot

[00:51:50] [SPEAKER_01]: do not rely on any speed reading

[00:51:52] [SPEAKER_01]: technique for fiction

[00:51:53] [SPEAKER_01]: like if you have to go to a book club

[00:51:55] [SPEAKER_01]: and you need to read the book just skip that

[00:51:58] [SPEAKER_01]: meaning because you will

[00:51:59] [SPEAKER_01]: not read a really fully

[00:52:01] [SPEAKER_01]: understood the book just by

[00:52:03] [SPEAKER_01]: speed reading it using that pointer method

[00:52:06] [SPEAKER_01]: that's why that pointer method doesn't

[00:52:07] [SPEAKER_01]: really work that's a really

[00:52:09] [SPEAKER_01]: just stupid method a scam

[00:52:11] [SPEAKER_01]: and it has that whole stress of you still have to

[00:52:14] [SPEAKER_01]: read the whole book but

[00:52:15] [SPEAKER_01]: you just have to train your eyes to

[00:52:17] [SPEAKER_01]: read faster it's stressful to me

[00:52:19] [SPEAKER_01]: right oh my god did I understand what I just

[00:52:21] [SPEAKER_01]: read you're gonna have to reread things

[00:52:22] [SPEAKER_00]: right so let me break down your technique so

[00:52:25] [SPEAKER_00]: you're essentially a technique is the

[00:52:27] [SPEAKER_00]: first and the last

[00:52:29] [SPEAKER_00]: and then the first and last chapter

[00:52:32] [SPEAKER_00]: I'm not

[00:52:32] [SPEAKER_00]: putting in numbers so it's always the

[00:52:35] [SPEAKER_00]: first and the last and then numbers

[00:52:37] [SPEAKER_00]: and pictures right not even

[00:52:39] [SPEAKER_01]: numbers really pictures pictures

[00:52:41] [SPEAKER_01]: picture pictures or things that are highlighted

[00:52:42] [SPEAKER_01]: but again like the full technique

[00:52:44] [SPEAKER_01]: if you're reading if you want to speed read a book

[00:52:47] [SPEAKER_01]: let's say you want to speed read a book in an hour or less

[00:52:49] [SPEAKER_01]: read the first chapter read the last

[00:52:51] [SPEAKER_01]: chapter the full chapters

[00:52:52] [SPEAKER_01]: read the first paragraph

[00:52:54] [SPEAKER_01]: every chapter in between

[00:52:56] [SPEAKER_01]: the last paragraph of every chapter

[00:52:58] [SPEAKER_01]: in betweenizes for each paragraph

[00:53:00] [SPEAKER_01]: read the first sentence and last sentence

[00:53:03] [SPEAKER_01]: if you want to read even faster

[00:53:04] [SPEAKER_01]: skip that last part don't read

[00:53:07] [SPEAKER_01]: the first sentence and last time

[00:53:08] [SPEAKER_01]: previous year

[00:53:09] [SPEAKER_01]: the last tomato every chapter

[00:53:12] [SPEAKER_01]: of you want to give me faster

[00:53:15] [SPEAKER_01]: read only the first

[00:53:17] [SPEAKER_01]: age and only

[00:53:19] [SPEAKER_01]: the last chapter and read any charts that you see, try to find a random story in the

[00:53:25] [SPEAKER_01]: middle so you could refer to something in the middle and read the table of contents

[00:53:28] [SPEAKER_01]: and read the blurbs on the back of the book.

[00:53:31] [SPEAKER_01]: If you want to read even faster, read just the first paragraph of the first chapter

[00:53:37] [SPEAKER_01]: and the last paragraph of the first chapter and the same thing for the conclusion.

[00:53:40] [SPEAKER_01]: Read the first paragraph of the conclusion and the last paragraph of the conclusion.

[00:53:43] [SPEAKER_01]: And if you won't even read faster, this won't really work.

[00:53:46] [SPEAKER_01]: I was going to say just read the table of contents, but that doesn't really tell you anything.

[00:53:49] [SPEAKER_01]: You got to at least read the first page and the last page of the book to kind of get a feeling,

[00:53:55] [SPEAKER_01]: a little feeling, and even that will only work so much.

[00:53:59] [SPEAKER_01]: It's very important to read the first full chapter and the last full chapter

[00:54:03] [SPEAKER_01]: and then kind of try to read the first and last paragraph of every chapter in between.

[00:54:08] [SPEAKER_01]: But and again, if you're trying to get a little deeper, read the first sentence

[00:54:11] [SPEAKER_01]: and last sentence of every paragraph and again, read the highlights,

[00:54:16] [SPEAKER_01]: read the table of contents and so on.

[00:54:18] [SPEAKER_01]: And I guarantee you will know just as much about the book as anybody else

[00:54:24] [SPEAKER_01]: who read the book more than a few weeks ago.

[00:54:26] [SPEAKER_01]: You might even know more about the book than someone who only has

[00:54:30] [SPEAKER_01]: remembered now 10 to 20 percent of that book.

[00:54:33] [SPEAKER_01]: Right. Yeah, because speed read it.

[00:54:34] [SPEAKER_00]: Right. Because you probably skip a lot of like non essential things.

[00:54:39] [SPEAKER_01]: Right. You skipped a lot of non essential information.

[00:54:42] [SPEAKER_01]: Also, everything you read is still in your short term memory.

[00:54:46] [SPEAKER_01]: It hasn't yet moved to long term memory where you're going to drop a lot of stuff.

[00:54:51] [SPEAKER_01]: And for everybody who's read it more than like a week or two ago,

[00:54:54] [SPEAKER_01]: they have moved the information from short term to long term memory.

[00:54:58] [SPEAKER_01]: So they might not even remember as many things as you remember

[00:55:01] [SPEAKER_01]: if you've just speed read the book like in the past 24 hours.

[00:55:05] [SPEAKER_01]: Right. So this is a valuable technique.

[00:55:09] [SPEAKER_01]: I don't like to recommend it.

[00:55:11] [SPEAKER_01]: I don't like to do it.

[00:55:12] [SPEAKER_01]: I always make sure to read the whole book for everyone on the podcast,

[00:55:16] [SPEAKER_01]: but there has been instances where I've had to speed read out.

[00:55:20] [SPEAKER_01]: Like let's say I was on vacation.

[00:55:22] [SPEAKER_01]: I just got back.

[00:55:23] [SPEAKER_01]: I forgot there was a podcast that afternoon.

[00:55:25] [SPEAKER_01]: I'll speed read the book and I can guarantee you nobody knows.

[00:55:30] [SPEAKER_01]: And I'm not even trying to be like to cheat the system or to be tricky.

[00:55:35] [SPEAKER_01]: I legitimately want to know information about the person I'm about to interview.

[00:55:39] [SPEAKER_01]: But I might be forced due to circumstances to speed read.

[00:55:43] [SPEAKER_01]: I don't use that scan technique because I don't think it's useful

[00:55:46] [SPEAKER_01]: and I don't think you'll remember anything.

[00:55:47] [SPEAKER_01]: But I know where in a book the most important information is.

[00:55:51] [SPEAKER_01]: And I know how memory works.

[00:55:53] [SPEAKER_01]: This is the speed reading technique that works again.

[00:55:57] [SPEAKER_01]: Don't use it for fiction.

[00:55:58] [SPEAKER_01]: It doesn't really work for fiction, but it works great for nonfiction.

[00:56:03] [SPEAKER_00]: All right.

[00:56:04] [SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to start my New Year resolutions like, Hey,

[00:56:08] [SPEAKER_00]: I want to read 100 books and I'm going to start using it.

[00:56:10] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[00:56:11] [SPEAKER_01]: By the way, I challenge you, Jay, and I challenge all the listeners.

[00:56:14] [SPEAKER_01]: Pick three books you'd love to read.

[00:56:17] [SPEAKER_01]: Let's say you've never read Robert Green's book, Mastery, or let's say

[00:56:21] [SPEAKER_01]: you've never read Matt Ridley's book, The Rational Optimist.

[00:56:24] [SPEAKER_01]: Go out and buy those two books that you were never planning on reading

[00:56:28] [SPEAKER_01]: because they looked too big or you liked to read fiction or whatever.

[00:56:31] [SPEAKER_01]: For whatever reason, you weren't planning on reading these books.

[00:56:33] [SPEAKER_01]: I bet you you could speed read these books and learn a lot of information

[00:56:36] [SPEAKER_01]: about them in an hour with this speed reading technique.

[00:56:40] [SPEAKER_01]: Do this for an hour a day and you will have read and know just as much

[00:56:44] [SPEAKER_01]: as anyone else about 365 books over the next year.

[00:56:48] [SPEAKER_01]: With fiction, instead of recommending speed reading,

[00:56:51] [SPEAKER_01]: I'm going to recommend slow reading because remember when I gave

[00:56:55] [SPEAKER_01]: two examples from Ernest Hemingway's books, it's very important

[00:57:00] [SPEAKER_01]: to read every line and think about why this great writer

[00:57:04] [SPEAKER_01]: included this line in the book.

[00:57:07] [SPEAKER_01]: Every line will contribute to your feeling of the beauty

[00:57:12] [SPEAKER_01]: and wisdom of that book.

[00:57:14] [SPEAKER_01]: And that's why if you want to be a better writer and a better reader

[00:57:16] [SPEAKER_01]: overall, it's so useful to slow read great fiction by great writers.

[00:57:22] [SPEAKER_01]: Whatever your tastes are for fiction, get the best writers

[00:57:26] [SPEAKER_01]: and get those books and you will become a much better reader

[00:57:30] [SPEAKER_01]: even by slow reading one book, thinking about every single sentence

[00:57:34] [SPEAKER_01]: and why they wrote that sentence.

[00:57:36] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah. And if you want to be good at writing, make sure you take up

[00:57:40] [SPEAKER_00]: James Riding Course at JamesOptosureShow.com slash writing.

[00:57:45] [SPEAKER_01]: JamesOptosureShow.com slash writing.

[00:57:48] [SPEAKER_01]: Also, didn't we have a Choose Yourself URL?

[00:57:51] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, it's also ChooseYourselfAcademy.com.

[00:57:53] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, write and publish a book in 30 days, which seems like an

[00:57:56] [SPEAKER_01]: impossible task, but I show you in that course how it could be done.

[00:58:01] [SPEAKER_01]: And it's really important in many careers and industries to write a book.

[00:58:06] [SPEAKER_01]: And also, you know what?

[00:58:08] [SPEAKER_01]: It's very healing to write a book about yourself.

[00:58:11] [SPEAKER_01]: Like whenever I have a problem or whenever I regret something

[00:58:14] [SPEAKER_01]: from the past, it's so valuable for me.

[00:58:17] [SPEAKER_01]: This is right about it.

[00:58:18] [SPEAKER_01]: And it forces me to think about it.

[00:58:20] [SPEAKER_01]: But in terms of writing a book, there's a real good career

[00:58:22] [SPEAKER_01]: reason to write a book.

[00:58:24] [SPEAKER_01]: Let's say two people of equal scale are competing for the same position,

[00:58:28] [SPEAKER_01]: like let's say a consulting gig or a public speaking gig, or even a place

[00:58:32] [SPEAKER_01]: in the school of your choice.

[00:58:35] [SPEAKER_01]: You have equal skills with your competitor, but you wrote a book

[00:58:38] [SPEAKER_01]: and your competitor did not.

[00:58:40] [SPEAKER_01]: The person who wrote the book will get the job, the gig will

[00:58:43] [SPEAKER_01]: get accepted to the school and so on.

[00:58:46] [SPEAKER_01]: And here's another important reason to write a book.

[00:58:48] [SPEAKER_01]: My great, great, great, great, great, great grandkids might

[00:58:52] [SPEAKER_01]: want to know something about their great, great, great, great, great,

[00:58:54] [SPEAKER_01]: great granddad and oh, lo and behold, they can read my book and learn how I live.

[00:59:00] [SPEAKER_01]: Even if nobody else reads it, but my great, great, great, great, great,

[00:59:03] [SPEAKER_01]: grandkids, that'll be worth it to me to write a book.

[00:59:07] [SPEAKER_01]: So enjoy.

[00:59:08] [SPEAKER_01]: You could write a book and publish it in the next 30 days.

[00:59:11] [SPEAKER_01]: I also talk about marketing it.

[00:59:12] [SPEAKER_01]: That's about that course.

[00:59:13] [SPEAKER_01]: That's not what this podcast episode is about.

[00:59:15] [SPEAKER_01]: We talked about speed reading, but I challenge you, find a nonfiction

[00:59:20] [SPEAKER_01]: book you've been dying to read, but it looks so big and complex.

[00:59:23] [SPEAKER_01]: You haven't read it yet.

[00:59:25] [SPEAKER_01]: Go out and buy it.

[00:59:26] [SPEAKER_01]: Try the speed reading technique.

[00:59:28] [SPEAKER_01]: You could tweet me at J. Altichur and let me know how the speed reading

[00:59:31] [SPEAKER_01]: technique worked because this I could tell you, I only talk about

[00:59:35] [SPEAKER_01]: techniques that I have used that work for me.

[00:59:37] [SPEAKER_01]: This works for me.

[00:59:38] [SPEAKER_00]: Awesome.

[00:59:39] [SPEAKER_00]: Thank you, James.

[00:59:39] [SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to use it now.

[00:59:40] [SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to start reading a lot more books so that I can prepare for a podcast.

[00:59:44] [SPEAKER_01]: Okay.

[00:59:45] [SPEAKER_01]: I challenge you to read 300 books over the next year.

[00:59:48] [SPEAKER_00]: Okay.

[00:59:49] [SPEAKER_00]: I would try.

[00:59:50] [SPEAKER_01]: I'm going to hold you to it in a year.

[00:59:51] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

[00:59:52] [SPEAKER_00]: And then if I lose, we're going to play more checkers.

[00:59:55] [SPEAKER_01]: No, we're going to play more checkers right after this podcast is over.

[00:59:59] [SPEAKER_01]: Jay, because you want, you won one game out of four or five and I still need revenge.

[01:00:03] [SPEAKER_01]: I need at least 10 wins for every loss.

[01:00:06] [SPEAKER_01]: I was so, I was so proud, man.

[01:00:08] [SPEAKER_00]: I was so proud.

[01:00:09] [SPEAKER_00]: Anyway, thanks, James.

[01:00:11] [SPEAKER_00]: Thank you, Jay.