An interesting discussion between Jordan Peterson and Vivek Ramaswami. This seems very weird to me: “…most people are a little slower reading than listening, and that means they are really capable of absorbing more complex material than they’re willing or able to read.”
I’m just the opposite. I don’t have the patience to listen to someone tell me something, and I don’t retain information well that I take in through my ears. It’s why I hated lectures in college, particularly when they were just repeating the textbook, which I could read myself much faster.
I’m with you.. I can read at 400+ words per minute, people do not speak that quickly….
Of course, I find myself on the right-side outlier of people in many ways….
I’ll read instructions more usefully than I’ll watch a Youtube tutorial.
I didn’t used to mind catching a “How It’s Made” episode on TV if I had nothing else to occupy me, but those at least had well-edited video to go with the discussion.
Peoples neural wiring are …different. I have trouble remembering peoples names but find it trivial to remember faces years later. Reading for me is easier and writing about it just reinforces long-term memory — Post-It Notes™ for the win!
Mostly I think when you read at your own pace you are not distracted by whatever else the speaker (and their audience in the background!) are doing. Reading speed is a variable …I took a speed reading course and tested some preposterous number at reading Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea but I consider that ‘scanning’ and not something that could be done with dense subjects containing technical subjects and/or mathematical formulae.
Yeah, nobody is going to speed read The Art of War.
Depends a lot on who is speaking and who the author is. Sometimes reading is quicker but a lot of writing is filled with empty words that are colorful but not concise and the same is true for podcasts.
Most long form podcasts have a clips channel where good segments are carved out in 10-20 minute segments. I find those to often be better use of time but sometimes you miss nuggets the editor didn’t think was important.
Perhaps a better comparison is reading vs audiobook? I’d much rather read the book, and retain more, but due to time constraints, audiobooks are easier to get through.
Audiobooks are always something I considered doing while engaged in some other activity — like exercising. In that case your concentration is impaired so is it really that good an idea? YMMV, of course.
My concentration improves when my body is moving.
Agree. There are many different accents I simply cannot pay attention to – and some that are easier for me. Also, there are many YT channels I get recommended (based on the ones I do watch) that are just horribly produced: Bad sound, no editing, no context about whatever they’re talking about…
Sound is always the most important thing a YouTuber should get right.
It’s like they don’t even listen to their recording before uploading it…no sound at all, or so low I cannot crank it up high enough to hear it. And while I’m old, my hearing is still pretty good.
I listened to a few episodes of a podcast that had a highly-produced intro and bump music that sounded like they spent thousands of dollars on just the right voices and instruments. One of the first episodes I listened to included some idle conversation about how they were going to move into their new studio space soon, so I gave the poor-quality audio a pass.
Every single episode, before, after, and during the “new studio” era, sounded just as horrible as the first one I listened to. Some of the episodes sounded like they were recorded on a cell phone inside a metal box.
How someone can drop thousands on an intro and bump music but can’t even drop a dime or two for even a quality lapel mic is beyond my comprehension.
I’m with you. I often skip things of interest simply because they are in a/v format. I would much rather read and skim. If it turns into a meaty subject, then I’ll slow down a bit for absorption.
I hear, I forget.
I read, I remember.
I do, I understand.
Watch youtube explanations at double speed – much better than reading, in my opinion.
If subtitles are enabled, stop the playback and tab forward reading the subtitles…
I enjoy audio books while driving, and times like that. But I cannot concentrate on them when working, same part of the brain in demand, I suspect.
It seems to me that some people ‘hear’ what they read and some people ‘see’, so some can ‘do both’ while others like me cannot.
I typically speed up what I am listening to by 1.5x to 2.0x, depending on the speaker. Interestingly, I often find my brain accelerates to compensate, making be faster at other things I am doing. No, not just driving!!
I often noticed this in some college classes that skimming a chapter got me in minutes what the lectures did in hours. Variable at conferences though, with some presentations well worth the time. I’ll often read a link but not bother to listen to a YouTube video.
The bold text method..got me through most of college (Astronautical Engineering) and half of medical school.
Children today are neither taught nor encouraged to read well. The written language is to be reserved for the elite in the future, as it was in the past.
THIS! It may be true, these days, that the general population was taught so badly (whole language, sight words, Dolch high frequency… English-as-hieroglyphics) that most read slowly. It was not generally true for those of us that got hold of literacy via phonics.
Nobody seems to say that they will sit down in a room with the lights dimmed and listen to an audiobook or podcast. They always talk about how they do that while driving, or exercising, or doing chores, or playing games, or some other task where their concentration isn’t totally centered on that task.
Does anyone listen to them while coding or writing, for example? I know I couldn’t do that. And there’s the difference. When I read, I want to devote my full attention to the subject, not treat it as a way to get through some mindless task.
(As for video podcasts, unless you’ve got lots of supporting images, what does seeing people with “faces for radio” yammering away add to your message?)
I have migraines, and am having some other visual issues (ten eye surgeries). I absolutely WILL sit in a darkened room and listen to audiobooks. I plowed through the entire Vorkosigan saga (16 books) this way in two weeks earlier this summer while waiting for my eye to heal.
This is almost entirely a consequence of the triumph of “Whole Language” teaching, which treats English spelling as if ideographic. It was a scam in the beginning, adopted by the education establish as a means to destroy literacy, which it has accomplished.
When I was in my teens (back in the 60s), I invented a phonetic spelling system for English that used only the characters available on a standard qwerty typewriter. Although standard English has 44 phonemes, my system, which I called Phonetype, worked fine. In the 80s, I fed it into a synthesizer and was amused to hear my own voice, complete with residual NE accent, come out of the speakers. A few years later, I used it for the SoundexB() algorithm (because regular Soundex() doesn’t work).
Hiir’z what Fanetaip luks laik when rendariq Iqglix. I repurposed some letters. C = th, Q = ng, X = sh, so tx = ch, etc. Long vowels are doubled, so kaar = car, etc. There are some rules for A before a semivowel (schwa vs. vocalic), and I kept W because there’s one in my name.
They tried that on me in second grade. Fortunately I already learned to read with phonics in kindergarten. All whole word did is make my spelling terrible.
I enjoy military history podcasts on my drive to/from work and also while mowing the lawn. I can usually concentrate on the podcast pretty well at these times, however I do occasionally get distracted by some traffic situation and end up rewinding 30-60 seconds. For detailed technical subjects I definitely prefer books.