Started listening to audiobooks on 1.5x speed and finished 3 books in a week

I was talking to a buddy of mine who drives for UPS, and he mentioned he burns through audiobooks on his route by cranking the speed to 1.5x or even 2x. At first I thought that sounded crazy, like how do you even follow along? But I tried it last week with a history book about colonial america, and after about 15 minutes my brain just adjusted. I finished all 12 hours of it in two days of driving around for landscaping jobs. Now I'm wondering if I've been wasting time listening at normal speed for years. Has anyone else tried speeding up educational content and actually retained it?

2 comments

2 Comments

richard11013d ago

I used to think the same way about "missing the flavors," but honestly I tried cranking a podcast to 1.5x and found I actually paid more attention because my brain couldn't wander. For me the faster pace forces me to focus, and I end up remembering more than when I let my mind drift at normal speed. Not saying it works for everyone, but I was pretty surprised how much stuck after I sped things up on a long drive.

the_wren13d ago

Three books in a week sounds less like learning and more like bragging rights. I get the whole speed thing, I've tried it with podcasts and my brain just starts skipping over details that might actually matter. If you are reading a history book, you need time to let the information settle, not just rush through names and dates like you're trying to beat a timer. It's like eating a really good meal in 30 seconds, you get full but you miss all the flavors. People love to act like being efficient is the same as being smart, but I bet you could ask most of those listeners what they actually remember a month later and they'd draw a blank.