- I don't really have very many strong beliefs in life
but if there's one hill I'm gonna die on,
it's that speed listening to podcasts and audiobooks
is the best way forward.
I've been listening to podcast at double speed
for the last few years,
and recently I started listening to audiobooks
that run about 2.5x speed
and I'm slowly working to bump that.
And so, in this video, I'm gonna start by talking about,
why it's the best thing ever,
what the benefits are.
Secondly, we'll talk about some of the drawbacks,
the common objections to speed listening
as as a way of being
and why those objections are wrong, in my opinion.
And finally I'll give you some tips
on how you can start improving,
increasing your listening speed
to make speed listening a part of your life as well.
So, let's start with the benefits.
And there's basically two main benefits of speed listening.
The first one is pretty obvious.
It's that when you speed listen
to podcasts and audiobooks, for example,
it means you can just consume more stuff.
Now, I know this is controversial,
especially because all this mindfulness
and all this like, taking life easy.
But, to be honest, listening to more stuff
it is a good thing.
I've been able to listen to twice as many audiobooks
over the last few years, because of speed listening.
I've been able to listen to twice,
to three times as many podcasts
as I would otherwise been able to
because of speed listening.
And overall, the value that I've derived
from the increase in the content,
just being able to consume more stuff
has been so much greater
then the value I would have derived
from listening to half as much stuff,
but at 1x speed or maybe slightly higher than 1x speed.
Like, it's so much better to read two books
than to read one book slowly, in my opinion.
Just like I think it's better to listen to three podcasts
than one an hour podcast, again in my opinion.
Secondly, and more importantly,
I think the main benefit of speed listening
is that it ultimately reduces the time cost
to listening to a book or listening to a podcast.
At this point, I'm gonna cut to a conversation
that me and my friend Cliff Weitzman had a few weeks ago
on a YouTube deep dive live stream.
Cliff is the founder of an app called Speechify
which converts text to speech for people,
more details in the video description.
And we connected over our shared love of listening to stuff
at like faster speeds.
When it comes to listening to stuff at higher multiples,
it also reduces the cost of a book.
In the sense that the time cost of a book.
Because if you're the sort of person
that reads three books a year,
they better be pretty friggin good books,
like you can't just pick up, right on, I've re-read
"Harry Potter and The Philosopher's Stone" just for fun.
it's gonna take you four months to read that book.
- Or read this random book called "The 4-Hour Workweek"
to see it's a complete fake. - Yeah, exactly.
It's like a scammy title,
I will teach you to be rich like what the f, okay like,
who is this guy?
I know I'm not gonna need that book.
- Scarcity and your ability to read,
you can pick and choose,
and actually that's when you're enjoying the flowers.
Because if you can only read three books a year,
the only thing that you will look at is like Picasso
and Van Gogh and that's it.
But if you can afford to read a hundred books a year,
you will take a moment to stop
and look at every piece of art.
- Absolutely. - And you will go deep.
- Yes.
- And so to give a concrete example,
a few weeks ago I was interviewed on a podcast
called Freshly Grounded, link in the video description.
And Faisal, the host, recommended a book
called "The Ride of a Lifetime"
which is the autobiography of Disney's CEO Bob Iger,
which I first came across in the Tim Ferriss show,
and I was like, "Okay, cool."
But as soon as he recommended it, I knew that,
okay I was just gonna get it on Audible.
And I got it on Audible, and within a day and a half
I finished listening to it.
Like I listened to it that day at double speed at 2.5x speed
while I was doing my workout,
then I listened to it in the car
on the way to work and the way back.
and then I was done listening to the book,
and it was an amazing book
that made me tear up in so many different places
and I wrote about it in my monthly newsletter,
the link in the video description.
This is a very plug video, sorry.
But the point is that if I'd been listening at 1x speed,
it would have taken me, I don't know,
12 hours in total to get through that that book.
But because I was listening at between 2.5x speed,
it took me, I don't know, four hours?
Like whatever the math works out for that
and that meant I was able to finish it within two days.
And just did that reduced mental cost
to listening to a new book.
This meant that I was able to listen to it,
whereas if it was gonna take 12 hours,
it would have been much more of a an actual decision,
like do I actually wanna waste 12 hours of my life,
spend 12 hours of my life listening to this book?
So that is the main benefit of speed listening,
equally as a Cliff and I mentioned in the video,
when you can read things fast or listen to things fast,
it means you just discover stuff
that can completely change your life.
Like, "The 4-Hour Workweek", "Anything You Want",
"Show Your Work", like these books,
I've made videos on them enough
and how they've changed my life
and if I wasn't such a fast reader,
I might not have discovered them,
because I would have had more of a bar
to actually read a book,
because it would just take me a lot longer.
So, those are the two main benefits.
Firstly, you consume more stuff
for whatever that's worth,
and secondly it reduces the cost to consuming more stuff,
for whatever that's worth.
The main drawback that people seem to have
about speed listening, is that firstly people say,
"Well I don't think you'll enjoy something as much
if you speed listen to it."
And I used to think this was true,
so with podcast I've been listening at double speed,
because, I don't need to enjoy a podcast,
I mostly listen to kind of get the insights,
to hear the conversation.
It doesn't really need to be slowly,
"Hey guys today in this podcast
we're gonna interview Sam Harris."
It doesn't need to be slow,
but when it came to fantasy audiobooks on Audible,
again link in the video description,
when it came to fantasy audiobooks,
I was a 1x speed purist.
I was thinking, "Well, Michael Kremer and Kate Redding
are fantastic narrators and I wanna hear them narrate it
as they would in real life,
because then I'll enjoy it more."
And for about two in a bit years, maybe longer,
I was listening to audiobooks at 1x speed,
and a few months ago I discovered the power
of listening to them at 2.5x speed.
And my mind was blowing,
like I can't believe I didn't discover it sooner,
because I think I actually enjoy them more,
now that I listen to it fast.
Because especially when it comes
to kind of long, long fantasy series
which I like to do tens if not hundreds of hours in total.
Most of the book is kind of build up for the climaxes,
and so most of the book you actually don't need
to listen to it at 1x speed to enjoy the book properly.
You kind of speed through it and then, if you want,
in the climax bits, like sometimes what I do,
I put it back down to like 1.5x speed,
so I can kind of savor the climax a little bit more.
And so, I actually enjoy fantasy audiobooks more now
that I listen to them at double speed
or to add to 2.5x speed, then I used to at 1x speed
and I really wish I discovered this sooner.
So, for me personally, the listening to stuff
at double speed does not detract from the enjoyment of it,
and I think, as I said,
overall I gained more value in my life net utilitarian wise
by being able to listen to twice as many fantasy audiobooks
at double speed rather than half as many at single speed.
So that's the main drawback.
The other drawback that people sometimes say
is sort of a philosophical thing that,
"Well, life isn't meant to be lived at double speed,
you wanna enjoy life, you wanna take things slow."
And here is again Cliff
responding to that particular criticism.
- Huge fallacy and it's the type of thing
that you would say if you just didn't try it.
So, here's the best explanation.
Movies used to be much slower in pace than they are today.
When "Gone with the Wind" came out the movie,
in like the 1950s, it was smashing box-office hit,
but "Gone with the Wind" is so slow,
if you look at the dialogue, frankly my view,
I don't give it that.
It is so slow, if you watch "Gone with the Wind" now,
unless you're a real movie fanatic,
you would stop in the middle.
Because movies today are oriented to be so much faster
and the reason they have to be
is because we spend our time
on Instagram and Facebook and YouTube
and we're used to fast gratifications.
Our minds have gotten faster so we need to move faster.
And so, movies are written to be quicker now,
but it's also the case
that if I made you sit and watch TV show,
but I made you watch it at 50% speed,
so the characters were speaking like this,
you would stop, there's no way you'd keep going,
it would be torture.
For me listening to a normal show is like that,
because my brain has just adjusted to being so fast.
So I use an app called the Video Speed Controller
and it's a Chrome extension
that plays every video at 2.5x speed by default,
and it lets me increment speed by .1 increments up and down.
And it's a lifesaver.
And so, it's the type of thing
where you would say, "Oh, why are you reading so fast?
You're reading at 500 words per minute, are you kidding me?
No, enjoy life read a 200 per minute."
- So as Cliff said, our brains are evolving
kind of in this modern world
to consume stuff at a faster rate.
And like we wouldn't enjoy
a very, very, very slow paced movie,
I think like the more you start speed listening,
the more you, like it does not detract
from your enjoyment of it.
And it's kind of like saying like,
"I don't really bother the philosophical argument."
Right, because it would be like saying,
"Well why are you driving at 60 miles per hour
to get your destination, why not drive at 30 instead."
And then you can appreciate the scenery,
you can appreciate the color of the sky
and the singing of the bird
while you're driving at 30 miles per hour,
even though you're allowed to drive at 60.
Like it just doesn't make sense.
Equally you'll be saying like,
if you naturally read at let's say 200 words a minute,
which is a pretty normal reading speed.
If you read a 200 words per minute
then it'll be like saying, "Well, that's a little bit fast,
why don't you read at 100 words per minute instead,
because then you can really take in the words."
And I think if you have a philosophical objection
to leave speed listening, then,
and you don't have philosophic objection
to driving at a speed limit,
then, ugh, that's kind of why I don't buy it.
And like for me I haven't noticed any negative effects
of speed listening in my life.
It's not like I don't appreciate life.
I feel I actually appreciate life even more,
because now I've got the ability to, I don't know,
watch and listen to and read so many more things,
because I'm kind of doing them at double to triple speed.
Anyway, so those are some of the benefits and drawbacks.
Let's say you're sold on this,
or at least you wanna give it a go.
I would suggest you at least give it a go
and maybe for like a few weeks and see what happens.
How do we actually do it?
Basically the key is to do it slowly.
And in this context it's sort of about
to kind of mindfully practicing your listening speed
and here is Cliff again talking a little bit about this.
- The key to listening
is always challenge yourself to listen
at the fastest speed that you can listen at,
while still comprehending.
And not being a hundred percent comfortable, just be,
Seek Discomfort, just be ten percent uncomfortable.
- Oh Yes Theory, nice.
- In that way, you will just like it's an unbelievable
the impact on your life that you will have
if you just do that little thing.
It's like we type on our keyboards every day,
but we usually do not increase our typing speed
and it's because we're not mindfully practicing typing.
The same thing is true for listening,
however you don't need
to mindfully practice listening faster,
because the computer is doing the work.
- So yeah we wanna be challenging ourselves
to listen to the thing at the fastest speed
that we can comprehend and maybe a little bit faster,
because then our brain will sort of adapt
to those speed changes.
And it's kind of like typing really fast,
like I'm gonna do a video in a bit
about how I type at 150 plus words per minute.
And mostly it's a matter
of just kind of doing a lot of deliberate practice
with typing fast and then when you can type really fast
everything you're doing a computer
just becomes so much quicker
and it becomes more of a pleasure to use a computer.
You sort of playing it like an instrument,
more in depth in that kind of video.
But the point is, it's quite hard to practice typing fast,
you have to put a lot of effort into it.
Whereas it's very easy to learn how to speed listen,
because the apps will do all of the work for you.
So for audiobooks obviously I use Audible,
it's the best subscription,
like it's an absolutely no brain subscription like ever.
All of my friends who messaged me being like,
"I see you plugged Audible in a video,
do you actually believe it?"
I'm like, literally if there is one subscription service
I could have in the world it would be Audible,
even though they're no longer sponsoring my channel,
'cause their marketing budget has been slashed or whatever.
Anyway, it's just so good.
Anyway, the nice thing about Audible
is that you can set the speed multiples.
So you can set any multiple from like 0.1
all the way to like 4.0 in increments of 0.1.
So again, for most non-fiction audiobooks
I listen to them in between two and 3x speed,
so you can set it to 2.5, 2.6, 2.7.
So initially I started listening in 2x
and then I bumped it up to 2.3 and then 2.5
and then last week I was in 2.6,
and this week I'm listening at 2.7,
and I'm just kind of slowly bumping up my comfort level
with listening to stuff on Audible.
Equally with podcast apps,
the ones that I've used most often
are Castro and Overcast
and they have speed settings
and you can always change those.
You can even change them for specific episodes,
so, for example, some podcast I listened to at 3x speed,
like the Video Creators Podcast
which is about how to grow a YouTube channel.
Often there's a load of chitchat and talk quite slowly,
so I can understand it 3x speed.
But if I'm listening to something
that's particularly information dense
and there was a great episode of,
most episodes of Ezra Klein's show actually
are very information dense and require a lot of thinking.
I bump it down to 1x, like this is not something,
it's not a permanent life decision.
You can always change the numbers around.
So, the point I'm making,
is that the app does all of the work for you,
and actually in Cliff's app, Speechify,
it's not quite as good as Audible
for listening to audiobooks,
because Audible is actually narrated by real people,
this is, Speechify the sort of machine learning,
AI type narration, so it sounds a little bit robotic,
but they do a good job
of making it sound a little bit more humanized.
But if you're using Speechify to read like PDFs and stuff
that don't have a narrator
who's been paid to narrate the audiobook bit.
Then what Speechify does,
is that they've got this sort of adaptive speed setting
where every thousand words or so,
it'll slightly bump up your listening speed
and then slightly and then slightly
to the point where you don't really notice
that it's increasing and then, after a while,
you'd be like "Oh I've actually been listening
a lot faster than I thought I could."
And now you realize that you're better at speed listening.
So that's another way of doing it.
And actually I want to cut once again to Cliff over here,
because one, like any time I talk about this,
a lot of people in my live streams and stuff
when they see me watching stuff at double speed
they think, they say,
"Well, "English isn't my native language,
I'm not very good at this."
But here is Cliff talking
about his experience of learning English
through listening to audiobooks."
- I started reading, reading with my eyes,
I would try to read Harry Potter.
And I would fall asleep every time in the public library,
because my-- - "Mr. and Mrs. Dursley
of number four, Privet Drive were proud to."
- "They were perfectly normal
and plus they were the last people you'd expect
to be involved in anything strange and etherial
because" they just didn't call it as nonsense.
I met my first girlfriend
because we both have
that chapter Memorizing with Line by Line.
- Solid.
- And I would fall asleep,
because my brain moves fast, but the input was too slow.
And when I started to listen, it was faster
and then I get good at listening,
and initially I didn't speak English,
I would understand maybe like two out of every ten words,
but I knew the storyline,
so I knew what Harry was and what's like Snape was
and what wand was, and what magic was,
and what Hogwarts was.
So I could put it in context.
And little by little I filled in the words.
So when I started, I didn't listen at 1x speed,
I didn't listen at 2x speed,
I listened at .75x speed, the Harry Potter.
And I did that for the first like three times
of listening to the book.
And I started to fill in the blanks,
and then I started to listen at 1x speed
and then I listened at 1.25 and then at 1.5,
and then at 1.75 and 2x etc.
Now, Speechify does this really magical thing.
It has an algorithm built into it,
called Automatic Speed Ramping Algorithm.
and if you turn it on, it will increase your listening speed
by three words per minute every thousand words.
So you don't notice that your speed is increasing,
it's like a lobster sitting in the pot
and the pot increases in temperature.
You don't notice it's increasing,
but you are getting better at listening faster.
- So that's another benefit of speed listening.
Like if English is not your native language
or even if it is and you struggle to listen to things
at two to 3x speed, if you practice
and slowly increase your listening speed over time,
then you'll just get better at it
and then you can, instead of listening
to 10 books a year, you can listen to 25 books a year
and that's just great, like,
it's just like the best thing ever.
So, that is the hill that I'm gonna die on,
that is why speed listening is the best thing ever.
A few links in the video description,
there'll be an affiliate link for Audible
for whatever that's worth,
if you sign up with that link, you sign up to a free trial.
I make like five dollars or something like that.
I'll also put a link with a discount code to Speechify,
if you wanna check that out.
It's quite good,
it was mostly aimed at dyslexic people, initially,
but now like 85% of the people who use it are not dyslexic,
and just use it to consume information in listening format
when they're out and about or driving
or at the gym or whatever.
That tends to be when I'm most listen to stuff,
because, I like ultimately for me
I still read a lot faster than I listened,
but I can't read while I'm driving or I'm at the gym.
So that is kind of where listening fits into my life.
And I'll put links to the episode of Freshly Grounded.
If you like the idea of listening to books
and getting insights from them,
you might like to check out my book club series
which will be linked in a little playlist over there,
you can listen to that at double speed,
and so far there are four, three or four videos in it,
and you can get a lot of insights from a lot of good books.
Thanks for watching I'll see you the next video.
Bye, bye.