You've been reading wrong all your life.

Have you ever wanted to be able to read a book in a day or even an hour? This video teaches you the techniques to do exactly that and even more importantly, remember everything you read... for life. Forget quick fixes - I'm going to teach you an entire system. After you learn it, you'll never look at reading the same again.

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WHO AM I?
I have spent most of my life studying and thinking about how to retain what I learn. I have an undergraduate degree from Harvard University, a medical degree from the Yale School of Medicine and finished residency at a Harvard-affiliated hospital. I am now a board-certified doctor practicing in the US. This entire channel is dedicated to the art and science of learning, productivity and success. Stick with me and I promise you too will achieve your goals.

IF YOU WANT TO LEARN MORE ABOUT ME, watch these videos on
- How I got into Harvard (I had to debate AOC in school) =

- What I did after Harvard =

FOR PRODUCTIVITY AND STUDY TIPS, watch these videos:
How to create unstoppable habits

- The most simple, efficient and intuitive productivity system ever.

- How to plan and structure your life to achieve literally anything.

- How to unlock 100% of your brain and focus on anything.

Check out my second channel on medical stories: @spoonfedmed

TIMESTAMPS
00:00 Stop Using "Tricks"
01:13 First Concept
02:10 Second Concept (The Map)
04:09 How to read Textbooks
05:13 Third Concept (The Purpose)
06:32 Fourth Concept (The Trio)
08:02 Problem with Speed Reading
11:07 First Exercise (The Review)
11:25 2nd Exercise (The Debate)
12:10 3rd Exercise (The Professor)
12:50 Final Exercise (Future You)
13:19 Problem with Note-Taking
14:37 Summary of 3-Step Framework

SOUND EFFECT ATTRIBUTION
Tyrael - Sword Slice Flesh (CC BY 4.0 International)
Sword Slice by LiamG_SFX (CC BY 4.0 International)

MUSIC ATTRIBUTION
I misplaced the credits for the song. If you are the original creator, please let me know so I can credit you properly.

[dard]

I'm a lot like this guy. He has three Ivy League degrees and I've had poison ivy three times to varying degrees.

[LaurenABeals]

I noticed that people in medical fields tend to be really meticulous and have excellent time management when it comes to reading. Thanks for the advice! 😀

[asdadas]

This reminds me of the Henry Ford quote “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.” Instead of looking for ways to increase content consumption, we should look to improve our method of consumption. Insightful.

[gabrielbotsford]

This is great for technical reading, textbooks, manuals, journals, scholarly articles, and the like. Obviously, we want to digest literature in a different way.

[vednote]

?[growing new brain connections]

1. Don't have to read all the words
-author swags, exaggerates. So cut through other person's (author's) thoughts.
2. Use map. Read summaries, or discussions before reading.
-scan through, and judge for yourself what's relevant, and irrelevant. if relevant, read slow, or with extra focus, & really understand. If irrelevant, skim.
-reading text books;
use table of contents, and diagrams, and focus on material that matters to better understand concepts u actually wanna learn about, rather than reading page 1 to last.
3.Approach all books with purpose, know the why of what.
4. The trio;
- ?whatever. avoid passive reading. use active and applied reading together, ig?

exercise 1.
Is this concept relevant to me
exercise 2.
be critical, analyze, think. play devil's advocate to better understand.
exercise 3.
can u explain it to others? record urself if not sure.
exercise 4.
was knowing what u read useful, can it be applied in real life, is this useful in long term?
5. note taking useless.
-well fuck.
-true, I won't be coming back to this, but note taking helps in interacting with inflow of information better?!

summary;
skim. (actively read)

kek. smh.

[LateflixMovieNetwork]

skipped through this video and got the best out of the important parts 💪

[almightyzentaco]

I watch movies at 10x speed. I have seen so many movies. I dont remember any of them and they have no emotional impact on me but Its quite the flex.

Just read books like a normal person folks. Meaningful ideas take time to digest. Stop trying to speedrun your life

[gingerbreadzak]

00:00 📚 Reading faster isn't about cramming more words, it's about learning faster and retaining information effectively.
02:35 🗺 Before diving into a book, get a summarized version to build a mental map of its content.
06:06 🎭 Reading for entertainment is different from reading to learn; have a clear purpose for each reading session.
10:47 🧠 Engage in active reading by reviewing, debating, and teaching what you learn to ensure deep understanding.
13:08 📝 Merely highlighting or taking notes isn't effective; engage with the material actively to strengthen memory and understanding.

[MrBlack-wter]

I actually read for entertainment so I read slow and even google definitions often and sometimes even pronunciation and I'm glad you mentioned (flow) because great entertainment writers definitely have an outstanding writing flow that just sounds like a great story being told in your head...

[gabrielalfaia]

This only works with non-fiction. If i ever come across a guy that says that he read crime and punishment in a day i wil ask him "Do you also brag about having sex in five seconds?'

[TheReadWellPodcast]

I watched 13 seconds of this video and got the “gist” of it. Now I’m going to watch seven seconds of another video. Later.

[Flabbergastery]

I recommend watching this video for the full picture but here's a Summary and my personal insight;

1st concept: Skim over paragraphs to get a grasp upon its importance, if it's relevant and worth memorizing then read it with the intention of understanding it thoroughly, and reread it if it has good information or is really relevant to your purpose. Most authors fill their writings with redundant and filler paragraphs, if you wish to read quickly and efficiently with the aim to learn you must skip the parts that aren't relevant to your objectives and focus your mind on the parts that are.

2nd concept: Read a summary or condensed version of the book with the key points, concepts, and information to build a solid framework that'll help you assess the relevancy of any given paragraph.

3rd concept: Before you read a book, identify your purpose behind reading it. If you're reading it to learn something or answer a question you have, then skip the parts that don't serve that purpose. Approach reading with ruthless efficiency, to save time and mental resources.

4th concept: Here's a trio of concepts that are worth your consideration whilst reading, and these are "Passive reading", "Active reading", and "Applied reading".
Passive reading is where you blindly read without doing anything with the information, and thus you don't retain the information. Words go in one ear and out the other.
Active reading is where you assess what information is worth your full attention and memorizing, and skipping over the rest.
Applied reading is where you're utilizing or 'Applying' the information that's worth memorizing as you're reading it, associating it with long term memories you've already formed that are relevant. "Brain cells that *fire* together *wire* together."

Exercise 1: Review the text, ask yourself "What concept is the author trying to say?", "Is this concept new to me or relevant to my purpose for reading this book?".

Exercise 2: Debate with yourself and the author, ask things like "Do I agree with this concept?", "Does it gel with what I know?", even if you agree with the author, ask yourself what problems do you see with the information. Have a mental conversation with yourself and the author. "What would they say in response to my criticism?" Just seek new angles and perspectives, and associate this information with context and long term memories you've already formed. (For this one in specific, it's better to just watch it yourself, It's hard for me to explain it without copying him word for word.)

Exercise 3: Apply the information and make it your own. Put the information in your own words, for this one in specific it's good to try to teach someone else about the information you're learning (Teaching is one of the best ways to learn and retain information). Consider how the conversation would go beforehand, what stories would you include in it? What relevant examples and experiences from your own personal life would you include?

Try having mental conversations but with specific contexts, such as putting it in words that a 5th grader could understand or explaining it in a one minute elevator pitch.

Write about it, converse about it, maybe even record yourself or your voice talking about it for you to rewatch in the future, just associate information you're trying to remember with actual real world memories to make it easier to recall. These real world memories and experiences will serve as a memory cue, once you need to recall this information it's much easier to recall the cue and then the memory itself rather than just the information. Think of it like this, the information you're trying to remember is like a boat floating about without an anker inside your brain, if you don't anker the information to a memory or experience you'll lose the information at sea.

Exercise 4: Whenever you learn something, ask yourself if learning this impacted your life or made it better. "Was spending the time to learn it worth my time?", "Will I use this information in the future?", "How will I apply this information to real world scenarios in the future?", "Will this information change my future behavior?".


The problem with note taking is you offload the responsibility of internalizing the information to an external format, and with many of these formats you never end up going back to remember the information and even if you do your brain won't feel obligated to actually memorize the information because you have it readily available. The brain is lazy and will try to take short-cuts, so don't give yourself those short-cuts and consciously take the harder path.

Summary he provides: "Whenever you read, always do 3 non-negotiable steps:
First is to prep, Understand why you're about to read this book. Have a purpose, a reason, a question you want answered. Then, pre-read to build your skeleton, have a map of what to expect.
Second step is to read, but to read actively. I give you license to generously skip, use your map and purpose to guide you. Read only the essentials of what you need for this particular go-around. It's okay to come back in the future and repeat the 3 steps when you have another purpose.
3rd step is to apply and immediately engage your brain so what you learn is tethered into long term memory."

I apologize if my interpretation of what he has said isn't the best, like I said it's better to watch the video, but I did offer some of my own insight that hopefully adds worth to reading this. If there's anything you feel I need to correct, go ahead and comment them below.

[mene]

I have used your strat by starting to watch this video at 14:40, time saver

[GD_Truth_and_Beauty]

Great stuff! So, practicing the "Professor" role, here's a summary:

When trying to learn, realize: it's impossible for authors to write exactly what you need in a concise way. So forget about speed reading tricks, or taking notes and highlighting, and, instead, use this framework tofocus on getting to the useful information and retaining it:

1) Before, or preparation
- have a purpose before consuming the material. What is it that you want to learn?
- pre-read the material: get a summary; have a "map" of the material.

2) Read
- with the map in mind, as you are reading the material, make flash judgements about each paragraph: is it useful or is it fluff (repetition, transition, irrelevant)?
- if reading a textbook, go straight to the parts that are useful to you.

3) Engage your brain
You remember information that you use, rather than passively consume. So, as you are reading, practice on or more of these exercises:
- summarize the content,
- debate with the content; try to come up with contrary information or arguments,
- explain the content (to someone, or record yourself),
- future you: how will you use this information? How will it make your life better? Imagine yourself using it.


And remember: if you are reading for pleasure, just read for pleasure. This is a framework for reading with a practical purpose.

[BKNeifert]

Here's a thought: Read slower. Take a Romantic Poet, or someone like Dickens, slow down, and take your time thinking about what they say. Not all the best ideas are immediate, and many of them take time and concentration to develop maturely in the mind. A good poem, should never be understood peripherally, but rather should be gauged by its depth, and its ability to reveal new layers of meaning after ever reading.

[cheers]

I fast forwarded through most of this video. Took my 3 min to watch.

1)Read a summary of book first
2)don’t read every word just sort of skim the book for important plot points, you can skip whole paragraphs or pages
3) read often and don’t take notes

The end

[ttt]

This is how to get through or absorb a book a day- and definitely better than what most would do! It's efficient and probably a better method than traditional reading- but if someone claimed to have read a book and I find out they skipped over paragraphs, I consider that having skimmed it instead

[Nspongy]

I love this video, thank you so much for it! It gives me more confidence in reading quickly and not taking every single word as sacred, trying to appreciate the structure of every single sentence (which is tiring). Also the Bob example was great. It's really well-written and funny, and it simultaneously makes me question the necessity of making such simple points overly-wordy and complicated (depending on the purpose of the point).

[sohdvalue]

This guy is just unbelievably cool! My inner child eyes are sparkling!

[erickaparicio]

This is simply not going to work, and I respectfully disagree. Maybe it will work for easy fluff books like those found in a self-help shelf (all the books in the beginning of his video), but it won't really work for anything else. Mortimer J. Adler recommended that worthy books ought to be read ideally 3 times: the 1st to deeply understand the structure & general arguments, the 2nd for comprehension of detail, and the 3rd for criticism & conversation. What SpoonFedStudy is proposing you do is do all 3 readings in 1 reading, which only master readers can achieve. People don't understand that reading is a skill and think that if they can read words on a page, they can read just as well as anyone else—not true. This system of doing all 3 reads in 1 read will most likely just give you a mediocre level in structure, understanding, and opiinion on a book.

Self-help is literally the bottom of the barrel in terms of difficulty or quality. I think if you read them upside down you'll still be able to finish a couple a week. And btw, how foolish is reading Marcus Aurelius in 1 day before he inundates himself with the skeleton of another book the next. What is the probability that he's at all thinking deeply about what a Roman emperor distilled as his greatest private writings of advice by Sunday? Almost none, I mean how vacuous, it's just a check on a list. This is what annoys me about American culture, and as someone about to graduate medical school this reminds me of doctors I worked with who only read the abstracts of hallmark papers just for the sake of efficiency, which is a noun they worship.

If you want to read The Master and His Emissary by Iain McGilchrist, or Aristotle's Nicomacean Ethics or any book on philosophy, A History of the First World War by B.H. Liddel Hart, Basic Economics by Thomas Sowell or The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham, and numerous other books that aren't fluff self-help, you're going to have to do the work and not take the lazy way out by reading summaries or skipping paragraphs and pages, because many of these books don't have wasted space, and can't be effectively summarized. Some of these books have 50+ pages of blbiography, sometimes the book IS the summary of the research.