I don't think you should read any story books this way or for example poetry - that would be just a nonsense!

Personally I like to imagine what Im reading so it kind of sucks if you read too fast - skipping or 'scanning' sentences is where you need to 'weed out' stuff, not really for books that are suppose to work on your imagination... I think in here you dont want to skip nothing :D

- Take a pen with black finish and run it under the letters, you’ll read at 1,5 speed (and it’s not a trick, it’s something children dp with their finger when they learn to read so it's quite natural).

- Stop saying words aloud in your mind when you’re reading.

- Try to catch two or three words instead of one.

Now, none of this is bullshit or skimming, I'm doing it and have same retention as I'd be 'spelling' in my mind word by word, I believe human brain is smart enough to process more than one word or you think it's a crazy idea? hehehe if so then good luck ;)

It's not about skimming or reading whole page in a matter of a couple of seconds (I don't think you can have great retention with that unless you have really great/photographic memory), but about basic skill which you can improve (just like riding bicycle or doing tricks on skateboard). There are some 'bad habits' of reading and eliminating this would improve your reading speed.

btw. I also know couple of mnemonic techniques that lets me remember things permanently and very quickly - again, no bullshit, just a technique as old as ancient Greece.

That's not speed reading, that's reading.

If there are techniques available, generally not thaught in school, that speed up reading quite easily. Why not call that speed reading? Perhaps x10 is not attainable to most (if any), but +50% is a massive time saver for anyone.

Same goes for mnemonics. The easy tricks are pretty easy to learn and worked for me as well (remembering lists by visualizing a house with rooms). Might have been natural to you, but a learning moment for me.

Obviously don't tunnel your life's savings into any scheme. But in the basics learning more of the skills you use most.. is pretty efficient. (Ever seen your accountant, or doctor type for that matter? Most nurses I saw recently single finger type..)

I agree, if you speed up by 50% I guess that's an speed improvement... as for mnemonic techniques I've learned them from books, didn't cost me more than £50 and three months of 2 hours practice per week.

Roman Room (remembering lists by visualizing a house with rooms) is one of more popular ones. The other popular one is 'chain' method where you remember just one element connecting to another and this leads you to whole list.

There are mode advance ones like 'mnemonic tables', the idea is simple - you remember 100 elements perfectly with their number in the table (they're just images/slides whatever coded to numbers in your head), once you know them perfectly you add adjectives to extend the table to 1000 elements so... number one would be a pioneer, 101 would be wooden (or whatever) pioneer, number 1101 would be let's say wooden pioneer riding on a tiger (riding on a tiger is for 1k).

That's how you can use it to remember for example dates - at point of most practice I was able to remember around 40 historic within two-three minutes (permanently).

Why it works for everything else than dates? because memorizing things is a process of creating and connecting new neural paths and as we repeat this paths becomes stronger and that's one of the things that leads information from our short term to long term memory.

Mnemonic tables are great because you already got something in your brain you know perfectly on/to which you 'hang'/'connect' the new information so half of the job is done - just as Roman room, a bit more advanced, but I guess you could make a hybrid technique where house rooms have numbers ;) The key is to make these images in your head as funny, vivid or emotional (can be scary or any other strong emotion) as possible. That will make sure your brain will have better chance of making strong neural paths.

Sorry, wrote to much stuff off-top, but maybe will be useful for someone.

Do you have any book recommendations for these techniques? I tried the "memory palace" or the method of loci and had a small degree of success, but never found it practical. I'd love to give it another go though.

Check out books of Tony Buzan, use your head etc. as well look for some books on mind mapping. As for that mnemonic system I cannot find it :/ but similar thing is GMS from 'Phenomenal memory', look it up on google & you shall find it... :)

I'll check them out, thanks!

That's weird thing to say, I guess no replies from guys in UK (London & rest of the country). It's similar for Netherlands and I know (from my experience) in Germany (Berlin).

'In Europe software companies are more like factories. You punch in, work like a slave all day, then punch out.' > again not sure which countries you speak about (ukraine or romania lol?), maybe it's like that in some, but some have very relaxed attitude

'Overall, remote working in Europe is mostly done for US companies. EU companies are usually mentally disabled.' > again, there're tons of EU based remote work, and I just won't comment on the rest of this generalisation.

I've got a nice remote offers from Spain and Netherlands as we, despite being in UK. I'm getting them all the time.

So just to top the thing about working like a slave all day... - my EU company gives me remote because I do work better in this mode, - my EU company gives me a lot of benefits that guys in US don't see (despite that average salary I'd say is lower in here), - basically it's yet another EU company that hires me and gives me total freedom because I deliver

i.e. if you're good you will always find a remote job with conditions you want.

btw. your comment shows your ignorance and nothing more (and a lack of ability to produce some facts instead of meaningless offences)

'EU companies are usually mentally disabled.' - seriously? you work for some1 or you're building your own 'empire' with this kind of attitude and beliefs?

Overall, your post is full of bs.

'ukraine or romania lol?' - it's interesting to see that you typed Ukraine and Romania in lowercase while others (Spain, Netherlands, US) in uppercase, but let's skip it for now.

I really wonder what your assumptions about working environments in Ukraine and Romania are based on? Have you ever worked in any of the countries? Do you feel like people there are somehow worse than people in the UK? Or that Ukrainian/Romanian developers are more "slaves" than you?

Thanks

'again not sure which countries you speak about (ukraine or romania lol?), maybe it's like that in some, but some have very relaxed attitude' > I'm talking about Western Europe. Mostly Germany, Netherlands, UK and Scandinavia. I was referring to office jobs, not remote.

Eastern Europe is actually pretty great because it has an American influence. No stupid EU brainwashing. Only capitalism. Also, your tone about Ukraine and Romania is condescending. Not very nice.

'again, there're tons of EU based remote work, and I just won't comment on the rest of this generalisation.' > It's low quality. Basically, remote work in Europe means "Let's find some third-world slaves that will work for cheap.". They offer remote because they don't want to pay the high salaries in their own countries.

I've got a nice remote offers from Spain and Netherlands as we, despite being in UK. I'm getting them all the time.' > I get these offers all the time. And they all offer average salaries. They search in other countries because they are trying to find cheap slaves.

'my EU company gives me a lot of benefits that guys in US don't see (despite that average salary I'd say is lower in here)' > Your mistake was accepting the lower salary. But it's understandable since you don't seem to be familiar with how things actually work.

Just to give you an idea, I work in Eastern Europe. And the equivalent salary in UK to maintain my quality of life would be about 150k GBP. I'm happy that you're happy. But I'm pretty sure you're concentrating too much on the silver lining.

I worked for European companies. And I worked for American companies with branches in Europe. And American companies are simply on another level. They might suck in the US, but they don't when they come to Europe.

What benefits does the EU company give you more beside more free days compared to US ?

I'll just mention one thing, maybe that's not important for you - US maternity law, come on... it's a joke ;) all of this stuff is way in favour in most countries of Europe.

btw. I like my free days, I like a lot the extra ones (not the ones that companies are obligated to) if you work for good company.

time is precious so a lot of companies are very flexible, in here it's nothing new & nothing uncommon to do 4 days instead 5 etc. or change any day with any weekend day if you please.

I think you drank too much of the kool-aid. You're very happy about things that are normal in Europe. And you are willing to be underpaid to get them. You don't have to be. You can get a good salary and the benefits too. It's funny how you're fighting the guys that want this to happen.