The world has changed - from too little information to too much information

In the past, professionals and business people always complained about the lack of data to help them make sound decisions. Nowadays, with the advent of the Internet, people complain that too much information exists and they don’t have enough time to find the right information and digest it. There are 2 challenges in acquiring information

1. To focus on the best information sources available and ignore inferior ones (quality)
2. Once you have found the best information, to absorb more information using less time (quantity)

I want to share some tips to overcome the 2nd challenge. It’s actionable and you will see significant results within an hour, perhaps a 100% improvement in productivity

The limit of human beings - luckily our brains is not the limit

Human being can only read at certain speed. In today’s age of information overload, how can we “get up to speed” to absorb more and more information? Research has been done to understand what the factors limiting our speed of reading

1. Sub-vocalization - The tendency to read aloud even when one is reading silently. While you are reading, you can probably notice the little movements of your tongue, as if you’re reading out loud. The maximum number of words that human beings can vocalize is about 150. This limits to reading speed to not much faster than 150

2. Eye-ball movement - As we read, our eyeballs invariably move. It seems that lateral movement of the eyeball requires much energy, and thereby slows down reading speed. Informal, non-scientific evidence based on me and my friends’ experience (any scientific research to prove or disprove this?), suggest that it is slower for one to read in languages that are written horizontally, compared to reading the same thing on languages that are written vertically. Our eyeballs can only roll so fast. This is a physical limitation
3. Concentration - When I am reading a book, I tend to think about other things that are remotely related to contents of the book, or not related at all. This is especially bad when I was reading online. Sometimes I’d go check email, or when an interesting link comes up, I have problem resisting to click on it. This distracts me from concentrating on the content I’m reading, and thus reduce the speed

The conclusion is that the speed at which the brain can process the information are not constraints to reading speed. This is good news, because technology and discipline can help us resolve the 3 constraints above. However, if our brains were to blame, it’d be much more difficult to increase the speed it which they run

Solutions to overcome human limits - Speed-reading tools

There are two types of speed reading tools. They serve different purposes

1. Rapid word-flashing software
   • Purpose: the purpose of the first type of tools is to help you read documents on a computer screen faster
   • How it works: This type of tools rapidly flashes words at the same position of the computer screen successively. It is like watching a movie in front of a computer screen. My eyeballs don’t have to move, and it helps me to concentrate. Best of all, when the speed of reading is higher, it eliminates my tendency to sub-vocalize
   • Preliminary test results: I managed to get up to 400 words per minute using the tool after a little practice, and for sure the speed can increase if I continue using it. It doesn’t seem to increase the speed of reading books though
   • Example: RapidReader. I recommend that you try a free trial version, downloadable at their website

Screenshot of RapidReader

2. Speed reading techniques training software
   • Purpose: The purpose of the second type of software is to improve your ability to read fast, both on screen and on paper, without the help of any tool
   • How it works: Instead of displaying words in the same place so your eyes don’t have to move laterally, this type of software trains your eyes to improve your span of vision. So when you’re reading a book, your eyeball will only focus on the middle of the line, and use your peripheral vision to read the left and the right. Now your eyeball doesn’t have to move laterally, increasing reading speed
   • Preliminary test results: I managed to get up to 350 words per minute reading a passage online, using the tool after a little practice. I can practice this skill without the tool, so it is useful for book-reading
   • Example: Best Reader. I recommend that you download a free trial version to try it out

Conclusion for lazy people

For quick results without much additional work, I recommend Rapid Reader, a rapid word-flashing software. Given the increasing number of documents I read on-screen, this is more useful. And the fact that I can sit back and relax to read faster is something I can’t resist

I hope the tools will help you increase your information uptake

Additional information

Examples of languages written horizontally

• English, from left to right, then top to bottom
• Arabic, from right to left, then top to bottom

Examples of languages written vertically

• Japanese, from top to bottom then right to left
• Mongolian, from top to bottom then left to right

For more on different writing systems, see Wikipedia entry on writing system

Thoughts on cultural gaps

Posters of the movies Babel

Communication breakdown is a big challenge for human society. They are illustrated vividly by the tragic scenes of the movie Babel. Cultural similarity can also bring seemingly unrelated people together, especially when they cannot blend in to a different culture. Lost in Translation gives this a somewhat romantic touch. The more common variations are the social groups and online forums for Western expatriates in Africa, the Middle East and Asia. Also worth mentioning are the Japanese associations and China towns in major cities

There have long been dreams that technology can bridge this gap, enabling everybody to communicate with others from different cultures

Poster of the movie Lost in Translation

Experiment using technology to bridge language gaps

I tried to use online machine translation tools to translate phrases from English to other languages, and see what comes back. I recommend a website, Babelize, that makes this really easy and fun! It translates your phrase into 10 languages and then back into English. I tried to play with the question “Do you believe in God?” Here are the results

Translated to Japanese:
神を信じるか。

Translated back to English:
Is God believed?

Translated to Chinese:
上帝被相信吗?

Translated back to English:
God is believed?

Translated to French:
Dieu est cru ?

Translated back to English:
Is God believed?

Translated to German:
Wird Gott geglaubt?

Translated back to English:
Is God believed?

Translated to Italian:
Il dio si crede?

Translated back to English:
The God believes itself?

Translated to Portuguese:
O deus acredita-se?

Translated back to English:
The god gives credit itself?

Translated to Spanish:
¿El dios da el crédito sí mismo?

Translated back to English:
The God gives to the credit itself?

Machine translation still has a long way to go, until it can spit out meaningful words. Good news for language teachers, otherwise students can always excuse themselves from learning foreign languages

I’ve always struggle in word games like scrabble, because I only know a limited number of words. At school, I once played a word game called Anagrams. It required me to rearrange a word to form other words. For example, the word “Arts” can be rearranged as

- Tars
- Rats
- Star
- Tsar

Lately I’ve come across a few websites that automatically solve this type of word game . They give me a relaxed way to learn new words. I can type some words that I am curious about, and boom! In a split second, a list of words with the same letters arranged differently, come up. Here are some words that I find interestingly sarcastic (although politically incorrect)

Japan’s prime minister
- Shinzo Abe -> Sob in Haze

Taiwan’s president
- Chen Shui-Bien -> Nice Bush in he

Korean actress who once had an affair with a Hong Kong singer
- Kim Hee Sun -> I sue HK men

The world’s hybrid car
- The Toyota Prius -> Oh, auto is pretty! -> Ahoy! Prostitute
The intertwined relationship between 3 celebrities in Taiwan
- Jay Chou, Petty Hou, Jolin Tsai -> Oh! jauntily, joyous, pathetic

Enough examples. Among all anagram-generating sites, I recommend Anagram Genius as it generates the most natural phrases without advanced user settings (try it yourself!), and without bombarding you with numerous combinations to choose from

Here are some other sites that help you generate these funny phrases. Enjoy!

Wordsmith Anagram Solver
Good for basic and advanced users. It contains advanced options for users to limit the number of words in each anagram, force anagrams to include or exclude a word, etc.

Andy’s Anagram Solver
Very similar to Wordsmith, but allows user to choose the dictionary to limit / expand phrases generated. There are 4 English dictionaries to choose from
- English (20000 words)
- English with proper nouns
- Massive English dictionary (>100000 words!)
- Massive English dictionary with some proper nouns

Brendan’s On-Line Anagram Generator
Very simple interface The only configuration you need is the minimum number of letters of a word

To me, Arabic is a language that’s fun to learn. I’ve recently started learning it, and discovered many free resources online that teach Arabic to foreigners. Here are a few. I recommend Madinah Arabic, but that is just my personal preference. Other sites may suit your need better. Enjoy!

Madinah Arabic
Comprehensive site that offers 2 free courses, Arabic Reading Course and Arabic Language Course. Arabic Reading Course aims to help you learn the Arabic script, before learning the language itself. It suits me best because I want to learn reading, writing, speaking and listening. Also native Arabic speakers said that it’s much easier to learn conversational skills if I can read the script

Gulf Arabic
It teaches the Arabic dialect spoken by people in Gulf countries, i.e. UAE, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the Southern part of Iraq. The whole website is in Roman (English) characters. Therefore, even if you don’t want to learn Arabic script, you can still learn Arabic for casual conversation purposes

Islamopas
It focuses on letter recognition, with each lesson teaching you a few characters. The short lessons, may not teach you the most number of words, but ensure that you remember most of the words being taught

Arabic 2000
It is a commercial site that offers a full Arabic language curriculum online, at a price. It offers 1 free lesson, which is indeed quite long, starting with basic grammar