Saturday 5th October 2024

Reading things a little slower is a very good thing (for me).

I used to be a very bad "gap searcher" during conversation. I'd always listen to half of a sentance someone was saying, think that I'd gathered the gist of what they were saying and then already have formulated my reply in my head before they'd even finished speaking. I'd look for gaps in the flow of what they were saying to try and interject with my response, even though in reality I hadn't at all really "heard" what they were trying to say and, importantly, had no idea of the position they held that was making them say those things or what outcome they were hoping for in saying these things to me.

I became aware of this flaw years ago and (I like to think) I've improved a lot in that regard. This is important because not only is it really, really rude to do that to someone during a conversation, but it also made me a less efficient communicator by not letting myself properly take in what people were saying to me. I'm glad I fixed that, but interestingly have found more recently that I did a similar thing with reading.

Technical docs, books, slack messages, emails. I'd skim them, reckon I got the gist of what they were saying and then skip the rest or start typing out a reply before I'd even had a chance to consider what I was going to say. It's really weird, but it hit me that this is the same as gap searching during conversation although maybe with a little less rudeness to the other person (I'm not actively interrupting them) but an even worse effect on me - by not giving myself any time to consider the information in front of me.

When I realised this, I started reading everything slower. I'd take second glances. I'd re-read entire pages. Nothing but good things have happened as a result and I would thoroughly recommend taking more time to ponder over the words that you're trying to understand. Sounds basic, but it really helped me.