Listen and Learn, Fast

A year or so ago, I wrote a magazine article (that never ran) about a blind medical student and the technology he used to get around the hospital wards. Though he had tons of really cool gadgets—like an optacon that converts visual images to vibrations—I was most impressed by the fact that he was able to read charts and journal articles far faster than other med students. That's because he scanned in the pages and used specialized software to convert the text to speech. He had trained himself to listen to—and process—speeds of up to 500 words per minute, much quicker than anyone can read.

As it turns out, with a little training, everyone can process information coming in at faster speeds than normal human speech. According to Steve Pavlina, we can easily train ourselves to understand podcasts, books on tape, and voicemail played back to us at twice the normal rate—and with a little training, almost four times as fast. The newest version of Windows Media Player has an "enhancements" button that allows you to increase the playback speed. QuickTime has one, as well (via LifeHacker).