My Story

This course comes directly from my own struggles as a reader.

One problem I had was the sheer amount of text my classes gave me each week.  I’ll show you how to beat this with speed-reading: you’ll whisk through text to soak up the major ideas.  For many class assignments, this browsing will be enough; for others, it will prepare you to go back and zoom in on the details.

Another problem was convoluted grammar: I read, and re-read, but still couldn’t figure out what was being said.  One typical sentence ran –

In working toward an expansion of the conceptual envelope in which our studies take place, one can, of course, move in a great number of directions, and perhaps the most important initial problem is to avoid setting out, like Stephen Leacock’s mounted policeman, in all of them at once.

I returned to class utterly defeated.  Since then, I’ve hacked English grammar, and will train you to read for sentence structure. You’ll naturally see such sentences in their simplified forms, such as –

In working toward an expansion of the conceptual envelope in which our studies take place, One can, of course, move in a great number of directions. and perhaps The most important initial problem is to avoid setting out, like Stephen Leacock’s mounted policeman, in all of them at once.

A third problem was dense webs of ideas. I routinely became lost in my class books, losing the author’s thread of reasoning, and mistaking examples for arguments.  One semester, I came to class every week only to discover that I had fully misinterpreted the reading.  Infuriating!

I’ll train you to dissect books, breaking them down and chunking them up to see the overall pattern of an author’s ideas.

A final problem was memory: I didn’t carry what I learned from one class to another.  Like many people, my education ended up being largely disconnected and short-lasting.  I’ll train you to keep a system of reading, distilling, and reviewing that will make it easy to complete your readings, read them well, and remember them forever (or at least ’til you die).

I squirmed, I struggled, I ended up pulling a summa cum laude in two bachelor’s degrees.  My overwhelming interest in my studies pulled me through.  But I was confused, and irritated, that I had experienced such a hard time.

I can help you make it easier.