ch1Priya Read the Chapter Twice. She Could Not Summarize It.
Priya was a second-year MBA student in Ahmedabad who had invested in a speed reading programme at the start of her degree. She practiced the eye movement techniques, worked on suppressing subvocalization, trained herself to process larger chunks of text per fixation. By the end of the course, her reading speed had increased measurably. She could move through a dense economics paper in considerably less time than before.
She sat down to study for an exam, read through the chapter in the new time, and then tried to recall the content. The chapter had passed under her eyes in half the time it previously would have. She could tell you the general topic. She could not reconstruct the argument. She went back and read it again at the faster speed. She still could not summarize it adequately. The speed was real. The retention was not there.
This is the gap that speed reading courses do not address. They solve the time problem. They do not solve the retention problem. The assumption behind speed reading is that the bottleneck is throughput: if you process the text faster, you get through more material in less time. The assumption is partially correct. Throughput does improve. What does not automatically improve is the quality of processing that determines whether material integrates into what you already know and stays retrievable under different conditions.
Harini Ramachandran, a professional playback singer from South India who had recorded 75 songs for the who's who of composers across the region, had the same structure in a different domain. She could perform the songs. She knew the lyrics. Under pressure, in front of an audience, with the lyrics stand removed, she blanked. The information was present. The access was not. What Antano Solar John identified when he watched her perform was that her attention was split. Half was on the performance. Half was on the question of whether she would forget. That split was the bottleneck. Not the information. Not the technique of memorization. The state she was in when the moment of retrieval arrived.
ch2Why Speed Reading Techniques Miss the Real Bottleneck
Speed reading as a discipline emerged from the observation that many people read more slowly than their cognitive capacity requires. The eyes fixate, the inner voice speaks each word, the processing is sequential and slow. Techniques like chunking, pointer-pacing, and subvocalization suppression increase the rate at which text is processed. The data on reading speed improvement from these techniques is real.
The data on comprehension and retention after speed reading training is far less consistent. Studies show that above a certain speed threshold, comprehension drops. The eye can move across the page faster than the mind can process meaning. What speed reading trains is the eye's movement pattern and the suppression of the auditory loop. What it does not train is the internal processing that determines whether a concept connects to existing knowledge, generates an association, produces a question, or gets encoded as something that matters.
That internal processing is a state question. When you read in a state of genuine interest, the text activates connections automatically. A sentence relates to something you read last week. A concept produces a question about a situation you are in. An argument challenges something you assumed. These connections are the mechanism of retention. They are also the reason you can recall something you read months ago in a state of genuine absorption, while forgetting within hours material you read under deadline pressure at a high speed.
Harini's recording sessions demonstrate this precisely. Songs she recorded in the earlier period of her career took four to five hours per song. The same quality of work, measured by composers who are in a position to evaluate it, came down to 45 minutes after her 45-minute session with Antano Solar John. She did not get faster by trying harder. She did not use a technique to reduce recording time. What changed was the state from which she was processing the material. The composer's vision, the song's structure, the execution, all of it moved through her more completely because the state allowed complete absorption rather than divided attention.
This is the real bottleneck for anyone whose reading speed has improved and whose retention has not followed. The bottleneck is not in the eye. It is not in the suppression of subvocalization. It is in the quality of the state from which the text is being received. A person reading in a scanning state with good eye technique is processing the text at a surface level. A person reading in a state of active absorption is doing something categorically different with the same material, regardless of their reading speed.
ch3What the A&H Framework Identifies About Learning Speed
Antano Solar John watched Harini perform before he spoke to her. He saw that she was commanding the stage, connecting with the audience, in genuine creative flow with her band, and then breaking that connection every few minutes to check the lyrics book. The connection and the check were alternating. Her attention was split between the performance and the threat of forgetting.
He did not tell her to stop checking the book. He did not give her a memorization technique. He asked a different question: what if you could keep the attention fully on the performance? What if the lyrics were available the way the national anthem is available, not retrieved but simply present? He then sat with her for 45 minutes and worked on the state from which she encountered material, not on the content she was trying to retain.
The same evening, she walked on stage without the stand. The words came. Not through effort, not through retrieving stored information, but with the kinesthetic quality of something that simply flows. Midway through the first song, she knew she was singing it correctly not because she was checking but because it was happening. Four songs, three and four languages, not one word missed.
For Priya, the equivalent shift is not in eye technique. It is in the state from which she sits down with a chapter. Reading in a state of genuine curiosity, where the text activates questions and connections automatically, produces retention as a byproduct. Reading in a scanning state, even with perfect technique, produces throughput without integration. The technique cannot create the curiosity. The curiosity is a state.
This is the A&H view of learning speed: the variable that determines how much you retain per unit of time reading is not technique but state. The person who retains most is not the fastest eye mover. It is the person whose state when reading produces complete absorption, genuine connection-making, and natural association between what is being read and what is already known. That state is not a personality trait. It is a capability that can be installed.
ch4What Changes When the Reading State Changes
Priya's change did not begin with a different technique. It began when she stopped treating reading as a throughput problem and started asking what state she was in when she sat down to read. The answer, for most of her MBA study sessions, was a state of urgency combined with a background sense that she was falling behind. That state is a scanning state. It moves text through the eyes. It does not process it at the level that produces retention.
When the state changes, the first thing that shifts is what the material feels like. A chapter that had previously passed under the eyes as a sequence of words to be processed begins to arrive as a sequence of ideas to engage with. The reading slows slightly at first, because genuine processing takes more time per sentence than scanning. And then something different happens. The material starts to connect. A concept in chapter seven relates to something from chapter three. An argument produces a question. The question produces an association with a real situation. These connections are not added effort. They happen automatically when the state produces genuine absorption rather than surface processing.
The retention that follows is a different kind of retention from what speed reading produces. Speed reading produces temporary recognition, the sense of having been through the material. Absorbed reading produces integrated understanding, the kind that persists without review and that produces genuine recall rather than the hollow experience of reading a question on an exam and knowing you have seen the material without being able to reconstruct the answer.
Harini describes the cascade that followed her 45-minute session over the subsequent twelve months. Music and work and new domains, all of them changed. The session was about lyrics. The state that changed was the state from which she encountered any new material. Every domain she entered with that changed state responded to it. Priya's equivalent cascade, when the reading state changes, is that every course she takes, every paper she reads, every concept she encounters in discussion or in the field, arrives differently. The reading technique stays where it is. The state determines everything that matters about what learning actually produces. Watch: Learn Faster and Retain More to see what this shift looks like in practice.
Key terms
StateThe internal condition from which you encounter new information. State determines whether reading produces surface processing or genuine absorption. Speed reading techniques operate on eye movement. State determines whether the material integrates into what you already know.AbsorptionThe quality of processing in which new material connects actively to existing knowledge, produces questions and associations, and integrates naturally rather than requiring effortful encoding. Absorption is a function of state, not of technique or reading speed.InstallationA change at the level of unconscious patterning that produces new capability without the person executing conscious steps. Harini did not follow a technique after her 45-minute session with Antano Solar John. The capability was installed. It ran automatically from that point forward.Time CompressionThe ability to accomplish in compressed time what previously required far longer. Harini's recording time dropped from five hours per song to 45 minutes. Time compression in learning is a consequence of state change, not of trying harder or applying a faster technique.CascadeThe chain of downstream changes that follow a single state-level shift. One 45-minute session produced better memory, faster recording, new types of professional opportunity in music, and the ability to learn IT from zero background inside 12 months. The session targeted none of those outcomes directly.Frequently asked questions
Do speed reading techniques actually improve retention?
Speed reading techniques reliably increase reading speed. Their effect on retention is inconsistent. Research shows that above a certain speed threshold, comprehension drops because the processing quality required for retention cannot keep pace with the eye movement. The techniques optimize throughput. What determines retention is the quality of internal processing during reading, specifically the degree to which material connects to existing knowledge and generates active associations. That is a state question, not a technique question.
Why do I read fast but remember nothing?
Because reading speed and retention are produced by different variables. Reading speed is produced by eye movement patterns and suppression of the auditory loop. Retention is produced by the quality of processing that happens between the eye and the memory, specifically the degree to which new material connects to what you already know. That processing quality is determined by the state you are in while reading. A scanning state produces throughput. An absorbed state produces retention. Speed reading trains the former without addressing the latter.
What is the best way to read faster and remember more?
The best way to read faster and remember more is to change the state from which you read. A person in a state of genuine curiosity and active absorption retains more per minute of reading than a person in a scanning state using perfect technique. The throughput question, how many pages per hour, is secondary to the processing quality question, how much of what is read actually integrates. Harini Ramachandran's experience is the clearest available illustration of this: one 45-minute session that changed her state produced faster processing and better retention simultaneously, without any technique being applied.
How do I stop forgetting what I read?
The primary cause of forgetting what you read is that the reading was done in a scanning state rather than an absorbed state. The material moved through the eyes without activating the connections that produce durable retention. Retrieval practice, writing summaries after each section, and deliberately connecting what you read to what you already know are all techniques that engage the processing quality that produces retention. They work by forcing a form of absorbed engagement that should be happening naturally during reading. If you find you need these techniques to retain anything at all, the question to address is what state you are in before you open the book.
Can you actually learn faster?
Yes. Harini Ramachandran learned IT testing from zero background and built a team delivering for complex clients inside 12 months, while simultaneously accelerating a professional music career. Her recording time per song dropped from five hours to 45 minutes. These outcomes did not come from working harder or from a better technique for any specific domain. They came from a state change that produced faster and deeper absorption across every domain she entered. Learning faster is not a function of technique. It is a function of the state from which you encounter new material.
Full transcript
for for My great grandfather is Papanasam Shivam who is one of the legendary composers in Kannada music. So coming from the lineage, learning music was no big deal. It was a no brainer. It just came to me naturally. And I've always been able to sing on pitch, sing on rhythm. I was musically gifted right from the beginning. Although my mother doesn't sing, but she's extremely knowledgeable and I would wake up every day morning to music playing. So that was the normal thing in my house. And although my father doesn't have a background in music, he has a really melodious voice and fortunately he loves music as well. So we're a family of people who love music and we have so many professional musicians in the family in the Carnatic field which is the classical music in India. I didn't know that I would pursue a career in music, but I just had this dream of being able to sing for films in India. Coming from the background that I do, I mean, Tam Ram so to say, like singing for films is considered taboo. Classical music is end all, but anything other than classical music was not even encouraged that well. But there's this one composer called A R Rahman. He's also a Grammy and an Academy Award winner. His music just struck a chord with me right from the beginning. And I used to dream when I was in my sixth grade, my seventh grade. In fact, my mother and my friend's mother used to joke amongst themselves saying, if A R Rahman could actually put to tune our physics and chemistry books, they'll all be in my fingertips by now. Because I was fanatic about A R Rahman's music. When everybody used to be going out during lunch break and playing and things like that, I used to do a little mini concert for those people who finished having lunch. So afternoon, right after lunch, concert by Preeti and Harini. That's how it was. So I used to listen to cassettes and write down the lyrics and then go back and then write it down again. Actually write down lyrics by listening to songs. And I used to dream that while I was studying for my exams, suddenly my thoughts would go, what if, and I would actually start singing. And my thoughts would go, what if Rahman was actually walking by the road and he listened to me sing and he says, hey, why don't you come and sing for me? So that was a fantasy that I grew up with. It was not a wish, it was not a dream, it was not a sing for movies in India. And this took five hours. So I was running out of breath. So when I'm singing it, I mean, today, of course, I've done like 75 songs of professional playback myself for like the who's who of composers in South India. And so obviously the performance that I'm delivering now is very different from what I sang back then. I was a good singer back then too, but it was just not professional, so to say. It was definitely a cut above everything that I've heard anybody else sing back then. But the moment you're looking at it from a professional ground, I mean, you're immediately you're in the same field as a Lata Mangesh Kura everybody else. Right. And that was my first validation of man, it's taking me five hours to sing Zara Zara, that too a song that I have already learned. And I like I've like I know that song. It's like in my blood. And if that is taking me five hours to sing, then maybe there's just so much more to learn before I can actually get there. But singing has been that constant source of strength and support and validation. I participated in every single music competition, solo, group. I learned instruments. I would direct. I took the lead in music and I did that for two years. And the third year I was obsessive compulsive about presentations and research and paper presentations. And again, I participated nationally, internationally delivering paper presentations. I didn't know how it would actually contribute. So when I had to do my first internship, I happened to chance upon an event management company and I, you know, like help them organize a few events. So that was my first job. So to say like learning on the job, I went on to again organize some international events for them at every stage, whatever it is that I took up having zero exposure. Somehow opportunities presented themselves to me or I went off road. I don't know to the extent that I got to see like the best of it, like from zero rock bottom to like the best of it. Right. And I had the opportunity in a very short period of time to go through that entire gamut. Human resources was what I thought I was going to do for the rest of my life. And I thought I let me go ahead and do a master's in HR. By the time it was the end of second year, it was placement time and there was TCS and all of these organizations that are coming for placements. And I sat till like the final round of the TCS job selection process, but I refused to go inside that room for that final interview because that was the moment I made the decision. My parents had no clue though. They thought they're going to I'm going to come back with the job offer from there. But that day I said, no, I'm not going to do this because taking up this job would mean I'm going to have to travel two hours to get to the office and two hours back home and going to be there pretty much from nine to six, which means bye bye to the music that is already booming at this point of time for me from a career perspective. Fortunately, I was able to negotiate with this organization as well that they would let me, you know, have some flexible timing. So when I first met Antono, I think I was interning with a particular organization and Antono had joined in as a CTO of the organization. There was just so much that people are telling me this is young guy, his name is Antono, he's just 24 and he's joined in as a CTO. He's like the guru of Web 3.0. And why is everybody talking so much about a 24 year old? And I was 23 back then. I heard who had published three books. They were like internationally published books that are still available everywhere. And I went and asked, OK, so what's his qualification? You know, like, what is he? What can he possibly have studied? And I heard engineering. I'm like, that's not much. I'm masters. You know, he's just an engineering student. But what must be true if he's actually had three books published already? And that was from one of the top two publishers and technology books worldwide. So when I met him, this gesture was something very charismatic about him. There's something very bright about him, like a halo of wisdom. That's the first thing that struck me. And but I don't think we got along too well at the beginning. First thing that he did, I think, I don't know, first or second interaction, he called me fat and that's enough to pick off any girl. So what he meant was you look fatter today than you did two weeks ago when I saw you. And I'm like, you don't tell that to somebody like that on your face. You look fat. So I invited him to one of my concerts and I had fun with my band. I was having so much fun. And with my band, I would sort of put in my own seasoning to the songs that I've sung, as well as the classics. And we gave it our own little treatment concert that brings out my specialties from a vocal perspective, what I can do with my voice, as well as like variety of different genres and a unique sound and fun and all of that put together. And I had a ball on stage. But I don't know, notice that I carried this lyric stand with me everywhere I went. And that concert as well, I had that plan to write in the center of the state. So he used to he watched me like have fun and in track of the audience and having a good time. But I would keep coming back with lyrics book just to like sort of look. And then he looked at me at the end of the concert. He came and said, okay, that was a great performance. You were you were having such a good time and just look at the audience like crazy. They really love you. I said, yeah, I mean, it's that's my life. I love doing what I do on stage. And that's when he said, but why do you keep that lyrics book? Like, do you not know the lyrics to these songs? I'm sure you perform these songs often, right? And I said, yes, I do. But, you know, most of the time I'm performing the latest songs that are like the sensation at that point in time, in addition to some classics in my own. So I don't remember lyrics and I'm just scared. What if I forget? And then he looked at me that day and he said, what if I can help you remember these lyrics? So I said, you don't need to come back to the center of the stage. You're already like 100% with regard to your performance and your interaction and your chemistry with the band. What if you can take that to like 200%? Where your attention doesn't have to be on, oh, I have to go back and check what's the next set of lyrics again? He said, what if you can actually remember it? You don't like you have this exceptional ability to just memorize lyrics so quickly and such that you remember and you don't forget it. I said, that'll be awesome. Three, four languages and songs that I was not familiar with. Like I just learned them about like a week ago. So I took that offer and I sat with him that day for like, what, 45 minutes. I mean, I don't know, I was just doing everything that he was asking me to do. And he said, okay, we're done. So he did some things I don't even remember what he did. So I didn't know when I was supposed to expect results of whatever it is that he did. Reasonably, I was expecting that maybe the next time I sing or learn a bunch of new songs now, the next time it's going to, it's going to maybe I'll remember them better. That was, that is what I thought. But that evening I was still backstage and it was time for me to go up on stage. They called out my name and I literally forgot that lyric stand backstage. And I turned up and when I planted myself in the central stage and then I had a quick moment of panic thinking, oh my God, my lyrics book is not here. These are new songs. What am I going to do? It was almost accidental. But when if you ask Antonov, he will say that was not accidental. That was a very careful and elegant choice made by a subconscious mind is what he would say. But something just took over that moment. I don't know what from where I got that confidence. I was sort of blank in my head for the words just float. Like I sang that entire song, the first song fully. And I didn't forget a single word. Like it just happened like as if I've known that song on my life. And that happened for the first song and the second song and the third song and the fourth song. And I was thinking what is happening, right? Like at that moment, I didn't realize. I just knew that I was just singing it. I didn't have the lyrics book in front of me. And it was it was too good to be true. At the same time, I think I was in a completely different zone in my head that day. It was just I don't know. It was like a high like I've never experienced on stage. But the end of the concert was when it actually hit me that I hadn't taken that lyrics book there. And I managed to remember every single word. So initially, although there was that moment of panic thinking my lyrics book is not there, I was surprised at my own self as to how that panic just vanished when I just heard the music and I just started to sing and the words were flowing. So midway through the song, I realized that I'm actually singing it right. And I had no idea how what but it was actually flowing. Because sometimes when you make a mistake, even though you don't have the lyrics book in front of you, you sort of know. But this time I was just having the kinesthetic feeling of it's correct. It's happening. It was just it was just flowing and I had no reason or answer as to how or why. But I just remember just like you remember other things like you don't forget how to sing the national anthem. You don't forget how to sing Happy Birthday to you. So this was also just flowing and I continuously had that feeling of it's right. So I didn't I didn't mumble or, you know, like sort of forget any word in the song. I didn't sing any word wrong. And it was it was just fascinating for me and that was sitting right there in the performance. You know, at the end of the concert, when he came up to meet me and I looked at him and I had that moment of surprise and I said, can you believe I didn't use the lyrics book? I did take it and then he just looked at me and he gave me this really nice gleeful smile. Like as if he was expecting it anyway, but that's not what he told me to do. So he didn't give me a set of instructions than the previous day saying, next day, don't take your lyrics book and go. None of it. He just did what he did and said, just go ahead and be surprised. That's all he said. And I actually did surprise myself that day and I looked at him and I said, now what? Right. And then he looked at me and he said, this is just the beginning. He said, like three to six months from now, just notice what happens to you. And he said, it's going to be like how a butterfly just suddenly realizes it has wings and it can fly. Those were just nice words. I thought he was encouraging me and motivating me and all that, but it was only after like six months or a year when I took a look back at my life over that year, I was overwhelmed by how many things changed for me after that. I found myself having this new sense of confidence because it was not just this one concert, but I had so many concerts after that and every one of them went off even better than the previous. I was so much more confident. It's suddenly like, you know, those you all along, you thought you needed a crutch, but then suddenly you realize you don't need a crutch and then you realize you can walk and run and do whatever it is that you have to. That was the feeling that I had. Somehow when you have this new sense of confidence, it shows up in your performance. It was contagious the way I was performing and the response and then the event organizers would only be too happy and then they would sign me up for a few more gigs. And surprisingly, the same thing happened even at recording. This was again a moment of surprise where I was called by one of the very famous composers to sing a song like after a really long time and midway through the recording, he paused and he said, Megha, you started to sing really fast. There's like more feel in your voice. Like you finished the song already. Like there's so much that we finished already and earlier you used to take such a long time. And a couple of other composers also told me the same thing. When the composers were commenting that I was taking shorter time to sing the same song, what they're referring to is also the songs sometimes are just simpler to sing. There are some songs which are more complex. There were certain kind of songs that I used to sing earlier. Like even the simplest songs would take me like four or five hours. And you know, then it came down to like three hours. But now it came down to like 45 minutes or like one hour. So that was my first validation of well somebody else of authority is telling me that there's a shift in me. That's when it struck me that there are so many people like even today when I meet people who are very good at what they do, right? To get from where they are to that next level, especially the more and more and more you accomplish in your life, to get to that next level can sometimes be very difficult. Because you don't know what to do. Like I was in a point where I, I wouldn't say I hit a plateau or something. I was doing very well. But to actually have that next level of vocal breakthrough is the greatest satisfaction for an artist. And I experienced that in two months and I don't know how that happened. The only thing that I can think of was that one particular session that I had with Antono. And that was also not even to do with my singing. That was to remember lyrics, right? I'm not even just remember lyrics, the ability to learn lyrics fast. So it was not like he gave me a set of steps saying this is how you learn lyrics the next time. I just, just that the next time I was learning lyrics, it was, it happened more spontaneously and I would remember and I still don't know how. So I don't follow a technique even now to remember. That was my moment of magic that happened at intercardings. And that opened up a whole set of different opportunities because then these same composers started to give me different kind of songs. The kind of song that I was not used to singing, they started to experiment with me because it's joyful for a composer when they see that there is a singer that is quickly understanding what their vision is and is executing it really, really well and bringing in their own. And when this is happening in compressed time, it's joyful for a composer to work with a singer like that. So I became a regular to more such top composers. So they were calling me for more songs. They were even calling me for the initial composing sessions. So I was part of the entire creation of the song. And these were opportunities that I didn't have before. And this has nothing to do with lyrics. This is just a consequence of who I had become and what it had opened up for me. What it allowed me to do in my recordings. It made a difference to my confidence. It made a difference in terms of actually being able to deliver faster. And then it becomes an infectious loop. You're delivering faster, the composer is excited, and then he's excited. So you're excited even more. And then you're having a good time. You're learning, listening to more songs. And so suddenly I was in this loop of high performance when it came to recordings and all of that. And I can't imagine how it can just be restricted to this. I was also working. And when so much was happening here, I realized that I was actually doing as much even when I was at work. Suddenly I saw people at work look at me differently. I started to get more responsibilities at work, but I was not stressed out about it. I was able to handle that faster. I started out by doing assessments and behavioral assessments and stuff like that. And within that period of that one year, I took up testing, which is a completely IT related thing. And I had a zero IT background, but I learned that quickly. And I started out as a basic tester. And I went on to eventually had a team there of testing for some really complicated deliverables that they had for a lot of their clients. And then I did a little bit of client interfacing and eventually went on to doing some high end consultative sales for corporate as well as K-12 in the organization. And all of this happened within like 12 months. And I didn't realize things were happening so fast. So I was managing time really well. I was getting better and better songs. My songs were becoming better hits. I had more gigs. And I was doing well at work. And to me, when I look back, I was just fascinated by how things happen so fast. So it was like the domino effect where something started and then it just triggered a whole sort of amazing things for me. Now, I mean, when I'm reflecting on this journey of mine, I realized that that little intervention that I had done for me actually resulted in me going in the direction of achieving incredible things. And all this happened within one year. And now when I look back, I have a completely different meaning to the term legacy.