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Reading to digest, listening to enjoy

It's quite common these days to have information available in audio or video form. There are countless podcasts and tutorial videos out there you could watch or listen to learn new things.

I'm sure they work for many, but they just aren't for me. Only exception maybe being tutorials to do something when actually seeing how it's done helps me to grasp it. And even then I'd usually prefer pictures.

When I'm reading I don't do it at the constant pace. I tend to speed read, even skim through the uninteresting parts, scanning fast down to the important information. Then I might slow down to make sure I understand it. I might even pause the reading completely and take s moment to think what I have just read. Sometimes I need to go back and reread something I previously skipped as unimportant. 

So my reading is not only variable speed, it can also be non-linear. These are both hard to do with video or audio. Altering the speed makes the narration sound funny and skipping back or forward to a specific moment is almost impossible, cutting your flow while I wait to get back there. This all also requires external actions while when I'm reading I can control this all in my head.

 

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