Did you know that we are exposed to 10+ times more information than our parents (this is based on some research I came across) be it for work purposes or some thing else.. the real, pressing and ever present need to read and assimilate. Have you ever wondered about a quicker or more efficient way of assimilating information? The scene from the movie 'Matrix' comes to my mind.. "Do you know how to fly that chopper?" ans: "Not yet!"
If such a method was available right now!.. I'm sure we would all wish to use such an 'instant learning' gadget. The text-to-speech method is nowhere close to the above but I believe is much better than the traditional approach of visual reading and assimilation. Listening takes a fraction of a time compared to reading. Although you tend to miss or grasp some details based on the speed of reading, the text-to-speech tool is set to, I found it extremely helpful to read and understand content much faster than just reading it visually. Engaging both the audio and visual inputs of our body seem to be much better than just the visual input. Similarly a movie which has both audio and video makes for a much faster conveying of an idea/concept and is much richer that just audio. This can probably also viewed in terms of levels of the richness of communication. 1.Text 2.Audio 3.Video(with audio) 4.In person: Which includes non verbal communication. In the aspects of, better communication or attracting and holding a person's attention, pictures seem to be more effective than the text. Here's an example of how attempts are being made to understand and objectively quantify/map this data, towards a better marketing strategy. See the two video clips below.
That's just one way to look at it but text seems to be superior in an another perspective. The imagination is stirred and made use of more when you are reading a book(text) than when compared to watching a movie for example where our imagination seems to be used the least. Here's one of the freeopensource text to speech app. I use Speak Lite Very useful tools for not just reading general text on the web, like articles, blogs but I found it very useful to quickly read some emails, books, technical manuals, etc. The speed in my case seem to be about ten times faster than reading it visually alone. This tool can be very useful especially for the IT folk! Hope you find it as useful as it did.
The concept of mindmapping is defined in wikipedia as "A mind map is a diagram used to represent words, ideas, tasks or other items linked to and arranged radially around a central key word or idea. It is used to generate, visualize, structure and classify ideas, and as an aid in study, organization, problem solving, decision making, and writing." read the rest here This methodology/technique might turn out to be really beneficial to especially all the IT folk who have to deal with ever increasing complexity, information and the need for better organization, memorization and retention of that info. But is has also been beneficial for other tasks like book writing, simply organizing your daily activities, etc. Other professionals like pastors, educators, engineers, psychologists seem to be using it for learning, brainstorming, memorizing, visual thinking, and problem solving. This is not a new concept and lot of people use it and it has a huge market, So there are a lot of expensive commercial products out there. I have used the open source 'freemind' and found it to be extremely helpful and I think it will be helpful for you too. Its really easy to use and getting used to.. it seems like a lot of work to use it, but it is not! cause all you have to do to make a for eg: a 3 node tree.. is copy paste a hierarchy text. Title Sub-title Sub-Sub-title and the application makes a tree for you. After a while the concept becomes automatic and you should be able to start using just the indented text (just like the hierarchical formatting used in programming and scripting) in place of the graphical/pictorial maps. I found this methodology to be especially useful in troubleshooting issues and to find fixes. As a lot of times the chain of error messages have to be followed to depth of at least 5 plus levels to get to the root cause. Laying it out graphically is very helpful in keeping track of several items at the same time as a visual map instead of just trying to just 'think it through' in your mind. Now for those who can think through simpler to medium level issues in their mind, this technique should allow them to solve even more complex problems that would usually involve keeping track of more variables/ facts simultaneously in your mind, to be able to get to the root of the problem. Thus this should be beneficial for all users regardless of what their level of memory, analytic or problem solving capabilities are. Here's the windows installer link..just install an try it. Even the usual read-me documentation is in 'mind map' form
Here's a short video for a quick intro of the concept of mindmapping.
Recently I've switched to MindManager from mindjet that has better integration with MS office and more features, and I simply love it. It is not free but affordable and a I feel the 'lite' version is a good investment if you find the free-trial version useful.
