Everyone appears to be talking about passwords at the moment. There’s a great illustration of why the human element of security is of major importance on an old blog entry of Simon’s (incidentally, ten minutes googling helped me find this when I had no idea anymore of where I’d seen it — now that’s the point of searchable information sources!). There are some interesting techniques put forward, first by Eric Meyer and then also by Matt Haughey. I have a similar tiering scheme for passwords — things that require similar security levels will have variants of the same password. Arguably I don’t change these enough and only have properly weird passwords (constructed using a technique similar to Matt’s) for things like root passwords for my machines or websites. Still, it’s good that this kind of advice is percolating.
Personally I think that password management is something that should be taught to everyone who ever has to use a computer — before they’re allowed to own one even. Which, admittedly, is right up there with my belief that effectiveness in an average company would go way up if everyone was sent on a) a speed-reading course and b) a typing course as a first step. Most people think faster than they can read or type — if we just fixed that then people would have more time in their day and less stress. At the end of the day though, none of these seem to happen. But when consultants start raking in the cash by advising companies to do this, remember, you heard it here first folks 😉
Comments (5) Permalink
February 10th, 2005 at 4:50 AM
Meri, can you recommend a particular speed reading course?
I’m very much interested in improving my reading speed; comprehension and retention is still very important to me, though.
February 10th, 2005 at 8:36 AM
Personally, I was lucky enough to be taught speedreading at an early age (i.e. in high school). We had a computer program (dos-based — ran off floppies, but I can’t remember the name of it!) that helped you read faster, but tested your comprehension each time and wouldn’t let you progress to a faster speed until you had reached 80% comprehension. The fastest I ever achieved with 100% comprehension was 1500 wpm, but 7 years later my reading speed when I’m not trying is around 800 wpm and I can skim with high comprehension if I need to.
In terms of what speed-reading course I’d recommend now, I’m honestly just not familiar with any commercial ones. Wikipedia’s article on speed-reading seems to be along the right tracks though. The key thing is to choose a course that focuses on retaining comprehension as well as increasing speed (i.e. not just a skimming course).
February 13th, 2005 at 5:09 PM
I’m pretty sure that even though I’m a slow reader and typist I can still read and type much faster than I can think. Certainly, when writing code or prose I do a lot more thinking than typing, and much of the time I find the same is true of reading.(Maybe I’m an even slower thinker…) Perhaps the subjective impression of the relative speed of one’s thinking, reading and writing is really a measure of how worthwhile a challenge is being posed by whatever is being read or written.
I could sometimes do with being able to type more slowly, especially when directly modifying live mission-critical databases using SQL (yes, I know I shouldn’t be doing this) – it’s very easy to fall into the trap of thinking that because one has finished typing one has also finished thinking!
February 13th, 2005 at 7:31 PM
The key thing I meant is that people shouldn’t be held up by the medium they are using to express their thoughts. In a corporate setting the “henpecker” typist (slowly seeking and then hitting with just one finger) is still a worryingly frequent sight!
February 14th, 2005 at 6:05 PM
I started using a computer (Apple ][e) when I was about 10.
I did not become a touch typist until I was about 16, when I discovered MUDs, and had incentive to both read and write at the same time, and enjoyed the experience while I was at it.
I hover around 60 wpm now; not screamingly fast, but definitely faster than most of my peers.