My wife would periodically show me a text or an email. Like clockwork, she would ask “are you still reading?” Sometimes I would only be about halfway through.
I decided to do a little informal test. I had Claude write stories of vairous lengths. I timed myself then reported back either how far I read when the time ran out or how much time was left when I finished the story.
The internet tells me the average reading speed is 250 words per minute.
The 250-word passages came back at 179 to 193 words per minute. Slow. I filed that away as “deliberate.” But the 1,110-word passage came in at 229 WPM, and the 2,207-word one at 273.
Claude says that on a 250-word passage I’m watching myself read. I slow before I think I lose the thread. On a 2,200-word passage I stop watching. I drop into the material and don’t surface until it’s done. I’m still trying to figure out what I think the reason is.
In the meantime, I have the data.
179 is a real number, but so it 273.
How long did it take you to read this blog post? It is exactly 200 words.