Life-Changing Books Episode 3. Jim Kwik: Author of Limitless

Hello, Book Thinkers family, and welcome to episode number 3 of our brand new podcast, Book Thinkers Life-Changing Books. During each episode, I interview some of the world's top authors, and as a listener, you can expect to discover new books, new mentors, and new resources that you can use to achieve more and live better. In this episode, I have the pleasure to interview the author and global education advocate Jim Kwik. Jim is a world expert in memory improvement, brain optimization, and accelerated learning. And for more than 25 years, he has worked as a brain coach to a who's who of Hollywood elite, professional athletes, political leaders, and business superstars. Our conversation touches on his brand new book Limitless, which was amazing, touches on speed reading, as well as fun stories about people like Will Smith and Stan Lee that are in Jim's network. So without further ado, please enjoy my conversation with Jim Kwik. Thank you so much for joining us. I'm really excited for our conversation today.

Nick, it's a real pleasure. Congratulations on the show.

Thank you very much. Uh, in order to build a little bit of a relationship and an identity with the audience, I'd love to start with a story that came directly from your new book, Limitless. You talked about in your freshman year of high school, you were behind in your English class. And the teacher gave you an extra credit project or opportunity, and you prepared a lot for us. Can you— or a lot for that project. Can you tell us a little bit about that story and what happened?

Absolutely. And again, thank you for what you do because I know you're an advocate for reading. And my teachers, looking back, would have been surprised I read a book, much less wrote a book. And so it's an interesting process. For me, for people that don't know, as context, I grew up with learning challenges. I had a traumatic brain injury when I was in elementary school when I was 5 years old. And so I had processing issues, focusing issues, memory issues, and it took me an extra 3 years to learn how to read. And so it was very difficult reading. It's interesting because when they passed around that book, it was like nerve-wracking for me. You remember you had to like read out loud?

Yeah.

And I think that's where a lot of fear of public speaking came from, is just that experience where we're not going to be great at it the first time. But I remember when the book finally got to me and these words didn't even mean anything to me and I would just want to cry inside and just— and I just ended up passing the book over because I couldn't read. And anyway, because of that reading challenges, I, you know, it really affected my academics because obviously there's an immense amount of reading in school and I was in danger of failing out of freshman English, and they called my parents in. And, you know, I asked if there's something, anything I could do, just anything I could do to be able to pass this class. And they gave me— she said you could do something for extra credit. You could do a report about Einstein and da Vinci and kind of compare the two and get some extra credit so they could— so I could pass. And I promised the teacher, I promised my parents I would put my all into this. And I really did. I mean, after, after school where everyone would be playing sports and doing their thing, I'd be in the library every single day and I'd be studying and learning and writing everything out. And after weeks and weeks of that, I was finally ready. I had it typed out and my dad had it professionally bound, which was like a big, big deal. And I saw it, it looked like—

Yeah. Wow.

Yeah, it was like something, and it just symbolized for me what I was capable of, and with determined effort, 'cause I always had to work 2 or 3 times harder as everybody else to do worse in school. So it was really a challenge, but I was happy. And the day of, I grabbed it, I put it in my book bag, and fast forward to class, towards the end of class, I just can't wait to hand this in, and just to see her reaction.

Mm-hmm.

And at the end of class, it wasn't bad. It wasn't what I expected. She said in front of the whole class that, I have a surprise for everybody. in class, Jim, come up to the front and give your book report. And she said nothing about a book report. She said, I mean, she— I were to talk about it in front of the whole class. Because growing up with my learning challenges, my superpower was really being invisible. Like, I would always be— my superpower was shrinking down, and I would always sit behind the big tall kid in class because I didn't want to be called on in class because I never had the answer. When I was 9 years old, I was struggling so badly, a teacher pointed to me and said, that's the boy with the broken brain. And that label became my limit. So, um, the teacher called on me and my heart just fell out of my chest. I mean, I couldn't breathe. I was perspiring like crazy. It just— I don't know how much time passed, but I was able to mutter out the words, I didn't do it. And I just lied right to her. And you could see the disappointment in her face.

Yeah.

And anyway, the class, Everyone left class at the end of class, the teacher left, everything. I was sitting there alone and just alone. And I eventually got up from my desk and I walked out. And before I did, I reached into my backpack and I pulled out my book report and I threw it in the trash. And I think part of me also felt like I was throwing out my potential, you know, what was really possible. And so that was, that was not a great experience. It's interesting how my 2 biggest struggles back in school were learning and public speaking. Because that's what I do for my mission as I travel the world and I public speak on this thing called learning. So the universe has a sense of humor for sure, but it's, it's just a reminder to everybody that your struggles can lead to your strengths, you know, that challenges could lead to change. Um, and, uh, and difficult times, they could, even what we're going through right now, that difficult times can define you or difficult times can diminish you or difficult times can develop you. You know, ultimately we decide.

Yeah, it's so funny because so many of us in the reading community come from a place where we struggled with learning and more specifically public speaking. I have a similar experience. And when I read that story in your book, I could connect and identify with you in such a personal way because I had to memorize the Shakespeare to be or not to be, whatever that is, poem or phrase. And I remember I studied for weeks. I mean weeks. I memorized it left, right, up, down, back, right. And I got up in front of the class and I got a couple words out and then I stopped. And at the time I was playing sports and I was developing a little bit of a sarcastic confidence, but it was fueled by insecurity. And instead of saying, I can't remember, I made a joke about, oh, why do we need to learn this stuff? I'm never going to use it in my life. And the class laughed and I sat down, but I felt terrible. I really felt terrible because I spent so much time learning and then the insecurity took over and I froze just like you. And so now you've written this amazing book right here, Limitless, and the subtitle is Upgrade Your Brain, Learn Anything Faster, and Unlock Your Exceptional Life. And you've come so far. You're such an amazing inspiration to a lot of us. So it's really cool to see the transition and it'll help, uh, the Book Thinkers family, my audience, to help identify a little bit with where you came from.

No, I, well, I appreciate that. I believe leaders are readers and, you know, reading really is great exercise, you know, for your mind, you know, like, like exercises to your body and, you know, working out. And so I love that people are reading. When people see me on Instagram with pictures with certain individuals, whether it's Oprah or Elon Musk or Bill Gates or those individuals, we bonded all over books, you know, and I just feel like books You know, there's something special about it, both fiction and nonfiction. And so thank you for being such an advocate and proponent for literacy.

Yeah, no problem. Well, I appreciate you jumping on and talking to us about that. And another topic that I thought was really interesting, it was a story where you were sitting in the car with Stan Lee, and everybody knows who Stan Lee is. And you asked him who his favorite character was that he created, and then he asked you and you said Spider-Man, and he whispered out that famous line, but you had a little bit of a different take on that famous line and you sort of reversed it. Could you tell that to everybody?

Yeah, so I pick up— we're going to dinner and I pick him up at his home and I just had to ask because he created— I taught myself how to read by reading comic books, right? And so something about the illustrations and the storyline, it brought hope in my life when I didn't have a lot of hope. And, and so, you know, he really affected me so much. And I had to ask if, you know, you created the X-Men and the Avengers and Fantastic Four and all these characters, who's your favorite? And he says, Jim, it's Iron Man. And I said— and he's like, Jim, who's your favorite? And I said— he had this— I posted on Instagram, like, a big Spider-Man tie. So I was like, Spider-Man. And he says, without applause, with great power comes great responsibility, right? His iconic voice.

Yeah.

The king of cameos. And, you know, I still— I don't know if it's because of— I had— I've had a number of falls, traumatic brain injuries, and I tend to sometimes reverse things. And I heard something different. I was like, you're right, Sam, with great power comes great responsibility. And the opposite is also true. With great responsibility comes great power. When we take responsibility for something, we have great power to make things better. And I would— if I was to install an idea into my younger self or to anybody today, this is one idea that I feel like would empower people to become limitless, the best version of themselves. It would be that we are 100% responsible for our lives. You know, that maybe, you know, it's been affected by an environment and expectations and our experience and other individuals. And yet today, you know, we, we could choose.

Yeah.

You know, in the book I quote a French philosopher and he says, life is the C between B and D. Life is C between B and D. B is birth, D is death, C is choice. That we always have a choice. And, uh, you know, whether a choice to read, a choice to lead, a choice of what we're going to do in that day, a choice to what we're going to focus on, a choice to be able to make a difference. And all the choices you've made up into your life that has led you to this point right now. You know, and then these choices that we make for the future. And so we always have, we always have a choice.

We do. We do. And you also talk about how the 2 most powerful words in the English language are I am. And so for me, my following knows that I was never a reader until about 21, and I'm 26 now. And it all changed when a mentor of mine gave me Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki, which taught me the importance of self-education. That's what the book meant to me. And then I started to self-identify as a reader on social media. I am a reader. I am a student of the world. I am a lifelong learner. And so that taking, taking responsibility, uh, is just such a powerful mechanism for becoming limitless like you talk about.

Yeah. And when people are listening, limitless is not about, it's not about being perfect at all. Limitless is about progressing and advancing beyond what we believe is possible. You know, I apply it towards accelerated learning, memory improvement, focus, you know, the ability to read faster and smarter. And yet you could apply this framework towards any area of your life that you want to make progress in, in your school, in your career, in your impact, in your relationships, everything. I believe that a lot of limits like mine, you know, being called the boy with the broken brain, I know it wasn't out of You know, when my teacher said that, I know it wasn't malicious of her. Like, I think she was— I was slowing down the class and she was trying to protect me and say, this boy has some challenges. But all I heard was like, I have a broken brain, and it put me in that box. And I feel like we all feel like we're in a box in some area of our life. And I believe most of these limits are learned. You know, I wasn't born with this idea that I was broken, but every single time I did badly on a test, every single time I wasn't picked for sports, I would say, oh, because I have a broken brain. And that became my self-talk. And everybody, I want to remind everybody to audit and be aware of your own self-talk because your brain is like a supercomputer and your self-talk is a program that will run. So if you tell yourself you're not good at reading or you're not good at remembering names, you won't remember the next thing you read or, or, or next name of the person you met because you programmed your supercomputer not to. And words, just like in books, words in your mind have a lot of power.

Such an incredible lesson. And so you talked a little bit about the audience there. One of the reasons for this podcast is to help my community discover future reads and future mentors and future resources for themselves. And so I'd love for you to define a little bit about who your target audience is. And when you wrote the book, who did you picture or visualize as the ideal person reading it? And that might be everybody, but it might be a specific person. I'd love to learn a little bit about that.

Yeah. I mean, this is a first-time author. Um, this is my very first book. I, um, I would say I wrote this book to the 18-year-old version of myself and that really was my avatar. It's, I was willing to do the work and I would work hard. You know, my parents, they immigrated to the United States and they left because my dad, my mom, my dad was 13 years old, lost both his parents. And at the age of 13, and he moved to the United States because they couldn't afford to feed him. And, you know, didn't speak the language, didn't have any money, didn't know education. We lived in the back of the laundromat that my mother worked at. And, you know, my primary caregiver was my grandmother, who at the same time when I was struggling with school ended up passing, dying of Alzheimer's. And so those are the things that put me on this, on this path. And, uh, but I would always work hard cause I learned that from my parents. And so, but I just didn't know what to do. Like I didn't, I didn't know what to do. I'd be willing to work hard, but I didn't have any mentorship and I didn't have a lot of mentors. And so, uh, so books at the age of 18 became my mentors, my friends of mine, if you will. And so I was writing this book to the 18-year-old version of myself that is willing, that it wasn't lazy, that was willing to do the work, but just didn't have any guidance. I wrote this manual, you know, as an owner's manual for your brain, for the person who's busy right now that just can't keep up, you know, much less get ahead. And, you know, it's a book for me more than just speed reading and learning languages, remembering names and changing your habits. It's about managing your mind in turbulent times. It's about how to optimize your focus and flow when you have to work at home or supporting your children when they're not in school, or, or if you, if you've lost your job, how to learn new skills or new subjects so you can be relevant.

Today.

And so, um, so I wrote— I'm writing this person for that person like me who, um, who was willing to do the work but just didn't— was just frustrated. You know, they're just very, very busy, not getting the results. And there was a gap between where I am, where a person is, and where they want to be. And I feel like that gap— we have the ultimate superpower that we're born with, which is, which is our brain. And the challenge is, is doesn't come with that owner's manual. And school is a wonderful place to learn what to learn, what to read, you know, what to remember, what to study. But they don't necessarily show you how to learn and how to study and how to focus and how to remember.

There's no—

they teach you 3 Rs: reading, writing, arithmetic. Obviously spelling is not one of them. But what about, what about retention? What about recall? What about remembering? And Socrates says learning is remembering. But so many people have the experience of reading a page in a book getting to the end and just forgetting what they just read.

Yeah.

And going back and rereading it and then forgetting again what they just read. And so I feel like I wanted to show people what they're really truly capable of. And I want— my goal for this book is for it to be the most read book of the year. Maybe it's not gonna be the most bought book, but a lot of people are better at buying books than reading the books, you know. And they buy books, they're really good at buying books and putting things in their shopping cart, and You know, and then, but then the books sit on their shelf and it becomes shelf help and not self-help. And, um, so to that end, you know, reading the book that I do a whole chapter on how to read and remember this and any other book, you know, that when people go to our site, limitlessbook.com, we give them a 10-day program on how to read and how to remember and how to focus. Because I feel like a lot of people don't read because they're not good at it.

Mm-hmm.

And, uh, just like if I didn't, if I wasn't good at golf, I wouldn't be wanting to play golf very often. It would be a real chore. But if you could play like, I don't know, Tiger Woods or anybody who's good at golf, you'd be doing it all the time and you find joy in it. And I want people to read better and focus better. So I wrote this book for those people.

Well, the two of us are cut from the same cloth in that respect. I'm a, as you know, I'm a big advocate for self-education and learning. And you're right, your book is a how-to, which is so special. And it teaches people how to apply these strategies and what they are. I mean, reading a book and learning is one thing, but really the reading is one half, the behavior change and the implementation is the other. And your book lays out a ton of fantastic strategies and has those quick start sections. And it's really a fantastic mechanism for implementation. So you did a great job with that. And compared to a lot of other books I've read, it makes it very easy to implement these things. Just as an example, we'll transition over to speed reading, which is a topic that gets a lot of heat and debate and attention these days. You ask the reader to go in and measure their baseline for speed reading. And I get questions all the time, how do you finish so many books? And my answer has always been, I'm not a very fast reader, but I spend a lot of time reading and the rest of my time implementing. But after going through your test, I realized that after reading hundreds and hundreds of books, I actually am a pretty fast reader. And so my baseline was 400 words. And I've read on the internet, which the internet has a lot of claims out there that are pretty wild, that for more technical books you're around 500 words per minute, but then on lighter fiction you can get up to 1,300. Is that true?

So it ranges, certainly. And, you know, I've been teaching this now 28 years. We have an online 21-day speed reading course that people from 195 countries have taken. So we have a lot of data. Certainly in terms of what's really possible. And what I would say is traditional speed reading is more associated with skimming and skipping words and getting the gist of what you read. And for my clients, I, you know, they are attorneys, they are business leaders, they are doctors. You don't want your doctor just to get the gist of what she's reading, right? That, that wouldn't be the goal. And maybe because I started more as a you know, as a memory coach, that I don't think it makes sense to read something if you're not gonna really understand it and retain it. And there's a Woody Allen quote that says, I took a speed reading course, I read War and Peace, it's about Russia.

Mm-hmm.

And that, that's not your— that's not your goal, right? And so for me, even when I train this on our podcast or in our, in our 21-day course, half of it is on speed, but the other half is on not just speed reading, it's on smart reading. And that really focuses on comprehension, on focus, on memory. And when you could focus better and you could understand things better and you can remember it better, then you can read faster, right? And so it's, it's not just one technique, if you will. And so that being said, when I'm talking about reading, there are certain obstacles to reading that inherently hold people back. I'll give a couple people some just to bring it to light and have this conversation. Number one is lack of education, meaning you're not— no one's born with the ability to read. We learned it through a class. And yet, when's the last time you took a class called reading? For most people, they were 7 years old maybe. And let me ask everyone a question: has the difficulty and the demand increased since you were 7 years old? Of course so. But most people are still reading it the way they were taught. And so we live in an age of autonomous electric cars and spaceships that are going to Mars, but our vehicle of choice sometimes when it comes to, you know, learning and reading is a horse and buggy. And so that skill— and so we could be— it could be enhanced. The second challenge I think is going to help people to— when we talk about reading speed and focus is, is that lack of focus. Some people have a challenge focusing when they read, and there's a myth out there that, that if I ask people to read a little bit faster that they would understand less. But again, we've tested tens of thousands of people and we found that actually the faster readers actually have the better comprehension because they have better focus. And, you know, in the book we talk about lies to learning, L-I-E, a limited idea entertained. And that's a lie that if you read faster, you know, that you're not gonna understand as much. Obviously there's an upward threshold, you know, but people grossly underestimate what they're capable of. And the reason why I could say this is because your brain is this incredible supercomputer, but when you're reading, You feed this supercomputer one word at a time. Metaphorically, you're starving your mind. And if you don't give your mind the stimulus it needs, it'll seek entertainment elsewhere in the form of distraction. Meaning one of the reasons why people, their mind wanders or they think about other things when they read is because they're going too slow.

Mm-hmm.

It's like if you're driving a car and you're going really slow in your neighborhood, You're not really focused on driving. What are you focused on? You could be listening to music, you could be singing, you could be on the phone, you'd be texting. Somebody— I saw this one, you know, like the other time in traffic, like shaving, you know, somebody doing their makeup, somebody drinking their coffee. You'd be doing 5 things when you're going slow. But if you're racing cars, you're taking hairpin turns, do you have more or less focus? You have much more focus. You're only focused on the act of driving. And you're focused on what's in front of you. You're not thinking about, oh, did I do my dry cleaning today? You're not trying to text. And that's why when people are reading, because I give people tips on how to read faster and strategies, but we train the brain to be able to, 'cause you could read faster, you just can't. The 3rd obstacle is actually subvocalization. Subvocalization, as I talk about in the book, and I give people some tips on how to reduce it, Have you ever noticed when you're reading something, you hear that inner voice inside your head reading along with you? Hopefully it's your own voice.

Yeah.

Somebody else's voice in there. The reason why it's a challenge is if you have to say all the words inside your head while you're reading, you can only read as fast as you could speak. Say it another way, that means your reading speed is limited to your talking speed, not your thinking speed. That's why a lot of people listen to podcasts like this, or my podcast, or audiobooks. They can listen to it at faster speeds. Because they can understand it at that speed, but they can't speak at that speed. And we know that, that the fast— faster readers, they will subvocalize some words less, meaning that when you're reading something, just like you don't say punctuation marks, you don't literally subvocalize those words. You don't say comma, exclamation mark, question mark, period, semicolon, right? You don't You don't have to say those. Those are symbols. But so is the word and, there, the, because of, this, that. And so a lot of words are actually sight words that you don't have to pronounce by sound. You could actually know them by sight. Like when you see a stop sign, I guarantee you nobody says to themselves stop every single time in their mind, but they understand and comprehend exactly what it means. 95% of words that we see are sight words. And then, then this is the last one I would give people as a 4th obstacle is regression. This bad habit of back-skipping and rereading words. Often it's unconscious. It's just a bad habit that we picked up that we find we reread lines or go back and reread words that we just read. We find that it doesn't boost your comprehension. It just takes time, but it's just a bad habit that we could spend a very significant amount of time doing something that's wasteful like that. And so I bring all this up to say that, you know, when it comes to reading, it's a little bit more complex than just a tip or two. And know that you don't— for most people, when they're tested on their reading speed, let's say it happens to be you happen to be on the high side with 400 words a minute. And now keep in mind, that's relative to what you're reading. That's relative to how awake you are. That's relative to how focused you are, how distracted you are. You know, somebody else could be reading something more difficult or more difficult or easier for them that they're going to have different speed. So I want to remind everyone that your reading speed For most people, it happens to be about 200-250 words per minute. The challenge is they read everything at 200-250 words a minute. When I say you could be a quick reader, it doesn't mean that— you would never read something faster than your intention would be, right?

Yeah.

Like your intention, if you're going through a newspaper, maybe you want to see the sports and you just read to find those sports scores, right? But you don't need to know all the nuances. You know, maybe if you're reading something to study, you would never read any faster than you understand. And speed reading is not a cure-all for everything. Like, if you don't understand French, reading it faster is not going to help you understand it better, right? But the thing is, when you're a trained reader and you learned how to improve your focus, when you learn how to regress less, when you could really learn to subvocalize and mitigate the subvocalization— not all of it, because you always say the words, but some of the, some of the words— then that, then you'll be able to read certain things faster and you have you have flexibility. So you could read something at 300 words a minute that's, that's, you know, more technical, but something that's light, lighter, that you're just really understanding, or something you have schema and background information about, you could read at 500, 600, 700 words per minute because, you know, because you have technique, because you can understand this, because you have background information on it, or you applied, you know, one of a dozen different ways we teach people how to improve comprehension.

Wow, that was amazing. I, you know, I read a lot of that in your book, but to hear it from you, I'm absolutely going to go back and re-listen to that 100 times. All of those lessons are extremely important. And after I read that car metaphor in the book, I've taught that to so many people. And so that was going to be a very specific question I was going to ask you was, could you talk a little bit about that? Because that connects the dots for a lot of people. In a way that I don't think that they could come to by themselves just reading about the differences.

And I appreciate that. Um, people could actually get— we have a free masterclass online. It's at jimkwik.com/reading. And I actually take people through— some people learn really well through books, but this is like a 1-hour interactive, get a book everybody, let's sit down, and I'm going to walk you through a reading process. Because one of the other things that's slows people down are these fixations, meaning that think about a child learning how to read. They don't see the words necessarily when they're first learning. They're seeing the letters and they're sounding out the letters. And so every single time, a fixation is like an eye stop. So every single time you're going across the page, you know, on a line, it makes a stop, a fixation, it fixates, right? And so for children who don't know how to read, passing around that book again, they're looking, maybe they don't see, They don't know those words yet, but they're seeing the letters and they're making like 4 stops per word or something. You know, later on as you learn how to read, you start seeing you're making— let's say there's 10 words per line, you're stopping 10 times to look at every single word. You know, people who are more trained, they'll actually start getting to a place where they're seeing 2 or 3 words at a time. So if you can see 3 words at a time, Then maybe you only have to make 3 stops across the page. And it's like the metaphor of, I don't know, being in traffic. It's, it's if you have to stop 10 times or 20 times to go across this, you know, this line, as opposed to somebody who's only making 3 quick stops, they could go through it faster. And then also when you go through it a little bit quicker, it also gives you context, you know, because as you see the words, you get to see loops be closed and And have that comprehension also as well. So there's many aspects to this.

Yeah. And those are fantastic examples. I mean, it's much easier to get distracted when you're in bumper-to-bumper traffic than it is if you're just driving. And so, wow. Well, I loved our conversation today, Jim. And in the show notes, I'll definitely point everybody to your resources. Outside of that, what is the best way to find you and what is the best way to consume your lessons?

Well, I would recommend First of all, everyone take a small simple step and screenshot this episode, this conversation with us, and tag us both in it and post it online and share something that you would like to share. It could be your favorite book, you know, what are you reading right now, or what's one of your favorite books of all time, or something you got as an aha in this conversation, like what's your reading speed before and after using your finger or something like that. Because I feel like when we teach something, we get to learn it better. Like when I approach a book, I think about how am I gonna— when I'm reading it, how am I gonna teach this to somebody else? How would I teach this to somebody else? How can I use this? How can I apply this? You know, when will I use this? I'm asking these questions because if people want greater speed, one of the things that will help you with your reading speed is using a visual pacer. And, you know, I know all the systems that are out there, but consistently for the average person, using a visual pacer to underline the words, whether it's your finger, a pen, a highlighter, a mouse on a computer, a pencil. It'll help you to keep focused because your eyes are attracted to motion, what moves in your environment. So when you're underlining the words— not traditional speed reading will actually take your finger and go right down the page, but then you miss everything on the left side and the right side of the page, or they'll make you do S-forms or Z-forms, but you're missing big gaps, right? I'm not saying any of that. Underline everything and don't miss anything, and you'll find your reading speed will on average improve 25 to 50%. So I encourage everyone to, to read for 60 seconds, count the number of lines you just read, pick up where you left off, and just underline the lines. And if you don't touch the screen or don't touch the paper, just go right above it because there's this thing called friction. You don't want to touch it. But, and then time yourself for 60 seconds, and that second time is usually about 25% or 50% lift, which is a lot, which is huge. You know, when I tell people they double, they can double their reading speed with A little bit of practice. The average person is reading about, what, 4 or 5 hours a day processing information. And if you could cut that in half and take 4 hours of emails and books and all the things that you're reading and save 2 hours a day— 2 hours a day over the course of a year is like, what, 730 hours? Even if you save 1 hour a day on something ubiquitous like reading, that's 365 hours a year. How many 40-hour work weeks is that? That? That's 9 40-hour work weeks, 2 months of productivity you get back saving 1 hour a day on something like reading. So if you want greater speed, I would challenge people to use their finger while they read. And you never go any faster than you can understand the material, right? So it's not skimming or scanning, but you start training yourself to be able to think faster also as well. And the reason why it works again is your eyes are attracted to motion. Another reason why it works is because there are certain senses that work very closely together. Like when people say that they taste a great tasting peach, right? In actuality, they're smelling the peach, but their sense of smell and taste are so closely linked that their mind doesn't know the difference. It knows the difference when you're sick and you can't breathe out of your nose. Food tastes different, tastes bland, right?

Mm-hmm.

Just as your sense of smell and taste are so closely linked, so is your sense of sight and your sense of touch. So when you're reading using your finger, people will say, I feel more in touch with my reading all of a sudden. You know, and even in fact, when people lose their sense of sight, how do they read? They read with their sense of touch. They use Braille, right? Even if you go to a child, you know, toddler with your keys and look at my keys, look at my keys, the toddler will reach out and grab the keys, touch the keys in order to feel like they look— they're looking at it. And so for all those reasons, I would say 2 quick tips is if you want greater speed, use your finger while you read. And if you want greater comprehension, Ask more questions. Questions are the answer. Often in standardized tests, you'll read pages of reading comprehension, they'll give you the 10 questions that they want you to answer. People like, oh, I didn't know that this was important. But what if you read the 10 questions first and then you read it? You're like, oh, there's an answer, there's an answer, there's the answer. And that's understanding, right? And so ask yourself these questions when you're reading a book. And at a meta level, I'm always asking myself, You know, how can I learn this easier? How can I teach this to somebody else? How can I apply what I'm learning to something? And I all of a sudden I get answers, answers, answers, which really boost my comprehension. So if you want greater speed, use your finger while you read. If you want greater comprehension, ask more questions. And so, so I would, I would encourage people to take a screenshot of this episode, tag us both, and just share one thought that paid forward, because when you teach something, you get to learn it twice. When you learn with the intention of teaching, you get to learn it twice. And, and I'm happy to repost some of my favorites that people share out there also, also as well.

Fantastic. And in the book, you actually give an example, something I've never thought of across hundreds of books, is that if you're reading at an angle like this and you're looking down, that's not the optimal angle for reading. This—

Yeah, we got the optimal angle for reading, right? If somebody is listening to this and they You know, just for efficiency, a lot of people, what they'll do is they'll have the book and it'll be laying out on their desk or on their table flat. But then at that angle, the words, you know, the font looks a lot smaller and over time it's more difficult to read. And yet some people know it inherently. So what they'll do is they'll bend over so that the words look bigger. But what they're doing is they're compressing their posture, they're compressing their diaphragm. And the lower 1/3 of your lungs absorbs 2/3 of the oxygen. And people feel like if they're tired from reading, they're using like reading as a sedative. Part of it is their poor posture, that they have this mental fatigue because they're not getting enough oxygen. Because while your brain is only 2% of your body mass, it requires 20% of the nutrients and the oxygen. And so I would say we talk about mechanics and environments and, and all these different strategies just to be a better reader. And then obviously there's chapters on focus, there's chapters on remembering and memory. The largest chapter in the book is actually on human memory, and I wrote it actually in Greece because I found— I wanted to find out— the book is not only the latest neuroscience applied towards learning, reading, and focus memory, but it's also— I wanted to know what ancient cultures did before there was printing presses, before there were computers to store information. How did they pass on history and, you know, knowledge? And I found there were ancient techniques that the Greeks used, that actually the mother, the goddess of memory, She is the mother to the 9 Muses. So the 9 children of art, literature, science— the mother is memory. So that shows you how important memory is to learning.

Yeah, I love all of the Stoic philosophy and aphorisms that have been around for thousands of years, and sometimes we take those for granted. But you're right, they, they have created the foundation for everything that we're learning today, and sometimes we need to go back And relive and reflect on some of those earlier lessons because technology can draw us away.

And I know, I feel what you're saying. And so to answer everyone's question, the best thing is on social media, I'm @JimKwik, Jim K-W-I-K. Kwik really is my last name. I didn't change it to do what I do. It's my father's name, my grandfather's name.

Such a cool thing to say.

Yeah, I had to be a runner back in school, which is a lot of pressure when, you know, It says Kwik right on your shirt. And the other place is our podcast. We have a podcast people can find at KwikBrain, kwikbrain.com. Every episode's only 15, 20 minutes max. How to remember names, how to learn a language, how to study better, how to change your habits, what are the best brain foods, all those things for busy people who want to learn faster and get ahead. And our book is limitlessbook.com. And when people go to limitlessbook.com, They will find— thank you. I appreciate you so much. Um, we're on a mission. We're on a mission to teach people how to learn. I think it's the ultimate superpower today. And if you can learn how to learn, you could apply that towards anything— money management, marketing, Mandarin, martial arts, music. Everything gets easier, but we're not taught how to learn. So I wrote this book to help fill in those gaps, and it's limitlessbook.com. You can get some bonuses and you know, we have a book club and all those kind of free gifts as a thank you for, uh, for just being an active reader. And, and thank you so much for the work that you do and the amazing community that you've assembled, you know, because it's just, we need more of this. We need to be part of something. We all need somebody to encourage us, to support us, cheerlead for us, to be able to teach us and, and, uh, and be positive with us because, you know, like now more than ever, I feel like we can be limitless. Like, how do you become limitless in a limited world? You do it together, you know, if everyone's supporting each other. And I say, if you haven't found that person in your life yet, then be that person for somebody else, you know, especially be that person for you now. But I love books because for me growing up, you know, being bullied and learning and everything, I would escape in these things because, you know, I would go into all new worlds. And, you know, it's a power— it's a powerful thing. And not just nonfiction. There's so much research saying read fiction also. You know, to build your EQ and your empathy and creativity and all that, all that great stuff also as well. So you and I could geek out over this for like hours, I'm sure.

Oh yeah, yeah. I've learned recently that, you know, then we'll cut this off, but I've learned recently that your emotional intelligence and your ability to empathize, empathy specifically, is mostly a learned skill. And so when people use that fixed mindset that Carol Dweck fixed mindset label of I am not empathetic. It's— you're setting an identity for yourself, a limitation for yourself that's just not backed up by science. It's mostly a learned skill. And so fiction is an amazing place for that.

Absolutely. And the message here with Limitless is, is if these are learned things, learned thoughts or learned habits, then we can also unlearn them. Bad habits of reading, bad habits of focus, bad habits of memory, bad habits of self-talk, you know, and beliefs and motivation. You know, in the book we talk about a 3-step formula for human motivation and how to hack your habits and get into flow states. You know, even if you apply the reading to that also as well. But, um, my, my, my thing is if somebody has decades of experience and they put into a book and you can sit down in a handful of days and read that book, you could download decades into days. I mean, that, what a gift that is. You know, people like, they don't have to— it's my 28th year of teaching. They don't have to spend the hundreds of thousands of dollars I did in research and just read and, and 3 decades of my life. They could get it from a book and they don't have to make the same mistakes that I did and everything, and they can learn another perspective or process, you know, that's working for, for so many people. And so I think that's why I love, you know, yeah, I love this, by the way. This is actually one of the very first times that I've ever done like an interview on video where we both have bookshelves in the background. Yeah. Yeah. Can I ask you a question?

Please do.

You must get this question all the time. And so Favorite books?

Sure, I have 5 favorite books, and these are the books that have transformed my life in the most positive way. The first was Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki, and that's because I was never a reader until the age of 21. And so towards the end of my college experience, I realized that I wasn't getting enough out of the classroom and that I wanted to draw on some real-world experience. And so I took an internship, and one of my early sales mentors handed me Rich Dad Poor Dad and said, if you don't enjoy school, then read this. It'll accelerate your learning. Like you said, you're condensing decades into days. And so after I read that book, I learned the importance of financial education. And it's not materialism. It's knowing that we're all forced to play the game of money. So you might as well learn how to understand the game and be better at it. And so that's one book. The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss was a big eye-opener for me. Just like, you know, just like you, I was conformed into this societal box that taught us we had to avoid failure in school and we had to work a 9 to 5 and we could maybe travel a couple times a year. And so that book opened up my mind to the idea of remote work and taking control of your schedule, ways to optimize your time. And that book's not about working 4 hours a week. It's about leveraging the 80/20 principle and making sure that you're focusing on high-impact activity. A third book that I really love is Vagabonding by Rolf Potts. It's a sleeper. Not a lot of people have read it, but it teaches you— it's really a book on philosophy and mindset, and it teaches you that long-term world travel is possible and that through deliberately exposing yourself to uncomfortable situations in other countries, you can grow. And that's a very different experience than just reading a book. You're actually transporting yourself. And so just like you did by going to Greece in order to write that chapter, I did. I've done quite a few excursions myself, including some solo travel, which really opened up my eyes. And real quick, I'll give you 2 more. The Go-Giver by Bob Burg is an excellent book that teaches you about the reciprocal relationship of giving and receiving. And just like in the end of your book, you talk about learn, earn, and return. You need to learn, which is receiving, and then you need to return, which is giving. And that process allows you to go through it faster when you can actually stay open and receiving, which a lot of people just try to give, give, give. And that's not always the healthiest way to approach it. And my last book in my top 5, as far as what's impacted me, is The Compound Effect by Darren Hardy. I never really understood the principles of delayed gratification or the compound effect, that small steps in the right direction over a long period of time can lead to a Brilliant outcome. And so how to leverage the compound effect, how to form an accountability group, how to implement information from these books into your life. And so those are 5 of my favorite books. But I will say lastly that at the end of your book, you have suggested reading, and I've read the most— I've read over 50% of these for sure.

Amazing.

And a lot of them recently, actually. And so I really like all of those recommendations as well.

Amazing. Amazing.

I know it's, I know it's impossible for you to give your favorite books, but what I'd like to do, and this will only take 2 minutes, I'd like to ask for your suggested reading in 3 categories: health, wealth, and love. Love meaning friends, family, communication, as well as personal reflection. So let's start with the first one, health. What are some books that you've read recently or that have had a big impact on your health?

Yeah, again, I love reading. I'm a voracious reader. Health, well, okay, so you want to go into health first?

Yeah, let's go into physical body health and brain health, like what you're consuming and how you're exercising.

Yeah, and so this is a great topic. I mean, we have a podcast, so I read all the books of our guests as well, and so we've had everyone of recent from Dr. Lisa Mosconi, who is a neuroscientist who happens to also be a nutritionist, and she wrote a book called Brain Food, and she talks about neuro nutrition, that your brain has different nutritional requirements than the rest of your body. So I'm all about the human brain when it comes to that. When it comes to sleep, which is another important factor, we talk about books like Shawn Stevenson, who wrote a book called Sleep Smarter. I'm always very interested in sleep because most of these things lend to your energy levels, because I feel like it's a big important part, as you read the book, about motivation, which I think is important. A friend of mine, Dr. Michael Breus, is a sleep expert. He wrote The Power of When. The Power of When. He talks about chronotypes, and these are 4 hormonal types that we are, and he relates them to animals, and that there really is an early bird and a night owl. And based on your hormonal profile, it will tell you when you should check emails, when you should exercise, when should go to sleep, when you should eat, all these things based on individuality. So those are just some books in the health space. When it comes to wealth space, I like to read books like Peter Thiel's Zero to One. It was a powerful book for me. I know Robert Kiyosaki. I've been on his podcast and we've met many times speaking at events. So Rich Dad is certainly a classic. Ray Dalio's book, Principles. I mean, go back in time, like Thinking, Grow Rich. I mean, you're going to— a lot of the stuff that I'm looking for is not so much methodology, but the mindset. And so we talk about the 3 Ms. So those are a handful of books in the wealth category. Yeah.

What about this last category? I always talk about health, wealth, love, and happiness/fulfillment. So that love category to me into my community falls into friends, family, relationships, as well as personal reflection. And your book touches on all 3, but that's, that's sort of the last category for me that I'd love for you to give a recommendation.

Of course. Of course. I mean, early when I started reading, the classics really were Mars and Venus by John Gray. That was, that was like really like, that was one of the first ones that was really out there. the 5 Love Languages, you know, for communication. When it comes to relationships, it's interesting. I love John Gottman's work. I love— influence is interesting when you use influence with integrity, like Robert Cialdini's work in the area of influence and psychology is very, very, very powerful. The ones I'm putting out are classics, so a lot of people would would know these books. But I really do believe that these are the— you know, I'm very interested in right now— I mean, obviously I did a lot of study, I do a lot of studying brain science applied towards performance, so in the performance arts. But in terms of, you know, when I'm thinking about books, I'm thinking about in general like The Magic of Thinking Big, because that taught me that our routine thinking affects our lives. When I'm thinking about big books for me, it's like Man's Search for Meaning, saying that we can decide, we have a choice of what things mean to us. When I'm thinking about values-driven books, I'm thinking about Stephen Covey's, any of his works, you know, especially obviously 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, beginning with the end in mind, putting first things first, and all those are good. But in terms of relationships, you know, that's such an important category of books. You know, I have everything kind of categorized and I have 3 rooms of books. Where I live here. And so those are, those are some of them.

Well, one day I'd like to be like you and have 3 rooms of books. I only have one so far.

Yes. Yeah, I believe little by little, a little becomes a lot. And just a reminder, everyone, that wherever you are, at whatever age or whatever stage of life, it's that consistency does compound. You know, it's a little bit each day, a little reading each day. Even when people saw that Insta story that I did with Will Smith, I was like, you know, what, what is the key to your success? And he's like, I do 2 things every day. I run and I read. I run and I read. I do something physical and I do something mental. And there's no better mental exercise than reading.

Yeah. Well, this has been a fantastic conversation. I know that the Book Thinkers family and the online community that supports me is really going to appreciate this conversation. And there's a lot to learn and I would really advocate that everybody that's listening or watching today reads Limitless. It was such a fantastic book and it's going to be one of my most gifted books of 2020, that's for sure.

No, I appreciate you, Nick, so much. And thank you everybody who's leading using reading, you know, as a tool. And, uh, yeah, one day a reader, next day a leader. And it's an incredible gift you give yourself and it's an incredible gift to give somebody else. I give books out every single week to friends, and I think they make the absolute best gift for ourselves. So thank you for your podcast. And, you know, I look forward to seeing everybody on social media and reading their stories and their favorite books and connecting there. And again, if people want to take a masterclass on reading, you can go to jimkwik.com/reading. And just, it'll give you an assessment. I'll teach you some of these skills a little bit deeper. And obviously enjoy Limitless Book at limitlessbook.com. And again, we're giving 100% of the proceeds to build schools for children all around the world and also Alzheimer's research. So know that when you get this book, not only does it help your brain and you get education, it also is going to help other people improve their brain and get educated as well.

If you've made it this far, thank you so much for listening to today's episode with Jim Kwik. Jim is an amazing person, and if you found any value in this conversation, there might be somebody in your network who could benefit from listening to Jim as well. So please feel free to share it. Takes less than 60 seconds, and it can help grow my audience and my listeners. Before I go, I want to remind everybody that Book Thinkers is an online community with Instagram being our biggest network. But we're also an educational technology company that enables readers to achieve more and live better. For more information on our mobile application, our shop, our social pages, or our mission, please check out www.bookthinkers.com. As always, remember that real learning requires education like this podcast or like Limitless by Jim Kwik, but it also requires real behavior change. And so with that, I'm signing off. I hope you found value in this episode of Book Thinkers Life-Changing Books.