Foreword

Information is becoming cheap. We can find out what we need to know when we need to know it. The problem facing us today is how to manage the amount of information that is continuously bombarding us in every area of our lives. Knowledge is no longer power. Not even the use of knowledge is power. We need something else. We need new skills.

We’re moving from a knowledge economy in which information was ‘king’ to a new age – an age where the management and creation of new knowledge is key. Success no longer depends on what you know, but what you can create. Today’s computers can replicate all sorts of logical and information processing tasks but they cannot reproduce the imaginative thought processes of the human brain. Thus, information and logic are cheap, creative thinking is priceless!

We need new skills to enter this new age. To be creative we must be able to absorb more information, since the more we know, the more we can combine the existing knowledge we have in different ways to create new neural pathways in our brains – leading to personal original thoughts.

The more we know, the more we can create!

How do we get this additional information? Easy – we train our brain to filter and absorb relevant information quickly and, more importantly, we make sure it remembers more of that information.

The leaders of the future know that innovation and creative thinking are mandatory in the new economy. They’ve gone from being ‘desirable’ competencies to ‘essential’ ones. Without a constant flow of new ideas, our career or business is condemned to the backwaters. Others will progress, while we remain at a standstill.

To be innovative, we need to solve problems and make decisions, and in order to do this well we need to be able to think clearly and use information objectively. It’s impossible to make the ‘perfect’ decision but there are ways and means to increase your chances of finding the best possible solution or course of action.

I have known Phil Chambers for over a decade and I have personally seen the positive impact his teaching has had on students and audiences around the globe. If you want to be able to remember more of what you read, and better still, read faster than you thought possible, then Improve Your Speed Reading Skills is for you.

Chris Griffiths
CEO, ThinkBuzan and author of Grasp the Solution