The other night, in a rare burst of doing something smart, I attended a lecture about health literacy. In it, they gave an example of what being semi-literate feels like. The whole audience was asked to read a passage out loud for one minute. The passage was shown on the screen. It looked a lot like the below examples (it was actually more technical):
ElgooG sah a tnereffid alumrof hcihw oohaY si gniyrt ot etalume tI sknar sda no a xim fo dib secirp dna ycnaveler ot eht resu. Dna ecnis sresitrevda yap ylno nehw a resu skcilc no rieht da elgooG no egareva sekam erom yenom no yreve hcraes naht oohaY seod.
or:
Taht ni eht dne si woh namrebeiL saw elba ot teg eht etov of a raelc ytirojam fo eht tucitcennoC etarotcele. “Ew nar a ngiapmac rof lla sretov dna tuoba lla sretov. Yeht degaw a attednev no flaheb fo eht tseirgna wef.”
By the time I had read through sixth or seventh word aloud, everyone around had stopped and was looking at me. As I continued, I realized I was reading twice as fast as everyone else around me. It turns out I have a freakish ability to read reversed text quickly. This is what Scott Adams call “a mild superpower”. Is there a way I can put this on my resume?