How Do I Get The Job?

My first career post-college was in Accounting. My second was I.T. I think I've found my third...

A frequent question that I field is "Do you really understand and retain all that you read? Because you must just be skimming to read so fast."

As Malcolm Gladwell postulates in Outliers, the key to becoming an expert at something is spending 10,000 hours doing it. I guarantee I've spent more than 10,000 hours of my life reading. So, the answer is, yes, I do remember it. Especially, if it's a recent exposure.

And, if I find something amiss as I'm going along, it stops me in my tracks. I once read a line in a Tom Clancy novel that was exactly the same sentence that he had a different character say a few hundred pages back. It was unique phrasing, not just a "Hey, how are you?" I felt compelled to go back and find the previous sentence to make sure it was word for word. It was.

The most recent example of getting stuck on the verbiage occurred last night as I was reading American Assassin by Vince Flynn (loved it!). The team is going in to take out a banker dude named Dorfman at his home. Here's the lines that got to me:

The neighbor behind Dorfman was a widower with cats, but no dogs. The plan was to access his property from her backyard.

OK, if the neighbor is a widower then it wouldn't be her backyard but his.

It literally stopped me from reading further because it didn't make sense. I went back over it twice to make sure I hadn't misread it then forced myself to move on.

OK, so I may have some reader OCD going on but I think that's the qualification that will launch my next career.

Anyone know of someone looking for an editor? I'm ready!

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