In-Page Speed Readers Are a Developer’s Vanity Project. Here’s Why.

You’ve seen them. That little lightning bolt button floating in the corner of a blog post. You click it, and words start flashing at you one by one. You read faster — maybe 400 words per minute instead of 250. But when the paragraph ends, you realize you haven’t actually read anything. You just processed symbols. You feel empty.

I built one of these speed readers. A friend convinced me it would be a cool feature for my blog. I coded the Spritz heuristic, mapped punctuation, tweaked timing. It works. But after using it, I’m convinced: in-page speed readers are a developer’s vanity project disguised as a feature.

Here’s the ugly truth nobody wants to admit: speed reading tools optimize for raw words-per-minute while sacrificing the two things that make reading worth doing — comprehension and enjoyment. You read faster, but you understand less and feel nothing. The Hacker News comment that stuck with me said it best: “if you want to promote joyless reading, sure.”

That’s the emotional hook. You’ve probably tried one of these readers. You thought it would make you more productive. Instead, you felt like a machine. The frustration of consuming content joylessly just to save a few minutes — that’s real. And it’s the reason these features belong in a browser extension, not on every damn site.

Let’s talk about the developer mindset. You build a blog. You want it to stand out. You add a speed reader because it’s “innovative.” But here’s the thing: users don’t want fragmented tools. They want one tool that works everywhere. Browser extensions like Spritz or BeeLine already exist. They let users control their reading experience across all sites, with consistent settings and habits. An in-page reader forces users to learn a new interface every time they visit a different blog. It’s like asking someone to use a different keyboard for every app.

I saw this firsthand when I asked my readers. They said: “I read faster, but it’s not enjoyable.” They said: “browser extensions make more sense.” They didn’t ask for this feature. I built it because I thought it was cool. That’s the developer vanity — building something because you think it’s clever, not because they need it.

Take a side. I’m taking one: in-page speed readers are a bad idea. They’re a solution to a problem that doesn’t exist. The problem isn’t that people read too slowly. The problem is that people are overwhelmed by information, and they want to read with intention. Speed readers strip away intention. They turn reading into a conveyor belt of words.

Here’s the twist: I thought I was helping. I thought I was giving readers a superpower. Instead, I was giving them a weapon that dulls the very act of reading. The best articles make you rethink something you thought you knew. I thought speed readers were the future. Now I realize the future of reading is not about speed. It’s about depth.

If you’re a developer, don’t add a speed reader to your blog. It’s a feature that screams “look at me” instead of “here’s something worth reading.” If you’re a reader, install a browser extension if you must. But don’t let a floating button trick you into thinking you’re getting more out of the words. You’re getting less.

And the next time you see a lightning bolt on a blog, ask yourself: is this helping me read, or is it just helping me feel like I’m reading faster? The answer might make you close the tab.