3 ms·

I started touch typing at around 18, after just forcing myself as I knew it'd be beneficial in the long run. I could type around 60wpm using two fingers, I kno

by 7ewis 8y ago

I started touch typing at around 18, after just forcing myself as I knew it'd be beneficial in the long run. I could type around 60wpm using two fingers, I know where they keys are... Just not how to use every finger! Now I touch type 'properly' I can get close to 100wpm. My speed has kind of plateaued now though unfortunately.

Baeocystin 8y ago
Do you really find a benefit much past ~60wpm? Unless you're just transcribing, I would think compositional speed is the limiting factor.
- rococode 8y ago
  Not OP but I type ~140 and there are definitely situations where you feel a desire for higher WPM. Informal writing is the most common one - for example, with this comment I'm basically just typing out what I'm thinking and it reads more like a conversation than a well-planned chunk of text. I'm going nearly full-speed because, like most people in the world, I can compose casual sentences in my head much faster than 2 or 3 words a second. This becomes even more noticeable when you're in chats and just typing as you think of things to say. It's also useful to type faster in settings with repetitive phrases, like coding. There is definitely downtime where you think of what to write next, but it's fairly common to quickly think out a longer segment of simple words and have to wait for your typing speed to catch up before moving on.
  - lstodd 8y ago
    well, I'm sorry, but that seems like too many words for the idea you expressed in them. maybe it's just me, but at least sometimes brevity pays off.
    - Baeocystin 8y ago
      https://quoteinvestigator.com/2012/04/28/shorter-letter/ https://quoteinvestigator.com/2012/04/28/shorter-letter/
    - sergiosgc 8y ago
      Written text is condensed. It takes more time to idealize a good paragraph for a written text than the equivalent for conversation. This extra time is used to sort the logic of the text, reducing redundancy in the process. The parent comment does sound like verbal communication. Even so, I understand the point. I type 120wpm and, when writing, I form paragraphs mentally, then dump them via keyboard. If this second phase could be faster, I'd write faster.
  - Baeocystin 8y ago
    It was an an honest question, and I appreciate you taking the time to respond. I can't say that I have ever bumped in to my typing speed limit when writing, even informally, and I am certain my max is well below 140. Different strokes and all that. :)
- other_herbert 8y ago
  Also not op but I can type fast and it definitely helps with verbose things like a SQL query or while chatting with coworkers on slack... .... But that can frequently be frustrating if the person on the other side isn't nearly as fast.... (edit autocorrect)
- xemdetia 8y ago
  A lot of the reason why I personally find >60 wpm difficult is similar to the UI feedback studies that come up on HN from time to time. If I avert my gaze and let my typing become a secondary act it's not as bad, but there are some UI situations where the keypress and UI display can be more than 6-12 characters behind so watching it gives me the feeling that I gave miskeyed something or the software froze. It's part of the reason why I prefer key chord driven autocomplete compared to in place autocomplete from the way it can be visually distracting while trying to keep up.
- dkersten 8y ago
  I find that the closer my typing speed is to my thinking speed (be it fast or slow), the better. If my typing lags behind my thinking, I have to slow down my thoughts or I’ll forget what I’m typing, but if I slow down my thoughts I can lose my way there and either forget what point I’m trying to make as I get bogged down in typing it, or my mind drifts. If my thoughts are slower than my typing, I can slow down my typing without detriment, but if my typing is slower than my thinking, it may be detrimental (not always, of course, but it sometimes is). Therefore, yes, I benefit from >60wpm typing. Not all the time, maybe not even that often, but it definitely does happen. In programming, my thoughts are usually slow enough and I only need to type in bursts, but sometimes it takes a lot of code to represent a small idea and I need to turn it into code asap before my mind drifts and the house of cards gets shaken up. (The above makes it sound like I lack focus, that’s not really true and my mind doesn’t always drift, but in this world of noisy open plan offices, it’s not hard to get distracted in some small way, enough to be detrimental)

by 7ewis 8y ago

Baeocystin 8y ago

Do you really find a benefit much past ~60wpm? Unless you're just transcribing, I would think compositional speed is the limiting factor.

rococode 8y ago
Not OP but I type ~140 and there are definitely situations where you feel a desire for higher WPM. Informal writing is the most common one - for example, with this comment I'm basically just typing out what I'm thinking and it reads more like a conversation than a well-planned chunk of text. I'm going nearly full-speed because, like most people in the world, I can compose casual sentences in my head much faster than 2 or 3 words a second. This becomes even more noticeable when you're in chats and just typing as you think of things to say. It's also useful to type faster in settings with repetitive phrases, like coding. There is definitely downtime where you think of what to write next, but it's fairly common to quickly think out a longer segment of simple words and have to wait for your typing speed to catch up before moving on.
- lstodd 8y ago
  well, I'm sorry, but that seems like too many words for the idea you expressed in them. maybe it's just me, but at least sometimes brevity pays off.
  - Baeocystin 8y ago
    https://quoteinvestigator.com/2012/04/28/shorter-letter/ https://quoteinvestigator.com/2012/04/28/shorter-letter/
  - sergiosgc 8y ago
    Written text is condensed. It takes more time to idealize a good paragraph for a written text than the equivalent for conversation. This extra time is used to sort the logic of the text, reducing redundancy in the process. The parent comment does sound like verbal communication. Even so, I understand the point. I type 120wpm and, when writing, I form paragraphs mentally, then dump them via keyboard. If this second phase could be faster, I'd write faster.
- Baeocystin 8y ago
  It was an an honest question, and I appreciate you taking the time to respond. I can't say that I have ever bumped in to my typing speed limit when writing, even informally, and I am certain my max is well below 140. Different strokes and all that. :)
other_herbert 8y ago
Also not op but I can type fast and it definitely helps with verbose things like a SQL query or while chatting with coworkers on slack... .... But that can frequently be frustrating if the person on the other side isn't nearly as fast.... (edit autocorrect)
xemdetia 8y ago
A lot of the reason why I personally find >60 wpm difficult is similar to the UI feedback studies that come up on HN from time to time. If I avert my gaze and let my typing become a secondary act it's not as bad, but there are some UI situations where the keypress and UI display can be more than 6-12 characters behind so watching it gives me the feeling that I gave miskeyed something or the software froze. It's part of the reason why I prefer key chord driven autocomplete compared to in place autocomplete from the way it can be visually distracting while trying to keep up.
dkersten 8y ago
I find that the closer my typing speed is to my thinking speed (be it fast or slow), the better. If my typing lags behind my thinking, I have to slow down my thoughts or I’ll forget what I’m typing, but if I slow down my thoughts I can lose my way there and either forget what point I’m trying to make as I get bogged down in typing it, or my mind drifts. If my thoughts are slower than my typing, I can slow down my typing without detriment, but if my typing is slower than my thinking, it may be detrimental (not always, of course, but it sometimes is). Therefore, yes, I benefit from >60wpm typing. Not all the time, maybe not even that often, but it definitely does happen. In programming, my thoughts are usually slow enough and I only need to type in bursts, but sometimes it takes a lot of code to represent a small idea and I need to turn it into code asap before my mind drifts and the house of cards gets shaken up. (The above makes it sound like I lack focus, that’s not really true and my mind doesn’t always drift, but in this world of noisy open plan offices, it’s not hard to get distracted in some small way, enough to be detrimental)