7 ms·

I learned to touch-type at a young age and can comfortably type 90-110 WPM. Personally I agree that people, especially people who are expected to use a compute

I learned to touch-type at a young age and can comfortably type 90-110 WPM. Personally I agree that people, especially people who are expected to use a computer for their job, probably should know how to type, and as a result it should be part of primary education. I think having blank keycaps though is kind of silly, personally. Especially given the keyboard the author has gone with. If you sat me in front of that keyboard I wouldn't know where to begin due to its size and layout. It's a fun novelty and if it works for them more power to them, but I only see more frustration than anything. I don't need to look at the keyboard to know what I'm typing, especially on my normal keyboard, but it's nice to have the option. (I'm the odd-man out when it comes to keyboards though. I don't have a preference for mechanical keyboards and I truly don't understand the love/passion for ~60% keyboards. I really don't get why anyone would want less keys.)

paulryanrogers 6y ago
This could be survivor bias. I hunted and pecked for the first ~15 years without pain. Then had problems within the first 3 years of touch typing. My guess is, like sports, some people won the genetic lottery and/or had training and time to perfect their craft more easily than others.
butterthebuddha 6y ago
An argument for a smaller keyboard (and this is definitely a personal thing) is that I try my hardest to avoid using keys that are more than one key away from a finger in its resting position anyway (why---I really don't like having to move my hand physically, and I'm willing to pay the cost of additional latency with having more keys gated behind modifiers if it means I have to move my hand less). My day-to-day keyboard uses QMK, so it's really possible to make this work.
Ma8ee 6y ago
The reason I use a 60% keyboard is that I can keep the mouse closer to the centre, which saves my right shoulder.
- SiVal 6y ago
  Yes, and this is very important. A wide keyboard can cause you to rotate your arms outward to reach a mouse. A neutral work position is to have your elbows near your sides with forearms horizontal (parallel to the floor) and pointing inward somewhat so your two hands could hold something in front of you or work together on some object, such as peeling an orange. If you turn your palms down and rotate your forearms outward until they are pointing straight forward (parallel with each other), you are probably at the outer limit of where you should routinely work. Keep most of your work inside that limit, in front of you. If you are mousing right handed, for example, and your keyboard is so wide that the normal position of the mouse requires you to rotate your forearm so your arm isn't pointing inward or straight ahead but is now pointing outward to the right, you may start feeling pain under your right shoulder blade, which may become quite severe. The problem is that people with this pain don't usually feel it when they are mousing. Perversely, they tend to feel it when they are away from the keyboard, so they don't make the connection. If you know of anyone with sharp pain under the shoulder blade, see if they do a lot of work with that arm rotated outward.
- yoz-y 6y ago
  I use a TKL layout precisely for this reason.
- fomine3 6y ago
  It's reasonable but why cut F1-12 keys? Personally I prefer 70% for additional cursor/jump keys.
pedroma 6y ago
I also learned to touch-type at an early age, but incorrectly. I can easily do 90+ wpm and closer to 110 when younger, but certain keys on my keyboard are bound to the wrong fingers. For example, I always end up moving my entire left hand several centimeters to the right so my left index finger can reach the "Y" key. So every time I type a "Y" character my entire left hand shifts unnecessarily back and forth.
ooobit2 6y ago
I share your perspective with this. It's a fun idea. I've been a touch typist my whole life. But I did recently switch my default keyboard to International so I can type in French and Spanish, as accents are common to both languages but not included in the Windows 10 American English keyboard. I mention this because it has easily halved, if not hanged, drawn and quartered my typing speed. I'm several months in and still need to "test" touch type when I need a ç or ñ. So, I know speed comes down to muscle memory. Really, it's not the blank keycaps that improved this person's typing speed. It was the deliberate focus on training their senses to memorize the way the tension in their left ring finger, or the way their right thumb extended to the left a little. One fun and maybe not so novel use for this though would be training yourself to touch type AZERTY and QWERTY interchangeably. The blank keycaps would make it easy to switch between layouts and not run into a focus conflict like trying to mentally envision the A key, struggling to place it then looking down to see Q and having to fight your brain to not dump your mental priming for AZERTY and return memory for QWERTY. (There's a specific term for this in cognitive science. I want to say "trigger", but that's definitely not it. It refers to when a mylenated path is triggered by your senses and overrides your present thought.)
- PetitPrince 6y ago
  > I'm several months in and still need to "test" touch type when I need a ç or ñ I found that using US-international mostly removes the need to look for the dedicated accented letter. It works by making you compose accented character instead of typing them directly. For instance, you have to press the grave accent key [`] then [a] to make "à". The apostrophe doubles as the acute accent and cedilla key, so ['] then [e] makes "é", [`] and [c] makes "ç". It works for most diacritics in European languages (`, ~, ^, ', "). Also, to get the original character, press space (or double press them to double type them). It's probably a tiny bit slower than having dedicated keys, but I find the consistency nice to have.
  - viktor4006094 6y ago
    > Also, to get the original character, press space (or double press them to double type them). If you don't like this behavior then then I can recommend using a modified US-International layout where those keys are only dead if AltGr is held down [1]. Alternatively, you can use a version where AltGr acts as the modifier [2]. The latter is what I use since I only need it for Swedish special characters (åäö) which I get by typing AltGr+W, AltGr+Q, and AltGr+P. [1] https://github.com/thomasfaingnaert/win-us-intl-altgr https://github.com/thomasfaingnaert/win-us-intl-altgr [2] https://github.com/umanovskis/win-kbd-usint-nodead https://github.com/umanovskis/win-kbd-usint-nodead
ojkelly 6y ago
I’ve been using a 60% keyboard for a couple of years now, with a Magic Trackpad off to the right. The total size is about that of a full size keyboard (with numpad). The thing about 60% and ten-keyless keyboards, is the smaller size means your hands travel less. Yeah, some common things are now chords as opposed to discrete keys. But chords are easy to learn if you’re using them every day. They’re not for everyone, just like any accessibility feature. Above all, the 60% keyboard is more comfortable.
- wyclif 6y ago
  How difficult is it to get a new Magic Trackpad working with a Linux distro?
  - boomboomsubban 6y ago
    The driver is part of the kernel, so it should work immediately though may require tweaking. Debian would require a newer kernel too.
- MivLives 6y ago
  I switched to a 60% keyboard a few months ago. I've been surprised how easy the transition has been. One of the things I wish there were more is split space bar 60% boards. I have one of the few, and it really helps when your layer switch is an easy thumb press away.
suby 6y ago
I think blank keys are the way to go if you want to improve your typing ability. It may not be worth it for you in particular since you already type at 90-110 WPM, but in general I'd argue that if blank keys are frustrating, that frustration is evidence of your need to have those blank keys. I too learned to type at a young age. I can type without making mistakes at 120 WPM. I also used to be a stenographer, which for the uninitiated involves typing on a specially designed keyboard for the purpose of recording transcripts. In order to graduate as a stenographer you're required to type at 240 WPM with at least 98% accuracy (which is achievable thanks to the keyboards special design). I know from this experience that looking at your hands / the keyboard while typing drastically hinders your ability to become a good typer. Given that you type at 90-110 WPM already, the benefit for you would really only be for the obscure keys you rarely press. It's clearly very effective for breaking poor typing habits, though. You really just need to force your brain to form a complete model of the keyboard in your head. Even looking at an image of your keyboard layout while typing (and thus not looking at your hands) hinders how well you learn. During the first semester of stenography classes they had an image of the keyboard layout blown up and hanging on the wall. How well people did correlated very well with whether or not they ever glanced at this image. Blank keyboards prevent these bad habits from forming, and break the bad habits if they're already formed. Considering you already type at 90-110 WPM, the frustration you'd experience may not be worth it to you, but arguably you're not the target audience.
- Moru 6y ago
  When I learned in school, we used normal non-electric typewriters. When starting out we got a paper to look at. This was only to learn the character for the first time since the keyboard was under a plastic hood so you could not see your hands. After that you are expected not to look at the paper. It did not take very long to learn the basics and then it was just to keep at it. It improved the typing of game listings from magazines immensely, much less debugging needed to find that character that was wrong :-)
  - suby 6y ago
    That's interesting that they expected you to not glance at the paper. I actually think looking at the paper (or nowadays a screen) to see the result of what you're typing is good for learning. You get immediate feedback on whether or not you're correct. Also yeah, those plastic covers are good. I'm not sure if this is common nowadays but my elementary school had a typing class that probably met once a week. We too used a plastic cover over a keyboard. I couldn't type before that, and it set me on the path to being a good typer.
indymike 6y ago
Learning to type really makes a difference in productivity. My typing skills took a huge leap when I worked in a computer lab that had bad lighting and green terminal screens. You couldn't see the markings on the keys... ancient Zenith terminals hooked up to a VAX.
ThatPlayer 6y ago
I'm typing this one a 65% right now, and it's simply "I want more space on my desk (for other junk)". This keyboard is completely usable. I never use half of the F row anyways, and removes a few redundant keys like the duplicate alt/ctrl on the right hand I never use.
alpaca128 6y ago
> I really don't get why anyone would want less keys. For the same reason many people prefer keyboard shortcuts over moving the hand back and forth between mouse and keyboard. My main keyboard has 42 keys; that's enough for all letters, most common symbols and modifiers. Everything else is quickly reachable by holding down one of two "FN" keys. Why? Because this way I can input anything without even moving my hands or wrists. And as both FN keys are directly below my thumbs I don't suffer from any delay when typing any special symbols or numbers. In fact my typing speed has stayed exactly the same, possibly even with increased accuracy because my hands are always guaranteed to be in the correct position for every input(outside the period of getting used to the layout of course). So for me personally it's a number of advantages without a single drawback, except maybe the fact I now find standard keyboards really cumbersome and awkward to use.
- evook 6y ago
  Well the problem arises if you use more than a few shortcuts. If you start having keybinds like ALT + CMD + (F1..F6) you _really_ dont want to have to press an additional FN Keys. I found 4 key shortcuts not viable in the long run if you have to press them multiple times a minute. With that said: > So for me personally it's a number of advantages without a single drawback The objective drawback is the expandability of your shortcuts because you are artificially limited in your options of key combinations. For me that would be a no go. Though I am close to 500 shortcuts in my 3 main applications alone, excluding i3 or KDE globals. I only use a mouse to browse the web.
  - alpaca128 6y ago
    If you have to regularly enter 4 key shortcuts you can just define a few macros in the firmware and be done with it. I haven't been in a situation where I absolutely couldn't input some combination. Some shortcuts are awkward, sure, but I rarely need those. If I had to regularly use 4 key shortcuts I'd go insane no matter what keyboard. Edit: Then again I don't (yet) have 500 shortcuts, but if software doesn't support rebinding those that's not a problem with the keyboard imho.
    - 6y ago
julianlam 6y ago
> I really don't get why anyone would want less keys.) One unintended benefit of my 60% keyboard is less travel with my right arm when switching from keyboard to mouse. Over the course of the workday it adds up. However conversely, in this modern era with 2FA codes for many sites... Inputting 2FA codes is now a royal pain in the ass.
ClikeX 6y ago
My parents put me in a touch-typing class when I was young. You just needed discipline to not look at the keycaps, or just tape over the letters while you're practicing. I'm in about the same WPM range as you. It's one of the greatest skills I've ever learned. It's invaluable in todays world. I regularly just keep typing while looking at someone. This was especially useful while taking notes in college. > I think having blank keycaps though is kind of silly, personally. Especially given the keyboard the author has gone with. If you sat me in front of that keyboard I wouldn't know where to begin due to its size and layout. Buying a novelty keycaps (or a whole keyboard with blank caps) seems overkill. Just tape over the keys and remove them when you can touch-type comfortably. Having blank-keycaps would only annoy other people need to use my computer for something. It's just a novelty that I personaly feel like it adds anything.
andrewzah 6y ago
"I really don't get why anyone would want less keys" Size. I have used an HHKB2 for ~3 years now, with blank keycaps, and I've been quite happy. I find myself rarely needing to use function keys so often that it becomes an issue. I also used a split, ortholinear Let's Splitv2 that I built myself, with blank keycaps. But not having the number row kinda sucked. I may try it again soon. Though there are a few situations where I'd want a full, standard keyboard layout, with a numpad: * Data entry * Playing videogames that have a lot of commands like DotA2. Chording is simply not fast enough / too much cognitive overhead during high apm moments.
war1025 6y ago
> I'm the odd-man out when it comes to keyboards though I assume I'm in the extreme minority as my preferred keyboard is the floppy silicone style [1]. They wear out after a couple years, and usually whoever made the previous one has gone out of business by then, so getting replacements is a bit of pain. The things I love about this style of keyboard though: 1. More or less silent to type on. No louder than just tapping your fingers on your desk. 2. The fact that they are completely flat on the desk seems to prevent any of the wrist strain that I get from a traditional keyboard. [1] https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B06WWM5TC6 https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B06WWM5TC6
- sleepybrett 6y ago
  perhaps the worst typing experience ever. Though I did have one of these I took to burningman to hook up to the camp's mp3 server circa 1999, it lived in a box with a lot of filtration, the keyboard just lived on the playa and worked like a champ. But I wouldn't want to type on it for more than 2 minutes.
iRobbery 6y ago
Did you learn it on a old mechanical typewriter? People at my school used to do that. I did not care about carrying that X kg suitcase with me every Friday to school. Being already active on irc already at young age, at some point i got so annoyed of typing so slow and while typing missing what was being written on screen by others, i simply forced myself to look at the screen and type. Progress happened quite fast and that was most encouraging to keep going. But 90-110 words per minute, that's blazing fast. Think i'm stuck at about 60 words per minute (https://typing-speed.net/keystrokes-per-minute https://typing-speed.net/keystrokes-per-minute)

paulryanrogers 6y ago

This could be survivor bias. I hunted and pecked for the first ~15 years without pain. Then had problems within the first 3 years of touch typing. My guess is, like sports, some people won the genetic lottery and/or had training and time to perfect their craft more easily than others.

butterthebuddha 6y ago

An argument for a smaller keyboard (and this is definitely a personal thing) is that I try my hardest to avoid using keys that are more than one key away from a finger in its resting position anyway (why---I really don't like having to move my hand physically, and I'm willing to pay the cost of additional latency with having more keys gated behind modifiers if it means I have to move my hand less). My day-to-day keyboard uses QMK, so it's really possible to make this work.

Ma8ee 6y ago

The reason I use a 60% keyboard is that I can keep the mouse closer to the centre, which saves my right shoulder.

SiVal 6y ago
Yes, and this is very important. A wide keyboard can cause you to rotate your arms outward to reach a mouse. A neutral work position is to have your elbows near your sides with forearms horizontal (parallel to the floor) and pointing inward somewhat so your two hands could hold something in front of you or work together on some object, such as peeling an orange. If you turn your palms down and rotate your forearms outward until they are pointing straight forward (parallel with each other), you are probably at the outer limit of where you should routinely work. Keep most of your work inside that limit, in front of you. If you are mousing right handed, for example, and your keyboard is so wide that the normal position of the mouse requires you to rotate your forearm so your arm isn't pointing inward or straight ahead but is now pointing outward to the right, you may start feeling pain under your right shoulder blade, which may become quite severe. The problem is that people with this pain don't usually feel it when they are mousing. Perversely, they tend to feel it when they are away from the keyboard, so they don't make the connection. If you know of anyone with sharp pain under the shoulder blade, see if they do a lot of work with that arm rotated outward.
yoz-y 6y ago
I use a TKL layout precisely for this reason.
fomine3 6y ago
It's reasonable but why cut F1-12 keys? Personally I prefer 70% for additional cursor/jump keys.

pedroma 6y ago

I also learned to touch-type at an early age, but incorrectly. I can easily do 90+ wpm and closer to 110 when younger, but certain keys on my keyboard are bound to the wrong fingers. For example, I always end up moving my entire left hand several centimeters to the right so my left index finger can reach the "Y" key. So every time I type a "Y" character my entire left hand shifts unnecessarily back and forth.

ooobit2 6y ago

I share your perspective with this. It's a fun idea. I've been a touch typist my whole life. But I did recently switch my default keyboard to International so I can type in French and Spanish, as accents are common to both languages but not included in the Windows 10 American English keyboard. I mention this because it has easily halved, if not hanged, drawn and quartered my typing speed. I'm several months in and still need to "test" touch type when I need a ç or ñ. So, I know speed comes down to muscle memory. Really, it's not the blank keycaps that improved this person's typing speed. It was the deliberate focus on training their senses to memorize the way the tension in their left ring finger, or the way their right thumb extended to the left a little. One fun and maybe not so novel use for this though would be training yourself to touch type AZERTY and QWERTY interchangeably. The blank keycaps would make it easy to switch between layouts and not run into a focus conflict like trying to mentally envision the A key, struggling to place it then looking down to see Q and having to fight your brain to not dump your mental priming for AZERTY and return memory for QWERTY. (There's a specific term for this in cognitive science. I want to say "trigger", but that's definitely not it. It refers to when a mylenated path is triggered by your senses and overrides your present thought.)

PetitPrince 6y ago
> I'm several months in and still need to "test" touch type when I need a ç or ñ I found that using US-international mostly removes the need to look for the dedicated accented letter. It works by making you compose accented character instead of typing them directly. For instance, you have to press the grave accent key [`] then [a] to make "à". The apostrophe doubles as the acute accent and cedilla key, so ['] then [e] makes "é", [`] and [c] makes "ç". It works for most diacritics in European languages (`, ~, ^, ', "). Also, to get the original character, press space (or double press them to double type them). It's probably a tiny bit slower than having dedicated keys, but I find the consistency nice to have.
- viktor4006094 6y ago
  > Also, to get the original character, press space (or double press them to double type them). If you don't like this behavior then then I can recommend using a modified US-International layout where those keys are only dead if AltGr is held down [1]. Alternatively, you can use a version where AltGr acts as the modifier [2]. The latter is what I use since I only need it for Swedish special characters (åäö) which I get by typing AltGr+W, AltGr+Q, and AltGr+P. [1] https://github.com/thomasfaingnaert/win-us-intl-altgr https://github.com/thomasfaingnaert/win-us-intl-altgr [2] https://github.com/umanovskis/win-kbd-usint-nodead https://github.com/umanovskis/win-kbd-usint-nodead

ojkelly 6y ago

I’ve been using a 60% keyboard for a couple of years now, with a Magic Trackpad off to the right. The total size is about that of a full size keyboard (with numpad). The thing about 60% and ten-keyless keyboards, is the smaller size means your hands travel less. Yeah, some common things are now chords as opposed to discrete keys. But chords are easy to learn if you’re using them every day. They’re not for everyone, just like any accessibility feature. Above all, the 60% keyboard is more comfortable.

wyclif 6y ago
How difficult is it to get a new Magic Trackpad working with a Linux distro?
- boomboomsubban 6y ago
  The driver is part of the kernel, so it should work immediately though may require tweaking. Debian would require a newer kernel too.
MivLives 6y ago
I switched to a 60% keyboard a few months ago. I've been surprised how easy the transition has been. One of the things I wish there were more is split space bar 60% boards. I have one of the few, and it really helps when your layer switch is an easy thumb press away.

suby 6y ago

I think blank keys are the way to go if you want to improve your typing ability. It may not be worth it for you in particular since you already type at 90-110 WPM, but in general I'd argue that if blank keys are frustrating, that frustration is evidence of your need to have those blank keys. I too learned to type at a young age. I can type without making mistakes at 120 WPM. I also used to be a stenographer, which for the uninitiated involves typing on a specially designed keyboard for the purpose of recording transcripts. In order to graduate as a stenographer you're required to type at 240 WPM with at least 98% accuracy (which is achievable thanks to the keyboards special design). I know from this experience that looking at your hands / the keyboard while typing drastically hinders your ability to become a good typer. Given that you type at 90-110 WPM already, the benefit for you would really only be for the obscure keys you rarely press. It's clearly very effective for breaking poor typing habits, though. You really just need to force your brain to form a complete model of the keyboard in your head. Even looking at an image of your keyboard layout while typing (and thus not looking at your hands) hinders how well you learn. During the first semester of stenography classes they had an image of the keyboard layout blown up and hanging on the wall. How well people did correlated very well with whether or not they ever glanced at this image. Blank keyboards prevent these bad habits from forming, and break the bad habits if they're already formed. Considering you already type at 90-110 WPM, the frustration you'd experience may not be worth it to you, but arguably you're not the target audience.

Moru 6y ago
When I learned in school, we used normal non-electric typewriters. When starting out we got a paper to look at. This was only to learn the character for the first time since the keyboard was under a plastic hood so you could not see your hands. After that you are expected not to look at the paper. It did not take very long to learn the basics and then it was just to keep at it. It improved the typing of game listings from magazines immensely, much less debugging needed to find that character that was wrong :-)
- suby 6y ago
  That's interesting that they expected you to not glance at the paper. I actually think looking at the paper (or nowadays a screen) to see the result of what you're typing is good for learning. You get immediate feedback on whether or not you're correct. Also yeah, those plastic covers are good. I'm not sure if this is common nowadays but my elementary school had a typing class that probably met once a week. We too used a plastic cover over a keyboard. I couldn't type before that, and it set me on the path to being a good typer.

indymike 6y ago

Learning to type really makes a difference in productivity. My typing skills took a huge leap when I worked in a computer lab that had bad lighting and green terminal screens. You couldn't see the markings on the keys... ancient Zenith terminals hooked up to a VAX.

ThatPlayer 6y ago

I'm typing this one a 65% right now, and it's simply "I want more space on my desk (for other junk)". This keyboard is completely usable. I never use half of the F row anyways, and removes a few redundant keys like the duplicate alt/ctrl on the right hand I never use.

alpaca128 6y ago

> I really don't get why anyone would want less keys. For the same reason many people prefer keyboard shortcuts over moving the hand back and forth between mouse and keyboard. My main keyboard has 42 keys; that's enough for all letters, most common symbols and modifiers. Everything else is quickly reachable by holding down one of two "FN" keys. Why? Because this way I can input anything without even moving my hands or wrists. And as both FN keys are directly below my thumbs I don't suffer from any delay when typing any special symbols or numbers. In fact my typing speed has stayed exactly the same, possibly even with increased accuracy because my hands are always guaranteed to be in the correct position for every input(outside the period of getting used to the layout of course). So for me personally it's a number of advantages without a single drawback, except maybe the fact I now find standard keyboards really cumbersome and awkward to use.

evook 6y ago
Well the problem arises if you use more than a few shortcuts. If you start having keybinds like ALT + CMD + (F1..F6) you _really_ dont want to have to press an additional FN Keys. I found 4 key shortcuts not viable in the long run if you have to press them multiple times a minute. With that said: > So for me personally it's a number of advantages without a single drawback The objective drawback is the expandability of your shortcuts because you are artificially limited in your options of key combinations. For me that would be a no go. Though I am close to 500 shortcuts in my 3 main applications alone, excluding i3 or KDE globals. I only use a mouse to browse the web.
- alpaca128 6y ago
  If you have to regularly enter 4 key shortcuts you can just define a few macros in the firmware and be done with it. I haven't been in a situation where I absolutely couldn't input some combination. Some shortcuts are awkward, sure, but I rarely need those. If I had to regularly use 4 key shortcuts I'd go insane no matter what keyboard. Edit: Then again I don't (yet) have 500 shortcuts, but if software doesn't support rebinding those that's not a problem with the keyboard imho.
  - 6y ago

julianlam 6y ago

> I really don't get why anyone would want less keys.) One unintended benefit of my 60% keyboard is less travel with my right arm when switching from keyboard to mouse. Over the course of the workday it adds up. However conversely, in this modern era with 2FA codes for many sites... Inputting 2FA codes is now a royal pain in the ass.

ClikeX 6y ago

My parents put me in a touch-typing class when I was young. You just needed discipline to not look at the keycaps, or just tape over the letters while you're practicing. I'm in about the same WPM range as you. It's one of the greatest skills I've ever learned. It's invaluable in todays world. I regularly just keep typing while looking at someone. This was especially useful while taking notes in college. > I think having blank keycaps though is kind of silly, personally. Especially given the keyboard the author has gone with. If you sat me in front of that keyboard I wouldn't know where to begin due to its size and layout. Buying a novelty keycaps (or a whole keyboard with blank caps) seems overkill. Just tape over the keys and remove them when you can touch-type comfortably. Having blank-keycaps would only annoy other people need to use my computer for something. It's just a novelty that I personaly feel like it adds anything.

andrewzah 6y ago

"I really don't get why anyone would want less keys" Size. I have used an HHKB2 for ~3 years now, with blank keycaps, and I've been quite happy. I find myself rarely needing to use function keys so often that it becomes an issue. I also used a split, ortholinear Let's Splitv2 that I built myself, with blank keycaps. But not having the number row kinda sucked. I may try it again soon. Though there are a few situations where I'd want a full, standard keyboard layout, with a numpad: * Data entry * Playing videogames that have a lot of commands like DotA2. Chording is simply not fast enough / too much cognitive overhead during high apm moments.

war1025 6y ago

> I'm the odd-man out when it comes to keyboards though I assume I'm in the extreme minority as my preferred keyboard is the floppy silicone style [1]. They wear out after a couple years, and usually whoever made the previous one has gone out of business by then, so getting replacements is a bit of pain. The things I love about this style of keyboard though: 1. More or less silent to type on. No louder than just tapping your fingers on your desk. 2. The fact that they are completely flat on the desk seems to prevent any of the wrist strain that I get from a traditional keyboard. [1] https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B06WWM5TC6 https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B06WWM5TC6

sleepybrett 6y ago
perhaps the worst typing experience ever. Though I did have one of these I took to burningman to hook up to the camp's mp3 server circa 1999, it lived in a box with a lot of filtration, the keyboard just lived on the playa and worked like a champ. But I wouldn't want to type on it for more than 2 minutes.

iRobbery 6y ago

Did you learn it on a old mechanical typewriter? People at my school used to do that. I did not care about carrying that X kg suitcase with me every Friday to school. Being already active on irc already at young age, at some point i got so annoyed of typing so slow and while typing missing what was being written on screen by others, i simply forced myself to look at the screen and type. Progress happened quite fast and that was most encouraging to keep going. But 90-110 words per minute, that's blazing fast. Think i'm stuck at about 60 words per minute (https://typing-speed.net/keystrokes-per-minute https://typing-speed.net/keystrokes-per-minute)