3 ms·
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 W
by 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 agoWhen 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 agoThat'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.
- MereInterest 6y agoSometimes, the immediate feedback can be a problem in itself. If you are typing as fast as somebody is speaking, the last thing you want to do is recognize a mistake and try to correct it. Doing so will just make you fall behind, which is worse than having a typo in the transcription. Since mistakes cannot be corrected until afterwards, it is better not to be distracted by them at all. This differs quite a bit from programming, where a single character typo might not be noticeable in review, and should be watched for while typing.
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- MivLives 6y agoInterestingly there's been a few keyboards that have come out recently that are inspired by the chording design used in stenography. 40% keyboards already rely on it to some extend but there are a few that are even bellow that.Sure it's niche but obvious it's faster and probably easier on your wrists. Don't think most people are going to want to take the time to learn it given there seems to be people arguing against touch typing in this comment section.
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