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As a professional software engineer, I always found I generally spent more time thinking than actually typing. I'm curious, what kinds of technical roles requir

As a professional software engineer, I always found I generally spent more time thinking than actually typing. I'm curious, what kinds of technical roles require such a large amount of typing?

tristor 6y ago
I've found that the more senior I got through my career the more typing I had to do. The more senior you are, the more time you spend writing plans, documentation, designs, and of course copious amounts of emails as part of communication. Now I'm in management, and I type more than I ever did in any of the engineering roles that I held. Perhaps consequently, I've taken ergonomics and keyboard quality really seriously.
jbaber 6y ago
Verbose languages like C++.
myhf 6y ago
It's not about the number of hours per day that you spend typing. It's about the number of seconds you have to hold an idea in your head.
asdff 6y ago
email and slack. I joke, but some fields really do work the computer more than others. My roommate is in design and was sent home with a workstation to do their 3d modelling. It sounds like he is playing starcraft for 8 hours a day, but that's the job. Nonstop clicking and clacking until he clocks out without a single pause.
- codeyperson 6y ago
  Can confirm. I worked as an animator when I was young and that was very taxing on the hands. I also worked as a designer and developed forearm pain from the Photoshop shortcuts. Now I work as a programmer and things are a lot easier. But I suspect it’s only a matter of time before even this is too much and I’ll need to change it up again.
keeganpoppen 6y ago
why not get a keyboard that is twice as difficult to type on, then, if optimizing for typing speed makes no difference? why not 10x? if you flip it around it's obvious why people would want good keyboards. to my mind, it's strictly less silly than wanting, say, a good/fancy car (which, though a luxury, i view as a perfectly reasonable thing to want as well). people don't buy porsches (e.g.) because they have "such a large amount" of driving in their jobs and/or lives-- they buy them to make the driving they do do better.
yiyus 6y ago
Tennis players spend way more time moving around than hitting the ball. And yet, they use the best racket they can find.

As a professional software engineer, I always found I generally spent more time thinking than actually typing. I'm curious, what kinds of technical roles require such a large amount of typing?

tristor 6y ago

I've found that the more senior I got through my career the more typing I had to do. The more senior you are, the more time you spend writing plans, documentation, designs, and of course copious amounts of emails as part of communication. Now I'm in management, and I type more than I ever did in any of the engineering roles that I held. Perhaps consequently, I've taken ergonomics and keyboard quality really seriously.

jbaber 6y ago

Verbose languages like C++.

myhf 6y ago

It's not about the number of hours per day that you spend typing. It's about the number of seconds you have to hold an idea in your head.

asdff 6y ago

email and slack. I joke, but some fields really do work the computer more than others. My roommate is in design and was sent home with a workstation to do their 3d modelling. It sounds like he is playing starcraft for 8 hours a day, but that's the job. Nonstop clicking and clacking until he clocks out without a single pause.

codeyperson 6y ago
Can confirm. I worked as an animator when I was young and that was very taxing on the hands. I also worked as a designer and developed forearm pain from the Photoshop shortcuts. Now I work as a programmer and things are a lot easier. But I suspect it’s only a matter of time before even this is too much and I’ll need to change it up again.

keeganpoppen 6y ago

why not get a keyboard that is twice as difficult to type on, then, if optimizing for typing speed makes no difference? why not 10x? if you flip it around it's obvious why people would want good keyboards. to my mind, it's strictly less silly than wanting, say, a good/fancy car (which, though a luxury, i view as a perfectly reasonable thing to want as well). people don't buy porsches (e.g.) because they have "such a large amount" of driving in their jobs and/or lives-- they buy them to make the driving they do do better.

yiyus 6y ago

Tennis players spend way more time moving around than hitting the ball. And yet, they use the best racket they can find.