3 ms·

This article also says: > It takes two seconds to decide upon which special-function key to press. Deciding among abstract symbols is a high-level cognitive fu

by zck 5y ago

This article also says: > It takes two seconds to decide upon which special-function key to press. Deciding among abstract symbols is a high-level cognitive function. Not only is this decision not boring, the user actually experiences amnesia! Real amnesia! The time-slice spent making the decision simply ceases to exist. That's not my experience at all. Once you learn a keyboard shortcut, it doesn't take two seconds to recall it. Were his tests on expert users, or on beginners?

Taylor_OD 5y ago
Well it depends on how often you use it. There are a handful of shortcuts I use... Once every other week? It certainly takes me a second or two to remember exactly how to do it. Even if I've used them on and off for years. Sure ctrl z everyones got down. But what about alt k to kill that one process in that one program you have to keep fixing for that one client?
- hutzlibu 5y ago
  "Sure ctrl z everyones got down. " Not really.
- smoe 5y ago
  Sure, but one of my most commonly used keyboard short cuts is the one that pops up a fuzzy search over all the available actions/settings. Whereas with the mouse i have to dig trough a ton of sub menus and often even have to google to find what I want.
  - KptMarchewa 5y ago
    I guess that study from 1989 didn't take up existence of fzf into account.
- okamiueru 5y ago
  Pretty much everything you do often enough will be automated away from conscious thought. It ends up in a weird situation where if someone asks what the keyboard binding for, say, inserting a row into a org-mode table, I wouldn't be able to answer. Something with maybe a c in it, and a '-', not sure? Yet, once in the situation that needs it, the fingers move by themselves. Also related, musicians don't spend two seconds figuring out how to play a note.
  - BeFlatXIII 5y ago
    Musicians also regularly play all the notes on their instrument. There are many once/week tasks that you’ll spend more time trying to remember the shortcut you used last week than just grabbing the rodent.
hambes 5y ago
The difference is between using a keyboard shortcut like vim's "yaw" to copy a word vs vim's "d3f," to delete the next three words. The former you can save to muscle memory and always do instantly. The latter you have to think about, because you need to adjust it to your needs in the moment. That will always take a moment of thinking time.

by zck 5y ago

Taylor_OD 5y ago

Well it depends on how often you use it. There are a handful of shortcuts I use... Once every other week? It certainly takes me a second or two to remember exactly how to do it. Even if I've used them on and off for years. Sure ctrl z everyones got down. But what about alt k to kill that one process in that one program you have to keep fixing for that one client?

hutzlibu 5y ago
"Sure ctrl z everyones got down. " Not really.
smoe 5y ago
Sure, but one of my most commonly used keyboard short cuts is the one that pops up a fuzzy search over all the available actions/settings. Whereas with the mouse i have to dig trough a ton of sub menus and often even have to google to find what I want.
- KptMarchewa 5y ago
  I guess that study from 1989 didn't take up existence of fzf into account.
okamiueru 5y ago
Pretty much everything you do often enough will be automated away from conscious thought. It ends up in a weird situation where if someone asks what the keyboard binding for, say, inserting a row into a org-mode table, I wouldn't be able to answer. Something with maybe a c in it, and a '-', not sure? Yet, once in the situation that needs it, the fingers move by themselves. Also related, musicians don't spend two seconds figuring out how to play a note.
- BeFlatXIII 5y ago
  Musicians also regularly play all the notes on their instrument. There are many once/week tasks that you’ll spend more time trying to remember the shortcut you used last week than just grabbing the rodent.

hambes 5y ago

The difference is between using a keyboard shortcut like vim's "yaw" to copy a word vs vim's "d3f," to delete the next three words. The former you can save to muscle memory and always do instantly. The latter you have to think about, because you need to adjust it to your needs in the moment. That will always take a moment of thinking time.