4 ms·

His reviews are great, but I find it mind-boggling that Thomas Ran (Chyrosran22) doesn't touch-type when he demos typing. e.g., https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=

His reviews are great, but I find it mind-boggling that Thomas Ran (Chyrosran22) doesn't touch-type when he demos typing. e.g., https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9LcLgcCmus&t=644s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9LcLgcCmus&t=644s. Is he able to touch-type but simply chooses not to? Or did his obsession with keyboards never lead to him learning how? It's a mystery to me.

pythko 4y ago
He’s said that he thinks his method of typing works fine and doesn’t lead to repetitive stress injuries, so he prefers it. I don’t remember which specific videos he said that in off the top of my head, though.
LoganDark 4y ago
Um, excuse me what? That is touch typing. What you're thinking of is "home row", a specific method of touch typing. I also don't use home row, but I'm faster than a lot of people who do, and it absolutely counts as touch typing because I don't have to look at the keyboard at all.
- laserlight 4y ago
  Were you able to tell by watching the video if he was looking at the keyboard or not? If yes, how? Because the video only shows fingers hitting keys. There’s nothing about what is being typed or if the typist is looking at the keyboard.
  - eimrine 4y ago
    >If yes, how? I have not looked at video at all, but as a touchtypist I have a struggle not to set my index fingers on f/j. I have seen some Internet touchtypists who claim they can use something else as keys to figuring up where their fingers are located (for example, lShift/rShift or Lenovo's clit) but in real world I have not seen any touchtypist who is not sticking his index finger on f/j constantly.
- Aeolun 4y ago
  If you can type at any speed while pecking at keys you must have muscles made of pure lightning. That said, what he does certainly looks like either an imitation of touch typing while pressing random buttons, or a method of touch typing that I’m not aware of. It certainly looks too fast for him to be checking every letter he types.
  - Schroedingersat 4y ago
    It's not hard to learn to touch type from having some reference even without al\ fngers or both hands available. My error rate is pretty high due to recently switching keyboard software, but I can manage about 40-50 wpm on a phone keyboard and my main reference points are the corners.
  - walthamstow 4y ago
    Interested in what you mean by your first sentence. What's a high speed in your mind? I can type prose at about 90 WPM on a Macbook with basically just my index fingers, without looking.
    - Aeolun 4y ago
      What I see as pecking is having two index fingers tap down on the keyboard after locating the required letter. I’d be amazed if you can do 90 wpm with just your index fingers regardless of strategy though. With two fingers and an average of 4 letters per word you need to tap 90 / 60 = 1.5 * 4 = 6 / 2 = 3 letters per second per finger (more if your words are longer). I trust you can do it, but I can’t imagine what that looks like.
stephc_int13 4y ago
In my book, touch typing is being able to type without looking at the keys. Technically it is possible to touch type with a single finger. Of course, the more fingers you use, the faster you can type, probably needed to reach > 100 WPM, but I tend to spend much more time reading and thinking than typing usually, so in my case this is marginal.
icambron 4y ago
I used to work with a guy with an impressive collection of highly customized mechanical keyboards who couldn’t touch type. I found it baffling, but the reality is that obsessions find you, not the other way around.
- bdowling 4y ago
  I think this is it. Some people are into owning fancy sports cars that they don't actually drive, building high-end gaming computers but not playing games, or buying vintage cameras but not using them to take pictures (note: I'm guilty of #2 and #3). It's basically being a collector who appreciates what's special about something, even if you don't actually use it much.
rowanG077 4y ago
Huh, I thought touch-typing refers to not needing to look at the keys. How can you tell he isn't touch typing by just looking at the video?

pythko 4y ago

He’s said that he thinks his method of typing works fine and doesn’t lead to repetitive stress injuries, so he prefers it. I don’t remember which specific videos he said that in off the top of my head, though.

LoganDark 4y ago

Um, excuse me what? That is touch typing. What you're thinking of is "home row", a specific method of touch typing. I also don't use home row, but I'm faster than a lot of people who do, and it absolutely counts as touch typing because I don't have to look at the keyboard at all.

laserlight 4y ago
Were you able to tell by watching the video if he was looking at the keyboard or not? If yes, how? Because the video only shows fingers hitting keys. There’s nothing about what is being typed or if the typist is looking at the keyboard.
- eimrine 4y ago
  >If yes, how? I have not looked at video at all, but as a touchtypist I have a struggle not to set my index fingers on f/j. I have seen some Internet touchtypists who claim they can use something else as keys to figuring up where their fingers are located (for example, lShift/rShift or Lenovo's clit) but in real world I have not seen any touchtypist who is not sticking his index finger on f/j constantly.
Aeolun 4y ago
If you can type at any speed while pecking at keys you must have muscles made of pure lightning. That said, what he does certainly looks like either an imitation of touch typing while pressing random buttons, or a method of touch typing that I’m not aware of. It certainly looks too fast for him to be checking every letter he types.
- Schroedingersat 4y ago
  It's not hard to learn to touch type from having some reference even without al\ fngers or both hands available. My error rate is pretty high due to recently switching keyboard software, but I can manage about 40-50 wpm on a phone keyboard and my main reference points are the corners.
- walthamstow 4y ago
  Interested in what you mean by your first sentence. What's a high speed in your mind? I can type prose at about 90 WPM on a Macbook with basically just my index fingers, without looking.
  - Aeolun 4y ago
    What I see as pecking is having two index fingers tap down on the keyboard after locating the required letter. I’d be amazed if you can do 90 wpm with just your index fingers regardless of strategy though. With two fingers and an average of 4 letters per word you need to tap 90 / 60 = 1.5 * 4 = 6 / 2 = 3 letters per second per finger (more if your words are longer). I trust you can do it, but I can’t imagine what that looks like.

stephc_int13 4y ago

In my book, touch typing is being able to type without looking at the keys. Technically it is possible to touch type with a single finger. Of course, the more fingers you use, the faster you can type, probably needed to reach > 100 WPM, but I tend to spend much more time reading and thinking than typing usually, so in my case this is marginal.

icambron 4y ago

I used to work with a guy with an impressive collection of highly customized mechanical keyboards who couldn’t touch type. I found it baffling, but the reality is that obsessions find you, not the other way around.

bdowling 4y ago
I think this is it. Some people are into owning fancy sports cars that they don't actually drive, building high-end gaming computers but not playing games, or buying vintage cameras but not using them to take pictures (note: I'm guilty of #2 and #3). It's basically being a collector who appreciates what's special about something, even if you don't actually use it much.

rowanG077 4y ago

Huh, I thought touch-typing refers to not needing to look at the keys. How can you tell he isn't touch typing by just looking at the video?