4 ms·

I took a typing class in high school; it was probably the most useful course I took over the entire five years. It has paid for itself literally thousands of ti

I took a typing class in high school; it was probably the most useful course I took over the entire five years. It has paid for itself literally thousands of times over in increased productivity (my cruising speed is around 100-120 wpm). I'm with Steve Yegge: if you can't touch-type, your productivity will remain stuck under a pretty hard ceiling. http://steve-yegge.blogspot.com/2008/09/programmings-dirtiest-little-secret.html http://steve-yegge.blogspot.com/2008/09/programmings-dirties...

kokey 15y ago
I took one in high school too, it was a choice between typing and woodwork. Most boys took woodwork, I knew I would need it for computers one day and I'm glad I did. I also don't have problems with the characters that were not part of the lessons. I spent about 10 years on a US keyboard layout and then another 10 with a mostly UK keyboard layout, and then there's the UK Mac keyboard which is a strange combination of the two. I don't feel I have trouble switching between the types of keyboards, it's like switching between driving on the left and right hand sides of the road which I also got pretty used to.
chaosprophet 15y ago
I don't really agree with the Steve Yegge comment. When I am programming I spend upwards of 85% of the time thinking, not typing. As such I don't see how being at 80wpm (my sloppy sometimes-touch-sometimes-look typing speed) affects my productivity significantly.
- michaelochurch 15y ago
  Touch-typing isn't about WPM. It's about the fact that, once you're half-decent at it (and it only takes a few months) the fact that you're typing disappears. So you can write or code without even thinking about typing because the muscle memory turns your verbal thoughts into text. Hunt-and-peck is more than fast enough (30-40 wpm for skilled hunt-and-peck typists) to crank out code but it's a lot easier to lose the state of "flow" and in programming, Flow is King.
  - ujal 15y ago
    Yes, its important to note here that touch-typing as well as all the talk around VIM and Co. is less about efficiency and more about reducing the cognitive load per step/instruction.
  - chaosprophet 15y ago
    I still don't understand. Typing takes a definitive amount of time. Touch typing can cut that time significantly. I do agree with that. However, claiming that typing slowly makes you lose your flow appears a bit far fetched to me.
    - SatvikBeri 15y ago
      Here's my experience typing on a keyboard (familiar) vs. an iPad (unfamiliar): I can type almost as fast on an iPad, but because of the unfamiliar spacing I have to devote some cognitive energy to the task and occasionally my brain switches from what I'm thinking about (note-taking or programming) to moving my hands to the right place. It does occasionally break my concentration and make it somewhat harder to enter flow. I imagine that I'd have a similar experience if I didn't know how to touch-type.
      - gnosis 15y ago
        The problem with iPad keyboards (and all other software keyboards) isn't just that they're unfamiliar compared to physical keyboards, but that they have no tactile feedback. A touch-typist typing on a physical keyboard will know without having to look that he's pressed the right key and that the keypress registered. On a software keyboard one always has to look. This makes touch-typing on a software keyboard virtually impossible.
    - aangjie 15y ago
      that's because you're phrasing the claim badly. the claim is not typing slowly makes you lose flow, but that hunt-and-peck typing causes you to lose flow.. It's pretty simple imagination from that to hypothesize why that is the the case.
jamesrcole 15y ago
I did too. I think it's good to invest in 'infrastructure' skills. Learning a good text editor (in my case, Vim) is another thing like this, I think.

kokey 15y ago

I took one in high school too, it was a choice between typing and woodwork. Most boys took woodwork, I knew I would need it for computers one day and I'm glad I did. I also don't have problems with the characters that were not part of the lessons. I spent about 10 years on a US keyboard layout and then another 10 with a mostly UK keyboard layout, and then there's the UK Mac keyboard which is a strange combination of the two. I don't feel I have trouble switching between the types of keyboards, it's like switching between driving on the left and right hand sides of the road which I also got pretty used to.

chaosprophet 15y ago

I don't really agree with the Steve Yegge comment. When I am programming I spend upwards of 85% of the time thinking, not typing. As such I don't see how being at 80wpm (my sloppy sometimes-touch-sometimes-look typing speed) affects my productivity significantly.

michaelochurch 15y ago
Touch-typing isn't about WPM. It's about the fact that, once you're half-decent at it (and it only takes a few months) the fact that you're typing disappears. So you can write or code without even thinking about typing because the muscle memory turns your verbal thoughts into text. Hunt-and-peck is more than fast enough (30-40 wpm for skilled hunt-and-peck typists) to crank out code but it's a lot easier to lose the state of "flow" and in programming, Flow is King.
- ujal 15y ago
  Yes, its important to note here that touch-typing as well as all the talk around VIM and Co. is less about efficiency and more about reducing the cognitive load per step/instruction.
- chaosprophet 15y ago
  I still don't understand. Typing takes a definitive amount of time. Touch typing can cut that time significantly. I do agree with that. However, claiming that typing slowly makes you lose your flow appears a bit far fetched to me.
  - SatvikBeri 15y ago
    Here's my experience typing on a keyboard (familiar) vs. an iPad (unfamiliar): I can type almost as fast on an iPad, but because of the unfamiliar spacing I have to devote some cognitive energy to the task and occasionally my brain switches from what I'm thinking about (note-taking or programming) to moving my hands to the right place. It does occasionally break my concentration and make it somewhat harder to enter flow. I imagine that I'd have a similar experience if I didn't know how to touch-type.
    - gnosis 15y ago
      The problem with iPad keyboards (and all other software keyboards) isn't just that they're unfamiliar compared to physical keyboards, but that they have no tactile feedback. A touch-typist typing on a physical keyboard will know without having to look that he's pressed the right key and that the keypress registered. On a software keyboard one always has to look. This makes touch-typing on a software keyboard virtually impossible.
  - aangjie 15y ago
    that's because you're phrasing the claim badly. the claim is not typing slowly makes you lose flow, but that hunt-and-peck typing causes you to lose flow.. It's pretty simple imagination from that to hypothesize why that is the the case.

jamesrcole 15y ago

I did too. I think it's good to invest in 'infrastructure' skills. Learning a good text editor (in my case, Vim) is another thing like this, I think.