> By comparison, most people can type around the speed of a speaker talking at a moderate cadence. This allows you to often type exactly what a speaker is sayin

> By comparison, most people can type around the speed of a speaker talking at a moderate cadence. This allows you to often type exactly what a speaker is saying, essentially as a stream of words coming in the ears and transferring directly into your motor control that allows for typing. That may depend on whether they can touch type. I don't know what percentage of HN audience can touch type, but the prevalence is pretty low among general population. The generation senior to me has more touch typists due to their training on typewriters. But I'm the only touch typist in my circle among the current and the next generation. The reason why touch typing is important is that non-touch typing is very distracting and takes more cognitive effort - diverting some of your attention away from what you're supposed to be doing. I know the difference because I learned touch typing recently. In fact, I think that cognitive effort in non-touch typing is one of the reasons why it's not easy to remember things you type, compared to writing.