16 ms·
Typing 118 WPM broke my brain in the right ways
- gunalx 1y agoI feel like i could never get to this level, but just doing a typing run at the beginning of the day feels like a really refreshing thing to do.
- johng 1y agoI learned to type on a typewriter in school.... I'm around 150WPM.
- nluken 1y agoI'm no expert typist and I can't speak to the OP's claims that a bump in typing speed translates to a corresponding increase in productivity, but I can attest to the fact that simple time spent practicing will improve your skills in almost anything, typing included. If you included a typing run at the beginning of your day and made sure you were using proper form, I think you might be surprised at how quickly and how drastically your typing speed might improve. The key is simply sticking with it over the long term. A general rule I find rings true is that people tend to overestimate their improvement over a month, but underestimate improvement over a year.
- lechatonnoir 1y agoThe trouble for me is, what is actually "proper form"? People I've asked, including on the MonkeyType discord, don't seem to have very uniform opinions about it. Lots of fast typists have highly idiosyncratic strategies, as we see in this thread, but trying to get faster than ~150wpm (tested, which translates to more like ~100 in regular settings) feels to me to be limited by hand tension.
- absoluteunit1 1y ago> but just doing a typing run at the beginning of the day feels like a really refreshing thing to do. You might like typequicker.com - I added a daily typing test for this reason (has a daily leaderboard as well) My friends now all ask each other “have you done the dsily?” lol Give it a shot :)
- JohnMakin 1y ago> Plot twist: I don't type "correctly" at all. My fingers just go wherever they want. It's like anarchist typing. My left pinky probably hasn't touched the 'A' key in months, but somehow I'm still in the 99.5 percentile. Turns out the "proper way" is just a suggestion. Like following PEP 8 or using semicolons in JavaScript. Sure, it's nice, but if your way works better, who cares? This is super interesting - I have typed "wrong" since the time I first picked up a keyboard, 6 or 7 years old, back in an age where typing was not taught in school or an expected skill everyone was just automatically meant to know. As such, I developed my own "style" which looks a lot like "pecking" a lot of beginners will do, but has adapted over the decades to something that is my own. I typically just use the index/middle finger on my left hand that covers most of the left hand side of the keyboard, depending on word (index might reach for the 'y' key sometimes) and the pinky for shift key. Right hand uses mostly the index, ring (for hitting backspace and enter) and thumb (for spacebar). I've often wondered if I was ever able to retrain myself to do it "properly" whether I'd type even faster than I do. now I am not sure. I have "peaked" at 125+ wpm in 1 minute tests, and in casual conversation with familiar words, probably can maintain easily around 110-120. I think for most things I typically cruise around 100 without trying too much. It is a nice skill but I've never been able to figure out why I type so much faster than most people I meet, especially given being self-taught and the unorthodox way in which I type. Often when I am showing something on a terminal, for instance, which includes a lot of auto complete and muscle memory, I need to slow down by about 10-20x for people to follow what I am doing.
- colanderman 1y agoI also type unorthodoxly and quickly. Hands held diagonal (wrists straight), no particular finger-letter assignments. Closer to playing a piano. 33 years typing like this, going strong. I can't think of any benefit of home row typing other than it's easy to teach in a prescriptive manner.
- dawnofdusk 1y ago>I can't think of any benefit If you want to minimize the time it takes to travel to a particular key, it makes sense to keep your fingers at the "center of mass" of the keyboard... which is the home row.
- EvanAnderson 1y ago> No home row bullshit. No "proper finger placement." Just pure, chaotic rhythm. This is me too. I've been a "high speed hunt and peck" typist since I starting using computers in 1985. I highly recommend it. Being able to type fast does make computers vastly more enjoyable to use. Using computers every day was all the practice I needed to make me type faster. IRC and AIM in the 90s/00s were the big drivers for fast typing. In my teens and twenties I topped 120 WPM with reasonable accuracy. I've slowed down in my "old age", and my accuracy has gotten pretty bad. Then again, I think keyboards have gotten worse, too. I use mostly non-contoured chicklet key shitty laptop keyboards today. It might be interesting to wire up an AT-to-PS/2-to-USB franken-dongle, connect one of the keyboards from my youth, and see how it feels. I don't think I'd be willing to sacrifice the desk space, though, to daily-drive that kind of setup. --- Aside: I was the last class in my high school to have typing class on electric typewriters. I struck a tenuous bargain with the teacher whereby I'd do the work without complaint and he'd avert his eyes from my "improper" technique. The "home row" exercises were excruciating time sucks, but once we got into actually typing real English text it was fine. The tactile response and feel of an electric typewriter is pretty cool.
- khedoros1 1y agoI skipped typing classes altogether, and I'm not sure how; they were a requirement in every school district I attended and a prerequisite to the programming classes that I took instead. My typing has developed "organically"; I use most of my fingers at least sometimes, but heavier on index and middle. > IRC and AIM in the 90s/00s were the big drivers for fast typing. Those are how I developed my touch typing; the incentive was to see everything happening in the chatroom full of friends without missing anything, and being able to react quickly. > The tactile response and feel of an electric typewriter is pretty cool. Granddad was a retired IBM employee, and had a Selectric typewriter (either II or III, not sure). That thing felt (and sounded) awesome. The whir of the flywheel, the amazing feedback of the "thunk" of the ball hitting the ribbon. I used to type random crap that didn't need to be typed just to use that thing for a few minutes.
- MisterBastahrd 1y agoFor me it was MERC flavored DikuMUDs. When you're fighting a strong boss and you need to communicate with your team, you gotta be able to issue commands to the server as well as carry a conversation with your teammates.
- thorncorona 1y agoThe site he uses, https://www.keybr.com/typing-test https://www.keybr.com/typing-test, has such lovely design. I am a big fan.
- etra0 1y agoMight be just my preference, but I'd rather train on monkeytype.com. The icon for the space is confusing and the way it consider spelling errors too.
- haltcatchfire 1y agoAn honourable mention to https://typ.ing https://typ.ing too. It’s the same kind of tool from the guys behind the moonlander keyboard, ZSA.
- wonger_ 1y agoI particularly like the spaced repitition at https://www.keybr.com/ https://www.keybr.com/ and the heatmap of missed keys at https://www.keybr.com/profile https://www.keybr.com/profile.
- macNchz 1y agoI find the way that it handles errors to be super annoying—I type fairly quickly and hitting backspace is built into my muscle memory in a way that just seems totally incompatible with that site, even with the "Stop cursor on error" setting unticked.
- absoluteunit1 1y agoTo be honest I could never get into keybr - typing random words is kind of boring and pointless. I saw much better progress on monkeytype, typingclub and now typequicker
- thu 1y agoI've started to learn touch typing many times, but don't use it. The main problem is that as soon as I want to touch type while working (e.g. coding), I only know the letters, but not the symbols, numbers or even uppercase letters. I think I can force keybr to add those, but they are not part of real world examples, while the words are natural enough. Is there any progressive way to introduce those just like keybr introduces 1 letter at a time ?
- behringer 1y agoJust switch to source code typing in the settings.
- haneul 1y agoMonkeytype is better than keybr imo. More options (eg coding modes), actual zen mode, and doesn’t break above 149.5 wpm like keybr does (or did, haven’t been there in 2 years).
- absoluteunit1 1y agoYeah, I agree. It feels strange typing non existent words lol. Used monkeytype for a while but then recently launched my own site: typequicker.com and been using it since Would you consider giving it a go? Any feedback is appreciated
- dawnofdusk 1y agoTyping fast is an underrated skill for developers. A lot of the value added by various intelligent tab completion and LLMs is easily replicated by typing variable and function names at 100+ wpm. Not a fan, however, of the desire to disparage the "right" way of doing things that's done in this blog. I type the "proper" way, home row and all, and can reach 150+wpm with high accuracy. So, based on this evidence, you're wrong and would be better off having learned the proper technique... is an argument which I could make, and the evidence would be true, but it doesn't sound extremely convincing, does it?
- erikpukinskis 1y agoI also wonder if it’s a bit better for your hands. I feel like having my pinkies just kind of hanging there while I type causes the nerves to atrophy.
- jchw 1y agoNot a home row typer but I believe that's generally the idea; it's supposed to minimize the amount of travel. I learned to type home row for a brief period though and it just felt very uncomfortable, I never got used to it. It feels a lot more natural to me to let my hands linger around the keyboard, even when using a split ergo keyboard.
- dylan604 1y agoatrophy? if you're not using your pinkies, how are you hitting shift/enter or other keys like [,],=,/,\? (that's an actual question, not trying to escape the punctuation)
- etra0 1y agoI think this is one of the main reasons why I enjoy vim so much, I can type comfortably at a 120wpm with sudden boost to 140wpm sometimes, and combining that with vim-motions makes it a lovely and fun experience!
- jagger27 1y agoI really recommend MonkeyType. The UI is great, the stats are clear, and the modes are really elegant. https://monkeytype.com/ https://monkeytype.com/ I used it daily like the author for about 6 months to improve from 80wpm to about 120wpm.
- rahimnathwani 1y agoI'm curious: - how many minutes per day? - after each test, did you redo wrong/slow words? My current typing speed, as measured by Monkeytype, is 80wpm (after a deduction for errors).
- jagger27 1y ago15 minutes a day at most, usually less, and I did not do any drills on slow words. Over time errors smoothed out.
- monster_truck 1y agoCame here to say this. It really is a well made site I'm at 140, gaining ~1wpm per hour spent on it. Sometimes I feel like I'm only getting better at re-entering words on a screen
- absoluteunit1 1y agoYeah this is really good site!! I used it for a while but plateaued after some time. Using https://www.typequicker.com/practice https://www.typequicker.com/practice now - has more detailed stats and a daily typing test with a leaderboard to motivate me to do at least a little each day Lol
- pbw 1y agoThis is cool but I feel like typing speed and vim skills are going to play less of a role in overall development speed as AI use increases. But certainly it won’t hurt to type fast, even if it’s mostly typing prompts.
- absolute_unit22 1y ago> typing speed and vim skills are going to play less of a role in overall development speed as AI use increases I feel like it will always be relevant. Both typing fast and vim. I always bet on vim / neovim. Even as tools like Cursor and Windsurf grow, Neovim will always catch up and beat them. Developer attitude of “I can do it better” or “I can build that” will always compete with leading tech products. Tools like aider are already gaining large adoption Always bet on vim
- sjm 1y ago[flagged]
- shermantanktop 1y agoOh, I forgot there are people under 120wpm. How cute. J/k I’m an ok typist with chronic RSI. Speech to text is a godsend.
- temp0826 1y agoI'm all for bad form. Playing MMOs broke me and I type probably 75% of the keyboard with my left hand (gotta keep on the mouse!)
- cosmic_cheese 1y agoIn the same vein, I credit playing original WoW on a PvP server for much of my ability to type quickly. Can’t be sitting there pecking out a message for too long when there’s undead rogues lurking!
- quectophoton 1y agoIt's interesting how I didn't even think that not having voicechat was inconvenient. At all. To me it was just how things were.
- willtemperley 1y ago> No home row bull Learn to touch type (with the home row!) and learn Vim which appears to have been designed with touch typists in mind. When there is almost zero friction getting thoughts into code it's very easy to enter a flow state.
- absoluteunit1 1y ago> When there is almost zero friction getting thoughts into code it's very easy to enter a flow state Couldn’t have said better myself - I learned touch typing and vim in parallel early in my early days and doing any text work is a bliss I literally wrote about this a couple days ago: https://www.typequicker.com/blog/how-to-type-faster https://www.typequicker.com/blog/how-to-type-faster
- Nevermark 1y agoIt happens I just needed to hear this. Have had a recent challenge I ran out of steam on and the suggestion of focusing on correctness not speed to achieve speed really helps. Beat Saber, I am back! (I am actually serious. It’s my quick upper-body-emphasis cardio, and running out of motivation due to a wall impacts my health! I play it with additional constraints, which I relaxed to get through maxed out challenges. But then hit a wall anyway. Realize I need to stay strict, and take the fails upfront! The simple things we know, but somehow need reminding of at every level.)
- jarbus 1y agoHaha I can relate, I went through a similar phase last year: https://jarbus.net/blog/zen-in-the-art-of-beat-saber/ https://jarbus.net/blog/zen-in-the-art-of-beat-saber/
- account-5 1y agoI can't even read 118 WPM...
- neonate 1y agohttps://web.archive.org/web/20250602202840/https://balaji-amg.surge.sh/blog/typing-118-wpm-brain-rewiring https://web.archive.org/web/20250602202840/https://balaji-am...
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- smithkl42 1y agoI don't know how well this holds out, but one thing I've noticed is that the very best developers I've worked with are all fast on the keyboard - not just fast at typing code or comments or emails or whatever, but they have all the keyboard shortcuts memorized, and they navigate through their IDE of choice faster than you can follow (even if you're a pretty good dev yourself).
- squigz 1y agoWhy put more barriers (not knowing how to type, keyboard shortcuts, etc) between your thoughts and reality? :)
- ryukoposting 1y agoIt's key to my productivity, that's for sure. I type faster than most folks, but I'm not that fast, though I've never tested my WPM. I make up for it because I know my shorcuts, I choose tools that have good shortcuts, and I set custom shortcuts for things I do a lot. Another thing is efficient use of screen real estate. Then you don't need to press any buttons at all, you just move your eyes.
- ashwinsundar 1y agoI started using an ortholinear split keyboard last year, and that was a huge adjustment. I went from typing 100+wpm on a simple membrane keyboard, to less than half of that. I had to basically relearn typing just to accomodate the ortholinear layout, not to mention that the split layout meant I could no longer "cheat" and use my right hand to type keys on the left side of the keyboard when I was feeling lazy. I did learn the "right" way to type through all this, and my speedhas stabilized at around 100 wpm. This is more than enough for pretty much any activity I do on the computer. More importantly, however, my wrists no longer hurt from typing continously for 30 minutes. The small sacrifice in speed is definitely worth it in my opinion.
- squigz 1y agoYeah I switched to an ErgoDox after 15+ years of normal keyboards, and it was quite an adjustment. It took me at least a year just to feel comfortable, and another year to get back up to speed. Now, I'm the complete opposite - I tried typing on a normal keyboard a few weeks ago and was just as confused as when I first switched :)
- ashwinsundar 1y agoHa it was the worst when I was still learning the ortholinear layout...I lost the muscle memory to type properly on a membrane keyboard, but still was slow/inaccurate on the ortholinear layout...
- Jcampuzano2 1y agoWent through the same process last year due primarily to trying to find a solution to my cubital tunnel syndrome. I dropped down to like legit 20wpm from ~120wpm. I'm back to around 100 or so but a lot more comfortable and with less pain. I recommend either the Kinesis Advantage 360 pro or the glove 80 to anybody who uses a keyboard a lot for a living. I tried both and frequently switch between them. Another thing I recommend to people with problems is to get literally the lightest keycaps you can, and while it may slow you down a bit try to bottom out less/type a bit lighter in general.
- tristor 1y agoMy typing speed has degraded over time. I used to type ~130wpm and now I'm closer to ~90wpm. Throughout that though, I've tried many different keyboard configurations to address growing issues with my hands and wrists and found something that worked for me. I struggle with frustration though that my typing speed is not as fast as it once was, and yet I still find coworkers surprised by how quickly I type. Typing fast really is a super-power if you're on a computer all day.
- Molitor5901 1y agoI was rather proud of myself at 18 as I typed 110 wpm with two fingers. My hands always felt too big for keyboards and so I learned to type with two fingers and my thumbs on the spacebar. Overtime I just memorized the keyboard that way.. until my fingers started breaking down requiring double hand carpal tunnel surgery. That forced me to learn to type with all fingers, much slower, but I can at least type as fast as I think.
- forgetcolor 1y agothis is fun. my first test hits 125wpm. bursts up to 162wpm. 100% accuracy. seems too easy, though -- no capitals, nums, etc?
- absoluteunit1 1y agoWow, insane numbers! Give typequicker.com/practice a try -(we’ve got a few text topics to choose from and capitals, numbers, etc) - just hit configure
- tquinn 1y agoMid 40s and I can do short tests on Monkeytype at about 145+ WPM with 100% accuracy when conditions line up. My regular daily typing speed is quite a bit lower though. I use a split ergo keyboard, blank key caps, and correct fingers for every key. I highly recommend all three.
- ashwinsundar 1y agoThis is a really well-made personal site as well. Nice job! I like your indie-hacker dashboard, that's a cool idea.
- b0a04gl 1y ago[dead]
- Pet_Ant 1y agoI cannot get above 93% accuracy... on a good day. That really hampers my speed. I even switched layouts permanently to Dvorak before the pandemic in an effort to force myself to really drop all my bad habits but even in this comment I probably made close to two dozen typos unless I really concentrate.
- TZubiri 1y agoI never touched Dvorak, I feel like it would hurt more than it would help, as I would often switch back to Qwerty, and I would confuse my brain. A couple of recommendations on my end. 1- Go slower. (Then you can speed it up) 2- Try playing an instrument, or to a lesser extent, dancing.
- noman-land 1y agoKeep slowing down until you can get 100% consistently, then slowly speed back up.
- matt_lo 1y ago5 minutes of typeracer saves 1 hour of procrastination Typing fast is a way to unlock the brain. Anything past 90, you start to focus on exactly what is needed to type accurately with speed. I average around 106-130 (depending on recent races) for the past 15 years, and it's still one of the best ways to "get into dev mode" really quickly.
- TZubiri 1y agoPlaying a musical instrument also achieves this, it makes a game about the little things about the brain (an organ we all love), like sequencing, motor skills, etc..
- rascul 1y agoNever thought about it before, but maybe playing the flute and clarinet when I was younger helped my typing speed.
- absoluteunit1 1y ago> Typing fast is a way to unlock the brain. Cannot emphasize this enough. I literally built my own typing app for this reason - plateaued on monkeytype and wanted better detailed stats so I build typequicker.com
- beej71 1y agoAll you fast typists... I'm in the 65 wpm club. :) Maybe I've slowed as I've aged. But I also never in my life have felt restricted by my typing speed.
- absoluteunit1 1y agoIt takes very little time/effort to improve honestly :) Coincidentally, I actually wrote about this recently as well: https://www.typequicker.com/blog/how-to-type-faster https://www.typequicker.com/blog/how-to-type-faster
- nawgz 1y agoI do not see the value in making your own ad hoc style, nor does being a decent typist support any such claim. The whole point of home row is that your fingers can ergonomically access every key on the keyboard without requiring you to move your entire hand, and that seems basically like a requirement to me to be able to actually type properly without looking at your keyboard. F and J are the only keys with bumps for a reason. I am skilled as a typist - just pulled off an easy 150wpm with 100% accuracy on this keybr site - and I learned typing and piano starting at a young age. Seems like a bit of hubris to disregard tradition just because you can beat up on internet randoms on keybr.com
- userbinator 1y agoF and J make it easy to orient yourself, but the actual recommended fingering is not optimal for many keys and sequences. nor does being a decent typist support any such claim. Look at the scoreboards on typing sites like Typeracer and Monkeytype. There, 150 is decent, but nowhere near the top, with plenty of people averaging 200+, and a select few even manage to break 300wpm. Those near the top definitely do not use the standard fingering pattern.
- DavidVoid 1y agoThis just makes me want to get back into learning stenography again. It requires a hell of a lot of practice, but being able to write at 200 WPM (without frantic finger movement) would be quite nice. Here's a demo/explainer at 200 WPM for example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7jVXrX5TDk4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7jVXrX5TDk4
- TZubiri 1y agoProbably not very helpful for programming. At least yet, maybe if voice command lines like Alexa or MCP Agents advance you could run a Stenographer to voice like 100% faster than what you could achieve just by running text-to-speech. But also at that point you could just speak, I guess.
- toomanyreps 1y agoIts really fun once you get into it if you have the time, are somewhat linguistically inclined, and like messing with emacs configs/keyboard layers. Its not necessary for programming, but my reasoning was that I was going to be spending 8+ hours a day on the computer for the foreseeable future so it was probably worth putting the time in learning given I was already interested. Its much less physical effort to type, but does require more mental effort at first.
- toomanyreps 1y agoAnother interesting demo is someone using plover to hit 100WPM with a controller: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3muXdSqD2M https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3muXdSqD2M
- _def 1y ago> We and our 953 partners process your personal data, ... Yeah, "partners"... I'd rather not let you profile my typing, thank you very much.
- absoluteunit1 1y agoYeah, I saw this and didn’t like this either tbh lol Prefer monkeytype or typequicker
- jwpapi 1y agoI think one of the smartest decisions of my career was that I learned NEO when I was 16, which is like DVORAK, but with german letters. It also has a lot of hotkeys for important coding characters like ({*\/ on the home row. I reached 130wpm in german once and I can’t fathom how much better it made my life. Coding is not awkward at all. This along with the thinkpad nipple makes a really smooth life at the computer. Maybe sometimes even a bit too much. I totally can confirm that trying to go faster is not helping. I remember that even during Fortnite grind sessions, where you did edit parcours. Your best bet to go faster is to go perfect. You’ll almost not notice how you get faster. It is actually the same for the piano or for tennis a lot of coordination is best learnt by not making mistakes.
- AnnaPali 1y agoI find it rare to be able to think of things worth typing faster than 10-15 "wpm" equivalent of code. And typically much less, perhaps a few loc per day.
- TZubiri 1y agoInteresting, I can already type at 110wpm with 100% accuracy (after some warm up, getting used to the system, confessedly) I would warn against overoptimizing for rote copying though. It's like making benchmarks and optimizing a language for a Hello World or echo test program. I found an option that starts prompting whole books, which might be a fun way to read a book or at least add some additional cognitive load. I originally though the article would be about literally writing. Waking up and writing 5 minutes before going on the day? Writing and downloading your brain into paper instead of scrolling to cleanse your brain? Sounds amazing!
- Exuma 1y agomy record is 160 and it makes me mad that ~145-153 is my "wall". no matter how much i relax my hands and do technique I cannot move beyond it. if i google advice/videos, its all people trying to get above 110 or so. I'm with tumbleweeds ... man it would be sweet to type 200 though.
- rudimentary_phy 1y agoI learned to type playing the MMO Everquest. You used to have to type out the dialog for quests. I started playing that game in grade 3 and have been a fast typer ever since (I used to be about 140 wpm, but as I've aged, it has dropped to around 100-120, depending on how often I type). I knew to place my two fingers on the f and j keys when I started, so I sort-of have proper typing skills (things like g, h, t, and y are usually tapped by whichever finger is closest, but otherwise I type correctly). One of my friends in school also played that game, and he has the same typing skills (and that exact bad habit). I did not know him when I first started playing. I find that to be a mighty coincidence, so I expected to encounter more people that learned that way, and I'm a little disappointed I haven't seen anyone else who learned that way yet.
- rs186 1y ago> It's like meditation but actually useful. I guess playing Hanon and scales also counts as meditation (and are useful). After all, they are both called keyboard.
- system2 1y agoI have a Logitech K860 split keyboard, and I still haven't adjusted my fingers yet. I have also been trying to finish the dactyl manuform in my garage for the last two weeks, and I hope it will further improve my finger placements. Chaotic typing, I reach 100wpm, but I make mistakes which makes me feel uncomfortable...
- jw1224 1y agoI thoroughly enjoyed reading this. I peaked at 137wpm[0] and I’m not ashamed to say I love typing long sentences. I type fast enough that my thoughts normally can’t keep up with my fingers, but when I plan a sentence out in my head, the satisfaction I get from watching my inner monologue transmogrify into words onscreen is palpable. It’s a rush. And I totally get it. Great article! [0] https://data.typeracer.com/pit/profile?user=mavis_b https://data.typeracer.com/pit/profile?user=mavis_b
- koolba 1y agoI’d be curious how many of the people on this thread are the fastest typists they know. There’s special pain involved in watching someone type slowly. Even worse when there’s repeated mistakes.
- absoluteunit1 1y ago> There’s special pain involved in watching someone type slowly. Even worse when there’s repeated mistakes. Oh yeah - it’s rough. I’ve gone fully down the rabbit hole lol. Typed on various sites, then built my own (typequicker.com if you want to give it a shot), then discovered vim, then QMK, then built my own keyboard and completely modded, etc, etc. Got really comfortable navigating with shortcuts, etc Having to screen share and someone who is sharing then struggles for a while looking for the pipe character when they’re typing out a shell command I told them…it’s rough. I feel folks though - typing correctly and typing fast is never taught. There are no standardized systems in place that emphasize this. (Which is another reason I built the app lol )
- BobbyTables2 1y agoI can do 90-110 WPM on typing games with English sentences (not random letters). But I can’t actually “think” that fast while coding. Sure a quick edit or command line is hammered out instantly. But I can’t sustain writing a whole function start to finish that way. Probably more useful for debugging and FPS games instead.
- ryandrake 1y agoWow, Today I Learned that every commenter on HN types over 100 wpm (which is probably around 2-3 standard deviations faster than the mean). Here I thought I was fast at 70. I picked up a bad early habit of not using my right ring and pinky fingers, so I unfortunately only use 8 fingers. My typing is still faster than my thinking, though so I've never felt the need to race any faster.
- adornKey 1y agoMaybe some people confused wpm and characters per minute... For writing software having 100% accuracy with numbers and special characters is more important than speed. I don't think 100 wpm is real for coding.
- GabrielBen 1y agoThis is why I built wpm.silver.dev. Theres no tolerance for typos on code and way more special characters than MonkeyType. 120 on monkeytype can be 50 on wpm
- adornKey 1y agoNice. Writing code is very different. People mostly seem to train English word-lists to increase wpm. But for code you constantly have to deal with new words, prefixes and special characters. Awkwardly placed special characters on the keyboard can ruin the flow. Dvorak, Colemak don't have any improvements over Qwerty - so they're most likely pretty useless. Layouts with nicely placed special characters are all very non-standard. Building a custom keyboard nowadays is quite easy, but it takes some courage to train something that is seriously less standard than Dvorak ever was.
- ohthatsnotright 1y agoI think the problem with this approach is that when I type, I don't type formatting because prettier can do that for me.
- Izkata 1y ago
- Aziell 1y agoI'm not a fast typist either, but when I saw the author mention that daily typing practice helped with focus, I figured I'd try it. I started doing five minutes a day, kind of like clearing my head before work. Surprisingly, it actually helps.
- imetatroll 1y agoI can type at the incredible level of 70wpm.
- vibercoder97 1y agoHonestly, I’ve tried using keybr a few times, but not a fan - feels silly typing words that don’t exist. I’ve found typingclub helped me a lot when I was starting and then monkeytype and now using typequicker - their practice mode has the detailed stats showing your weak points. I made good progress on it after plateauing on monkeytype
- absoluteunit1 1y ago> It's like meditation but actually useful. Exactly this. I share this sentiment. Great post - I actually wrote about this same thing recently: https://www.typequicker.com/blog/learn-touch-typing https://www.typequicker.com/blog/learn-touch-typing
- humility 1y agoGreat post OP. I myself took my type from ~65 wpm to 124 average wpm[1] in about 6 months as opposed to 1 year by OP by moving to zsa moonlander. If anyone wants I can share the journey in a post. But can definitely recommend improving your typing speed for all the reasons already outlined! [1] https://monkeytype.com/profile/navxio https://monkeytype.com/profile/navxio
- underlines 1y agoOur family had a computer since 1990 when I was 4yo. As a kid in school we had typing lessons on a typewriter in 2001 (despite having iMacs in the classroom). I specifically tried to type as fast as possible in order to leave typing class early. It helped my brain to get up to 130 WPM as a kid. I now type at around 100 WPM.
- pona-a 1y agoI've used computers since early childhood, but I never learned the proper technique. One day, I simply noticed I couldn't type a non-trivial text without significant pain. When I started learning Colemak-DH, my QWERTY WPM was about 45. QWERTY was never a well-designed layout, but I wonder how much of it came down to actually relearning how to type with the right fingers. Within a couple months, my Colemak was 95 WPM, while my QWERTY is now <15 WPM.
- rcxdude 1y agoAlmost certainly the latter. IMO most people would benefit from practicing/learning QWERTY better than switching to an alternate layout (it's really not all that bad as it's made out), unless they have specific ergonomic issues, or they've got some really bad habits that starting on an alternate layout helps them unlearn.
- BaudouinVH 1y agoThank you OP - I've discovered keybr.com :)
- tonyhart7 1y agoI only got 40 wpm lmao better to hit this site everyday
- MollyRealized 1y agoAlthough I'm not a programmer, I type 126 wpm as a legal admin. At the beginning, it was an asset. I find though that it enables my fingers to keep up with my mind - what the author writes about - but that this can be a real flaw in the business world. Writing four nuanced paragraphs because it takes you a few seconds is much less desirable than short notes.
- kubanczyk 1y agoWelp, sometimes you write a long letter, when you don't have time to write a short one.
- kendalf89 1y agoI've never been able to type faster than 35 wpm and I have no idea why. I was taking the same typing lessons as the other kids in the 90s and have been writing code since high school. I can even solve a rubix cube in under 30 seconds. Feels bad man.
- b0a04gl 1y ago[dead]
- capitanazo77 1y agoMm you need vim in your life man. It connects words and movement directly to your brain
- b0a04gl 1y ago[dead]