4 ms·

So in other words: it is not the speed, it is the latency. I can agree with that. As an aside...I always sucked at the speed part. I have always been a 2, mayb

So in other words: it is not the speed, it is the latency. I can agree with that. As an aside...I always sucked at the speed part. I have always been a 2, maybe 3 finger typer, throwing in a pinky for CTRL and a thumb for the space bar. While my vimming is pretty fast, typing long segments is embarrassingly slow. Have any of you overcome this after > 10 years of bad habits? How did you do it?

gamegoblin 14y ago
I was an 80WPM 3 finger typed after typing a ton playing runescape as a kid. After being forced to take two years of formal typing class, I became a 120WPM standard typist. I only had 2 or 3 years of bad habits to break, though.
goldfeld 14y ago
You do realize there are actually courses in a technique called touch typing? Fortunately, it won't clash with your bad habits. I can hunt and peck on mobile keyboards yet my brain uses a whole different part of my memory to keep my touch typing sharp and untainted from the lazy use of iOS' autocomplete, never confusing the two.
- saosebastiao 14y ago
  I don't have the problem with needing to watch my hands press the keys. It is more that my hands hover needlessly high above the keyboard because the fingers need to move more.
  - zargon 14y ago
    Typing with 3 fingers is not touch typing, even if you don't look at the keys. Lean to touch type.
bluedino 14y ago
Get a rhythm going, so you type at a steady pace (slow at first, of course). Say each letter out loud. H-A-C-K-E-R space N-E-W-S period Don't look at the keyboard, either. Just practice this for a little bit every day (re-type a blog post or two, including the source code) and you'll get the hang of it.
pekk 14y ago
Is it possible to force yourself to start from home row and not look at your fingers (e.g. put a blanket over)?
martinced 14y ago
"Have any of you overcome this after > 10 years of bad habits? How did you do it?" I had a secretary handing my arse to me... So after ten years of bad habits I decided to learn the proper way. She showed me the basics (which are really super trivial: it's so easy that a five minutes YouTube video about how to touch-type should get you started) and then... Practice. Practice. And practice. And I did buy a split keyboard (warning, there are two schools concerning where the '6' is located and there are even very rare split keyboard who very intelligently did put the '6' on both the left and the right part of the keyboard, so that everyone's happy : ) Buying a split keyboard kinda helps. After three months I was back at the speed I was before. Then I started typing faster. It's not so much about the speed: it's about the economy of hand and fingers movement too. I'm sure it's better from an RSI standpoint. You need to force yourself and keep your eyes on the goal: become faster than before. Don't mind the obstacles: the very beginning is going to be the most painful. Buy a real keyboard too: my keyboard / chair / monitor are my physical tools which I use all the time. I spent $$$ on them. Now the issue is that a good split keyboard is very expensive. ANSI Cherry MX 5000 go for about $500, split IBM Model M15 will settle you a good $1000 to $1500, etc. Junk like the split MS ergo 4000 have a nice shape but are, sadly, using super shitty rubber dome keyboard. If you spend your life typing on a laptop then you're destroying your fingers' joints with the ultra-low profile scissor switches. I'm using a HHKB Pro 2 on my workstation and I hook it to my laptop. Topre switches. Amazing stuff for about $300. Now that I know how to touch-type I don't really care about my keyboard being split or not.
- saosebastiao 14y ago
  I'll have to read up on split keyboards a little more. It might be the push I need to stop for good. Practice seems to be the answer, but it is just too hard to remember when I'm typing a large amount.

gamegoblin 14y ago

I was an 80WPM 3 finger typed after typing a ton playing runescape as a kid. After being forced to take two years of formal typing class, I became a 120WPM standard typist. I only had 2 or 3 years of bad habits to break, though.

goldfeld 14y ago

You do realize there are actually courses in a technique called touch typing? Fortunately, it won't clash with your bad habits. I can hunt and peck on mobile keyboards yet my brain uses a whole different part of my memory to keep my touch typing sharp and untainted from the lazy use of iOS' autocomplete, never confusing the two.

saosebastiao 14y ago
I don't have the problem with needing to watch my hands press the keys. It is more that my hands hover needlessly high above the keyboard because the fingers need to move more.
- zargon 14y ago
  Typing with 3 fingers is not touch typing, even if you don't look at the keys. Lean to touch type.

bluedino 14y ago

Get a rhythm going, so you type at a steady pace (slow at first, of course). Say each letter out loud. H-A-C-K-E-R space N-E-W-S period Don't look at the keyboard, either. Just practice this for a little bit every day (re-type a blog post or two, including the source code) and you'll get the hang of it.

pekk 14y ago

Is it possible to force yourself to start from home row and not look at your fingers (e.g. put a blanket over)?

martinced 14y ago

"Have any of you overcome this after > 10 years of bad habits? How did you do it?" I had a secretary handing my arse to me... So after ten years of bad habits I decided to learn the proper way. She showed me the basics (which are really super trivial: it's so easy that a five minutes YouTube video about how to touch-type should get you started) and then... Practice. Practice. And practice. And I did buy a split keyboard (warning, there are two schools concerning where the '6' is located and there are even very rare split keyboard who very intelligently did put the '6' on both the left and the right part of the keyboard, so that everyone's happy : ) Buying a split keyboard kinda helps. After three months I was back at the speed I was before. Then I started typing faster. It's not so much about the speed: it's about the economy of hand and fingers movement too. I'm sure it's better from an RSI standpoint. You need to force yourself and keep your eyes on the goal: become faster than before. Don't mind the obstacles: the very beginning is going to be the most painful. Buy a real keyboard too: my keyboard / chair / monitor are my physical tools which I use all the time. I spent $$$ on them. Now the issue is that a good split keyboard is very expensive. ANSI Cherry MX 5000 go for about $500, split IBM Model M15 will settle you a good $1000 to $1500, etc. Junk like the split MS ergo 4000 have a nice shape but are, sadly, using super shitty rubber dome keyboard. If you spend your life typing on a laptop then you're destroying your fingers' joints with the ultra-low profile scissor switches. I'm using a HHKB Pro 2 on my workstation and I hook it to my laptop. Topre switches. Amazing stuff for about $300. Now that I know how to touch-type I don't really care about my keyboard being split or not.

saosebastiao 14y ago
I'll have to read up on split keyboards a little more. It might be the push I need to stop for good. Practice seems to be the answer, but it is just too hard to remember when I'm typing a large amount.