Touch-typing is more about freeing your mind from the keyboard than been fast. I see my students (who do not touch type at all) struggling with their problem _a

Touch-typing is more about freeing your mind from the keyboard than been fast. I see my students (who do not touch type at all) struggling with their problem _and_ using a lot of their concentration / "cognitive power" to search for the right letter on the keyboard. In addition, the life of a programmer is much more than programming. You have to type documentation, you have to type e-mails, etc. I agree that typing speed is not a key for programming "interesting stuffs", but for everything else, touch-typing is an important skill.