Learn to touch-type properly. I'm not a shit hot typist or anything, but it does make hours on a keyboard more pleasant. And (hate me) I do judge other devs on it. If someone can't be bothered to invest a few tens of hours on such a key productivity enhancement then what does that say?
I think this is often undervalued. It's not necessarily the typing speed, but the far larger slowdown caused by distractions like error correction, using the mouse, getting irritated and taking a break etc. Meauring words per minute in typing static text doesn't really show that up.
Also, it's something that's hard to appreciate the value of until you experience just how big a different it can make.
Strong typing skills also form a good foundation for learning Vim and other editor/stystem wide shortcuts, which can make the whole experience of interfacing with the computer an order of magnitude more efficient and enjoyable.
Fewer distractions means more uninterrupted thinkning time and better code.
I am unimpressed with this site. It seems to use a large number of made up words (risittle, ...). The words it chooses can even be one letter off of a common word (itsell -> itself).
It literally says that it uses random words, and explains why, in the website description:
> Instead, Keybr.com generates random, but readable and pronounceable words using the phonetic rules of your native language. These words look almost natural, and often they really are. Typing sensible text is much easier than repeating random letters, and it helps you to remember frequent key combinations. The latest point is very important.
Since public schools closed, I've had my 3 kids (11, 8, and 8) practice typing 30 minutes every day. Easily one of my best parenting decisions ever. :)
Same. Learn to type ~100 words/minute, I was surprised by how much more productive it has made me. Using a touch type trainer for a minute or two can also be a little mental break from writing software for hours.
If you don't already have one get a good ergonomic keyboard. I recently switched to an ergodox ortholinear layout and it immediately exposed my bad typing habits. The split hand layout saves my neck and shoulders and my working posture has noticeably improved. Took about a month to get back to 80 wpm and don't feel like I've plateaued yet trying to get to 125 wpm.
I had a Judo coach who used to scream "Practice doesn't make perfect. Perfect practice makes perfect." In practice sessions focus on not making any mistakes & using only the correct fingers to strike keys. It can be hard to resist the temptation to start hammering as fast as you can in practice but slowing down once in a while can greatly improve muscle memory.
I use https://www.keybr.com/ to track stats, practice limited or different key sets, it also supports non qwerty layouts for stretching your comfort zone. For touch typing practice it displays a real-time keylogger map so you can auto-correct your finger positioning without looking at the keyboard, if you've got a fancy keyboard (Shout out Arts and Crafts HN) you can hook up the firmware to do the same.
There is a difference I think between typing speed when you are transcribing vs writing your own text.
I find that I get pretty slow speeds when doing typing tests, but most of the time it's because I need to stop every word to figure out what the heck it is wanting me to type.
When typing out my own stuff, I don't have that break because I already know what I want to say.
100 wpm when no-look-pecking, 60 wpm when no-look touch typing.
Feels weird man. xD
Also, I have a friend who used to be a court typist. Does zero coding. Borders on comically-computer-illiterate. Types like 170 wpm. So jealous. Such a gift, so wasted.
Just as a shameless plug for anyone reading the replies - I'm working on creating a touch typing course for developers here: https://typeright.herokuapp.com. Still lots of work to do (hence the lack of domain name) but I hope to finish it in the next month when I have time. https://typingclub.com is great if you just want to learn to touch-type in natural language but I found it and other courses didn't help my typing skills for coding that much so I'm building one myself.
What's the value add of touch typing? I tried it for a bit, but it seemed like a waste. I can consistently do ~90-100 WPM on https://www.livechat.com/typing-speed-test/#/ with very few mistakes just typing with 3 fingers on my left hand and 2 on my right. Feels like input speed is one of the least important parts of coding.
Sounds like you are touch-typing, you just don't use the home-row standard. Neither do I. There's plenty of other ways to do it, they're just not taught classroom-style so people like to discount them.
The benefit of touch-typing is being able to get your thoughts into the computer without interrupting said thoughts to figure out where stuff is on the keyboard. Keeps the flow going.
I was hoping your image would be a video of you showing that you're actually two coffee-crazed squirrels.
You must know that average touch typing speed is 40 wpm, professional is 75 wpm, therefore you have nothing to gain by optimizing further. Especially since bragging about doing it the hard way lets you seem like you'd be even faster if you tried.
For a start you don’t have to look at the keyboard so you can spot typos as they happen and take advantage intellisense etc. Although at 90 wpm you’re probably not looking at the keyboard either.
For me the main reason I value touch typing so highly is due to the reduction in cognitive load. I think things and they appear on the screen without any conscious thought. I honestly couldn’t tell you what fingers I’d just used to type the words.
Good technique helps prevent injury. Rheumatoid arthritis and carpal tunnel are no fun. Adding “it’s going to hurt” to the list of reasons not to sit down and knock out that feature really isn’t helpful to your productivity.
I ended up tracing my pain to lazy technique in my right hand. Sorted that out and I’ve been pain free for years. It was _no fun _ before I figured it out.
The biggest benefit in my view is not typing speed but keeping your eyes on what you're typing instead of on the keyboard. You catch more mistakes that way. If you're already keeping your eyes on the screen, you've got most of the value already.
A lot of people type without having to look buy without using the proper technique, essentially doing hunt and peck with two or three fingers but with good muscle memory. Proper touch typing is about using specific fingers to specific keys and remaining on the home row when not in use.
Yes, that was me! Two or three fingers per hand. I think a lot of us do like that. I learned the proper way like a year ago. I sill had to force myself to put my fingers on the home row. The problem is I use their laptops in weird places like on a couch or bed where proper touch typing is just not comfortable and it easier to type one handed.
Steve Yegge's blog[0] on the matter made me convinced to learn to touch type. Went from ~60wpm to ~90wpm over a few years of practicing every once in a while.
I've used Dvorak for the past few decades. As suggested by one of the other comments, it took about 2 weeks to learn well enough to get back to my normal speed (>80wpm).
It makes a massive difference in comfort. 5 minutes typing at full speed on QWERTY and my wrists start to hurt. (I really don't know how people do it.) On Dvorak, I can type all day at full speed with no pain at all. Surprisingly, the keyboard hardware itself doesn't seem to matter.
(Details: I mostly use a Mac, with caps lock mapped to control, NSRepeatCountBinding set to ^u, and -- obviously? -- I rarely touch the arrow keys.)
> 5 minutes typing at full speed on QWERTY and my wrists start to hurt. (I really don't know how people do it.)
Wrist-bending to maintain the home row, I suspect. I have a different, self-taught style that partially involves holding my hands above the keyboard and using muscles all along my arms to move my hands without bending my wrists much - never had any problems.
Moved to Colemak and learnt touch typing on it directly (to take advantage of the mental break). Really improved my "writing feeling", solved some nagging RSI issues and in general helped in "well-being". I don't type particularly fast, but I type way smoother, which is what feels good. I can't recommend Colemak enough, although I have never convinced anyone (in around 3 years).
Greetings to a fellow Colemak user. I've used Colemak for about 7~8 years now. It's really interesting to see home row keys polished to a shine, while others aren't.
I do always change one thing, and recommend it for others too, is to change caps-lock into a control.
For a long while I've had C-M-A mapped in caps lock, then I moved to using a Gergo (60% split ortho) programmed with QMK, so it's now mostly my own layout, specially for modifiers (see [here](https://mostlymaths.net/2020/01/new-keyboard-gergo.html/))
Yeah, it definitely did, re-learned to touch type in Colemak and also upgraded to ortholinear split keyboard. Yet it's takes quite some time after ~20 years of touch typing on Qwerty.
I use Dvorak exclusively and echo the other comment -- I'm not sure that it has made a dramatic difference in my speed, but it is much more comfortable! Your hands sit neatly on the home row, and do not have to reach much.
The only downside is that I use vim and after many years of Nethack am pretty good at hjkl movement, and I can't even take advantage! :( Definitely something to consider though if you want to switch and are a vim user.
I use QWERTY but on an ergodox. Massively improved my experience at my usual workstation and it’s still seamless to jump on a normal keyboard if I’m using my laptop or someone else’s machine.
