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Ask HN: Why is touch typing reducing my speed

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Re: Ask HN: Why is touch typing reducing my speed

#11
Practice and time. I haven't learned to touch type using some course or tutorial, and I there may be some out there that will get you up to speed even faster than learning it on your own.

I remember as a child not looking at the keyboard and thinking "I want to type the letter x", then using a finger and checking on the screen if I hit the right key.

Crude, finger-greased approach. As I said, there may be some guides on how to do it properly that, with practice and time, will lead to better results faster.

Re: Ask HN: Why is touch typing reducing my speed

#12
post #8

Learning to touch type takes time and practice. You weren't birthed being able to type 60-70 wpm with unorthodox form. It'll take time to build up proper form; you'll probably start 30ish wpm, and if you spend time with proper form, you'll get back up to your old speed, and probably a little bit more. The second time you learn something, you usually do better. I relearned touch typing in a high school keyboarding cla…

+1 on not looking at the keyboard. It was hard for me so I went a bit further and learned to touch type Dvorak instead. I practiced on https://learn.dvorak.nl for a few months, and tried using Dvorak for low stakes/low speed typing. After 6 months I went to using Dvorak full time. My typing speed is actually the same/slightly better, but it's so much better for writing/coding as I don't interrupt my train of thought by looking at the keyboard.

Re: Ask HN: Why is touch typing reducing my speed

#13

Practice and time. I haven't learned to touch type using some course or tutorial, and I there may be some out there that will get you up to speed even faster than learning it on your own. I remember as a child not looking at the keyboard and thinking "I want to type the letter x", then using a finger and checking on the screen if I hit the right key. Crude, finger-greased approach. As I said, there may be some guides…

Agreed.

I took a typing class in high school back in the 90s and felt so inferior to my peers who could do 75WPM... I never got it right back then. It wasn't until I just completely forgot about all the rules and started writing regularly on keyboards that I improved. To this day I still mis-spell things and look at my fingers, but I type just as well as anyone else in IT, and probably get paid better than most in stenography jobs...

And then spell check was invented, which fixed a lot of my problems (although it's been wonky a lot lately for reasons unknown)

Just goes to show that the emphasis on learning a skill that may be valued at one point in time probably won't ultimately be what you need to develop fully in the long run.

I still look at my fingers when I play guitar as well, and I have pretty fat fingers. A guy at a guitar shop told me I'd never be able to play guitar as a pro long ago when I was just a kid, but that made me work harder at it. Many people who have made hit songs look at their fingers too, even Prince... You can tell if you watch enough YouTube live performances.

Rules on how to improve are usually just guide lines, not laws... Practice, dedication, necessity, native talent, and time spent on developing a skill are what really drive achievement. Developing a sense on what works best for your particular talents and being able to pivot to new things until you find your "success niche", is a big key to finding life-long success in my opinion.

Re: Ask HN: Why is touch typing reducing my speed

#14

Practice and time. I haven't learned to touch type using some course or tutorial, and I there may be some out there that will get you up to speed even faster than learning it on your own. I remember as a child not looking at the keyboard and thinking "I want to type the letter x", then using a finger and checking on the screen if I hit the right key. Crude, finger-greased approach. As I said, there may be some guides…

Agreed. I took a typing class in high school back in the 90s and felt so inferior to my peers who could do 75WPM... I never got it right back then. It wasn't until I just completely forgot about all the rules and started writing regularly on keyboards that I improved. To this day I still mis-spell things and look at my fingers, but I type just as well as anyone else in IT, and probably get paid better than most in st…

All the best to you, winternett.
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