Ask HN: Best way to increase typing speed? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: Best way to increase typing speed?

#61

Post by laylomo2 » Tue, Mar 17, 2020, 10:02 PM UTC

im3w1l wrote: post #56

laylomo2 wrote: post #52

For the record I regularly hit speeds of >140wpm on 10fastfingers https://10fastfingers.com/user/1725123/ and typeracer https://data.typeracer.com/pit/profile?user=richivinsky I switched to Dvorak about 15 years ago, and while I’m not going to advocate switching, I would like to provide one point of view. I switched in high school for all the reasons people switch the Dvorak. Before switching, my QWERTY avg was aroun…

In what way(s) do they deviate from proper form?

Here's a jaw-dropping video of Hunter Shaffer typing >200wpm for 60 seconds despite not using "proper" technique: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GrOhwPryAs

Re: Ask HN: Best way to increase typing speed?

#62

Post by thedance » Tue, Mar 17, 2020, 10:05 PM UTC

laylomo2 wrote: post #60

im3w1l wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In what way(s) do they deviate from proper form?

It’s hard to say really, each person does things differently. Some people consider their pinkies too weak and only use the stronger three fingers. I saw one video of a guy with a bone problem who was actually able use his thumbs to hit speeds in excess of 190. Sometimes people will type properly but shift the home position depending on the word. I’ve even seen some people use 5 fingers on their left hand and one fing…

Trying to use your smallest finger to get all of the programming-relevant punctuation isn't going to make you happy as a programmer. I tend to just shift my hand over and alternate my ring and pinky fingers for the -=[]\;'./ keys.

Re: Ask HN: Best way to increase typing speed?

#63

Post by laylomo2 » Tue, Mar 17, 2020, 10:15 PM UTC

thedance wrote: post #62

laylomo2 wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s hard to say really, each person does things differently. Some people consider their pinkies too weak and only use the stronger three fingers. I saw one video of a guy with a bone problem who was actually able use his thumbs to hit speeds in excess of 190. Sometimes people will type properly but shift the home position depending on the word. I’ve even seen some people use 5 fingers on their left hand and one fing…

Trying to use your smallest finger to get all of the programming-relevant punctuation isn't going to make you happy as a programmer. I tend to just shift my hand over and alternate my ring and pinky fingers for the -=[]\;'./ keys.

That's a good point. I know I definitely do that for the -= keys... but then again, my proper form breaks down for the top row of the keyboard. That's my biggest weakness by far. For ,./;'[]\ I would argue that you should be able to use the proper finger just fine.

Also, fun fact, Dvorak has one major flaw if you are a CLI addict like I am. The command "ls -l" is typed entirely with the right pinky finger. If you want to know what it feels like on a qwerty keyboard, then simulate it by typing "p; 'p"

I struggled with this combination a lot, but eventually I drilled it into my fingers, and now I can type it totally naturally.

Re: Ask HN: Best way to increase typing speed?

#64

Post by appleiigs » Wed, Mar 18, 2020, 12:52 AM UTC

dsego wrote: post #45

flipactual wrote: post #24

Switch to an ortholinear keyboard like [the Preonic from OLKB][1] These designs reduce motion (speed) and are uniformly laid out (accuracy) which is crucial because typing faster alone is not enough [1]: https://drop.com/buy/preonic-mechanical-keyboard

Ortholinear isn't necessarily better. I have a Plank collecting dust in my drawer. These designs are not anatomically better shaped than the standard staggered keyboard.

I have a Planck EZ. Thought it would make me faster since num pads are linear and I'm super fast on those. However, it's the switching between staggered and linear really dragged me down.

Re: Ask HN: Best way to increase typing speed?

#65

Post by MathsIsMusical » Wed, Mar 18, 2020, 12:56 AM UTC

throwaway12757 wrote: post #3

I got a lot better and faster at typing when I switched to a das keyboard without key labels. It forced me to learn and not rely on looking down at the keys. 10/10 would recommend.. also it stops noobs from using your box.

The budget option would be to cover all of your keycaps with masking tape. Fun for an afternoon.

Re: Ask HN: Best way to increase typing speed?

#66

Post by mmxmb » Wed, Mar 18, 2020, 1:35 AM UTC

I used Typing club's Typing Jungle[1] for several months every morning for 15-30 minutes to go from slow hunt and peck to touch-typing at 60-70 WPM. They have almost 700 lessons of increasing difficulty.

Keep in mind that those lessons are for typing normal texts, not code (not enough lessons incorporating special symbols). It worked well for me since I don't care about speed that much when typing code. Being able to type prose much faster is more important to me.

I have typing.io[2] bookmarked for practicing typing code. I never really got into it since I feel like I get enough practice when writing my own code.

[1] https://www.typingclub.com

[2] https://typing.io

Re: Ask HN: Best way to increase typing speed?

#67

Post by soared » Wed, Mar 18, 2020, 1:37 AM UTC

A lot of high effort responses here (practice, training, new keyboards, etc).

Everyone I know learned to type very fast by pc gaming MMOs. WoW or other games force you to ‘practice’ a few hours a day, get extremely in tune with your keyboard, type the same few sentences thousands of times, and type short sentences extremely quickly. Short term a wow addiction is bad for your life, but you do gain exceptional keyboard skills.

Re: Ask HN: Best way to increase typing speed?

#68

Post by episteme » Wed, Mar 18, 2020, 1:43 AM UTC

soared wrote: post #67

A lot of high effort responses here (practice, training, new keyboards, etc). Everyone I know learned to type very fast by pc gaming MMOs. WoW or other games force you to ‘practice’ a few hours a day, get extremely in tune with your keyboard, type the same few sentences thousands of times, and type short sentences extremely quickly. Short term a wow addiction is bad for your life, but you do gain exceptional keyboard…

It's not as much of a forcing factor as it used to be, a lot of the MMOs now have systems that mean you barely have to talk at all. I think you would probably have to join a guild which has active chatter on Discord to find the communication from a few years ago.

Re: Ask HN: Best way to increase typing speed?

#69

Post by mattrp » Wed, Mar 18, 2020, 2:02 AM UTC

mmxmb wrote: post #66

I used Typing club's Typing Jungle[1] for several months every morning for 15-30 minutes to go from slow hunt and peck to touch-typing at 60-70 WPM. They have almost 700 lessons of increasing difficulty. Keep in mind that those lessons are for typing normal texts, not code (not enough lessons incorporating special symbols). It worked well for me since I don't care about speed that much when typing code. Being able to…

Thumbs up for typing club. I put my kids on it. I took a typing course when I was 15 and TC most closely resembles that instruction.

Re: Ask HN: Best way to increase typing speed?

#70

Post by tuxracer » Wed, Mar 18, 2020, 2:41 AM UTC

Play a game where typing is required to communicate. Never took any formal typing courses just started playing a lot of EverQuest back in the day. There wasn't voice chat at the time and the gameplay requires a lot of quick communication with your team. Can easily touch type 100+ wpm (according to typeracer.com) now. It's very motivating to be able to type well when you must to communicate and you have something you really really want to communicate via typing (such as communicating with your team via typing in a fast pace game)