Show HN: I automated half of my typing • Hacker News Board

Re: Show HN: I automated half of my typing

#161

Post by Vicinity9635 » Thu, Aug 31, 2023, 2:45 AM UTC

Exuma wrote: post #98

NateEag wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

More or less, yeah. There are different stenography systems, each with their own shortcuts and abbreviations, but at core they're all about producing large volumes of text with minimal physical effort at very high speeds. Those interested should check out http://www.openstenoproject.org/ . A good mechanical keyboard (e.g. the ErgoDox EZ) and Plover mean the only thing standing between you and >200 WPM typing is the t…

I hit this invisible wall at about 165 WPM that I can't just get beyond, and it kills me. I wonder how fast I could get with stenography... I see dem 400 WPM videos and they look awesome.

One thing I would check out is short key travel distance.

I love my Bloody B975, but I know I type faster on both my Apple keyboard and especially the Magic Keyboard Folio just because of the super short travel. I can hit 80-90sh on the gaming keyboard, but I'm probably at least tickling 120 the iPad.

Re: Show HN: I automated half of my typing

#162

Post by planbattack » Thu, Aug 31, 2023, 2:46 AM UTC

xormapmap wrote: post #157

While this is a cool idea, is typing speed really the bottleneck for anyone who uses a keyboard for a living?

As a translator who billed approximately 750,000 words last year, yes. Speech to text software is another good tool for circumventing this bottleneck that many translators use.

Re: Show HN: I automated half of my typing

#163

Post by gamegoblin » Thu, Aug 31, 2023, 2:46 AM UTC

monooso wrote: post #159

The author is clearly using this for prose (as opposed to code), and I wonder how it compares to dictation in terms of speed. I've never really tried using text to speech for writing blog posts and the like, but I know David Sparks (MacSparky) swears by it; and he produces a lot more written content than I do.

The real value of dictation, IMO, is it's so much easier to ramble verbally than via text, so you can just bang out a draft without getting blocked on picking the exact correct words.

Re: Show HN: I automated half of my typing

#164

Post by yieldcrv » Thu, Aug 31, 2023, 2:46 AM UTC

My friend does this on dating apps, he aliased a bunch of typos in his iphone with paragraphs of progressive sounding text that many women want to hear, interlaced with lots of flirty emojis

branches of conversation too, one step above botting

works for what he’s looking for

Re: Show HN: I automated half of my typing

#165

Post by TehShrike » Thu, Aug 31, 2023, 2:47 AM UTC

xormapmap wrote: post #157

While this is a cool idea, is typing speed really the bottleneck for anyone who uses a keyboard for a living?

if you're using a keyboard, slow typing speed is overhead on getting your job done.

Re: Show HN: I automated half of my typing

#166

Post by TehShrike » Thu, Aug 31, 2023, 2:48 AM UTC

twobitshifter wrote: post #96

tikkun wrote: post #21

Idea for extending this: keylogger (yeah, that's a downside...) that'll watch what you type, learn common phrases, identify common ones, then come up with shortcuts, then each time you type the full phrase it gently reminds you of the shortcut. Then anyone can install it, no friction, and over time it'll slowly start making you gently more productive.

I wanted to build a keyboard with a keylogger built-in that autocompletes for you with the press of a special key. My idea was to keep the data in a secure vault on device, so that it could not become a security risk.

The Warp CLI kiiiind of does this, but only in the context of interacting with the shell.

Re: Show HN: I automated half of my typing

#167

Post by the_af » Thu, Aug 31, 2023, 2:51 AM UTC

Exuma wrote: post #145

SOLAR_FIELDS wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am a bit jealous (maybe?) that typing speed is a factor for you. I am the kind of person that will think for minutes at a time before writing a single line of code

It's definitely situation dependent. When writing a lot of frontend code (vue, typescript, css, tailwind, html) I know what I'm typing several mental steps before I actually type it, so speed gains there are most pronounced. Sitting somewhere in the middle are dynamic languages where there might be certain implementations (say... some random api integration) where it's simply a lot of code I've typed thousands of tim…

> I never understood the argument "I spend more time thinking than coding". You are still going to write the same amount of code whether you're thinking or not.

The argument is that time spent typing is insignificant compared to time spent thinking, so optimizing for WPM seems like a less relevant endeavor.

So if you spend (say) 1 day thinking about the problem and 1 hour typing, it matters little if you can speed up your typing by 50% or whatever: you still spend the bulk of your day thinking, and optimizing typing speed is not going to change your deadlines.

It sometimes seems people fetishize typing speed because that's easier to get better at (and measure), while there are no shortcuts for thinking "better".

Re: Show HN: I automated half of my typing

#168

Post by TehShrike » Thu, Aug 31, 2023, 2:51 AM UTC

wizofaus wrote: post #70

sodapopcan wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If that's something you do then obviously this isn't for you. I personally haven't typed on someone else's computer in at least 13 years. Since whenever I got my first laptop.

You've never had to help someone do something on their own computer that required typing something in?

I use Colemak keyboard layout with blank keyboard keys. If I'm helping someone else on their own computer, I hunt and peck on their keyboard with the handy letters printed on the keys.

Re: Show HN: I automated half of my typing

#169

Post by planbattack » Thu, Aug 31, 2023, 2:52 AM UTC

porridgeraisin wrote: post #152

I prefer an autocomplete mobile like experience for most typing. I use autohotkey to have global autocomplete for English, anywhere in any app i type it gives me options in a little tabbable box immediately. I disable it for vscode usually except when I'm typing markdown I manually enable it. I love it. Beyond this I use ahk's hotstrings feature to have "snippets". I separate them by topic and activate them as and wh…

>I use autohotkey to have global autocomplete for English, anywhere in any app i type it gives me options in a little tabbable box immediately.

Is the script you use publicly available somewhere?

Re: Show HN: I automated half of my typing

#170

Post by Exuma » Thu, Aug 31, 2023, 3:04 AM UTC

the_af wrote: post #167

Exuma wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's definitely situation dependent. When writing a lot of frontend code (vue, typescript, css, tailwind, html) I know what I'm typing several mental steps before I actually type it, so speed gains there are most pronounced. Sitting somewhere in the middle are dynamic languages where there might be certain implementations (say... some random api integration) where it's simply a lot of code I've typed thousands of tim…

> I never understood the argument "I spend more time thinking than coding". You are still going to write the same amount of code whether you're thinking or not. The argument is that time spent typing is insignificant compared to time spent thinking, so optimizing for WPM seems like a less relevant endeavor. So if you spend (say) 1 day thinking about the problem and 1 hour typing, it matters little if you can speed up…

I spend over 10+ hours a day typing at the computer, across slack, writing specs, writing code, etc. So really I suppose in my mind I don't live in a vaccuum.

I don't fetishize it at all, in my mind it is a simple objective fact that I actually experience myself. Fast typing is up there with Vim as one of the literal most productive things I have ever done, with the 3rd being memorizing hundreds if not thousands of OS/app hotkeys.