Live data from Hacker News

Keyboard lets people type so fast it’s banned from typing competitions

vice.com

101–110 of 477 posts

Re: Keyboard lets people type so fast it’s banned from typing competitions

#101
post #2

"he did win another typing competition using the CharaChorder to hit 267 WPM with 76% accuracy." 76% accuracy doesn't sound so great to me, no matter how fast I can type on it.

I've been active in my typing practice since I was about 4, and once I'm warmed up I can usually hit high 120s with 100% accuracy on unseen MonkeyType using a qwerty keyboard with red Cherry switches. If I ignore accuracy and go for 'raw' speed, I am able to achieve significantly faster WPM, typically between the range of 140s-180s. The issue I run into with programs like these is that I have to read/match the expected words. Even if I can see the words ahead of time and have a moment to try and memorize, I just go so slow trying to get the correct words. To contrast this, when I write for fun, and know what I want to say ahead of time, I'm fairly certain I'm able to burst into the low 200s (don't have a solid way to test to be sure unfortunately). Depending on the complexity of the error, Grammarly usually spits out correct solutions when I'm around that 75% error rate. The vast majority of the time I'm able to auto-correct everything with a single click. The only exception is when my hands drift and I end up typing something like 'gppnst' instead of 'foobar'. What I mean to get at is that it's somewhat dependent on the types of errors that are made. If it's easily auto-correctable errors at 75%, awesome, the person is hitting an incredible WPM, if instead it needs to be corrected by human thought, then I would completely agree with you.

The real benefit to this speed/accuracy is that when writing long-form text, rather than say programming, the speed of typing can either match or exceed the thought process. There is a huge amount of utility in this approach and the keyboard becomes a true extension of the mind. I'm still waiting to find a good real-time auto-correct that doesn't screw with my flow at high WPM, I'd pay pretty good money to have something that just works out of the box.

On a practical note, I've considered trying to hit the numbers that the author claims, but I'm already so limited by my own train of thought. With the additional finger/wrist strain (And yes, there is _significant_ strain when these levels are approached for any length of time) I just don't see the costs making sense when everything can be fixed in just a few clicks after typing a great many paragraphs of text.

Re: Keyboard lets people type so fast it’s banned from typing competitions

#102
post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No it’s not, there’s another video explaining, the keys are “2d joysticks” type switches, so typing doesn’t involve removing the fingers at all. I would think it takes a lot of time to get used, but seems like a smart approach for speed.

https://youtube.com/shorts/ZCtn5ROOdmY?feature=share

The performance in that video is nothing like the performance in the 500 WPM video. Accuracy is well under 100%, and he seems to be actually inputting random words - not just macroing a pre-defined phrase.

Re: Keyboard lets people type so fast it’s banned from typing competitions

#103
post #95

>You may soon see that coworker with the weird monolith style trackball mouse rocking this strange peripheral and claiming he’s upped his efficiency in ways you can’t possibly imagine. Since coding is 20% sitting in meetings, 50% reading code, 10% drawing on whiteboards or sticky notes, 15% drinking coffee, 4.5% fighting impostor syndrome and 0.5% actual typing, I think I am quite safe with my good 'ol QWERTY.

You type a lot more than 0.5% of the time.

I'm typing even less these days with tools like copilot.

Re: Keyboard lets people type so fast it’s banned from typing competitions

#105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

QWERTY has a steep learning curve as well, it’s just that it’s so ubiquitous that most people don’t question or remember the work that was put into.

Yeah, I switched to Dvorak a few years back, it was the worst experience in the world. Granted I had to fight against my qwerty reflexes

When I learnt to touch type I switched to Dvorak at the same time. I liked the idea of improved efficiency but whenever I had to use someone else's computer or they needed to use mine it was too much hassle. Once I'd relearned to touch type with Qwerty life was so much easier. Also hjkl with Vim using Dvorak was just too hard to get my brain around

Re: Keyboard lets people type so fast it’s banned from typing competitions

#106

typing speed is rarely the limiting factor on productivity. HN can be though. get back to work.

Agreed, I don't think editing text has ever been a bottleneck for developers at any point of time. The vast majority of time is spent on reading, thinking, discussing, explaining, and debugging code. This is also why I rue the time I wasted learning vi.

Re: Keyboard lets people type so fast it’s banned from typing competitions

#107
post #7

The "500 WPM" video is a little suspect. He types literally one memorized sentence and extrapolates a WPM from that one 10 word sentence. I'd like to see him actually type 500 meaningful words in under 60 seconds. Anyway, this is cool but basically just a modern stenography device. Steno has a learning curve problem that makes it so most people won't use it.

I can type the word "a" at 1000 WPM!

Re: Keyboard lets people type so fast it’s banned from typing competitions

#108
post #57
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interviewer: "I heard you were extremely quick at math" Me: "yes, as a matter of fact I am" Interviewer: "Whats 14x27" Me: "49" Interviewer: "that's not even close" me: "yeah, but it was fast" Shamelessly stolen, but yeah, 76% accuracy is only 3/4s of characters typed correctly; if that "works" you could probably just train yourself to not even type the lesser used parts of the alphabet ...

Back in the manual typewriter days, every typo subtracted 10 WPM from your score. (Source: my junior-high typing class.) It seems to me that 76% accuracy would put you into negative WPM by that reckoning.

I like TypeRacer's approach – your time includes the time it takes you to backspace to fix your mistakes and re-type it correctly.

Re: Keyboard lets people type so fast it’s banned from typing competitions

#109
post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

QWERTY has a steep learning curve as well, it’s just that it’s so ubiquitous that most people don’t question or remember the work that was put into.

To my shame I've never learned how to type. It does not really impede my coding abilities as it is fast enough to follow my thinking. But if I need to chat online my slowness drives me mad (I assume it does the same to the other party).

[deleted]

Re: Keyboard lets people type so fast it’s banned from typing competitions

#110
post #95

>You may soon see that coworker with the weird monolith style trackball mouse rocking this strange peripheral and claiming he’s upped his efficiency in ways you can’t possibly imagine. Since coding is 20% sitting in meetings, 50% reading code, 10% drawing on whiteboards or sticky notes, 15% drinking coffee, 4.5% fighting impostor syndrome and 0.5% actual typing, I think I am quite safe with my good 'ol QWERTY.

You type a lot more than 0.5% of the time.

Yes, but typing speed is still not too important.
Post reply on HN