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

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

#131

Post by Sosh101 »

dmux wrote: post #118
usrbinbash wrote: post #89

>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.

I'm having difficulties finding the source right now, but I remember reading a story about a sysadmin that was berated for his typing speed and the story ended with him replying "I don't get paid to type code fast, I get paid to press enter very, very slowly."

Haha brilliant.

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

#133

Post by jjice »

mhb wrote: post #87

...he did win another typing competition using the CharaChorder to hit 267 WPM with 76% accuracy. Isn't this accuracy abysmal?

If my accuracy was 76%, I'd be upset. I'd definitely work on accuracy over raw speed at that point.

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

#134

Post by TulliusCicero »

> Keen also claimed that he’d won several online gaming competitions using the CharaChorder, which he says brings up an interesting ethical dilemma. “I’m not sure if there’s any restrictions on what keyboards you’re allowed to use,” he said over a video of him playing Super Smash Bros. Ultimate on the Nintendo Switch, using his CharaChorder running through a XIM-style adapter.

As someone who's somewhat familiar with eSports, I'm having a hard time imagining what game would let this style of keyboard provide a substantial advantage, and I'm very skeptical of these "online gaming competitions" he supposedly won.

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

#135

Post by masklinn »

TehShrike wrote: post #108
cafard wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

That seems optimistic, odds are your typing flow will be interrupted as tou think about the mistake and go around to fix it, plus you likely only realise it a bit later and need either some movement or to remove entire words and retype them.

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

#136

Post by lukevp »

blackearl wrote: post #26
umvi wrote: 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.

It says he competed at 267wpm in the article. The monkeytype site totally bans 300+ so I think that's still very impressive.

Yes but the accuracy percentage is low because the software’s essentially guessing what he’s typing (not unlike swype keyboards + autocorrect on a phone though implemented differently). It would be way slower to correct errors and type at 100% accuracy because each error has to be corrected based on some cognitive process (like looking at autocorrect suggestions for example) which is far far slower than correcting a typo in a QWERTY keyboard. I can type around 110 WPM with 95% or higher accuracy and I can also feel the majority of typos I make and correct them without active thought.

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

#137

Post by ashtonkem »

umvi wrote: 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 used to have a pretty high WPM, above 120 if my memory serves. You can only sustain that speed if you’re working from memory or directly copying text (as is the norm for typing speed tests). In real life I can’t formulate words anywhere close to that fast, so my WPM ends up probably being less 40 if I had to guess.

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

#138

Post by ashtonkem »

tambourine_man wrote: post #19
umvi wrote: 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.

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.

I think the best argument for things other than QWERTY nowadays is ergonomics, not speed. RSI is no joke.

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

#139

Post by Sebb767 »

bluejellybean wrote: post #101
prirun wrote: 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 expect…

> An activity that it is easy to learn the basics of, but difficulty to gain proficiency in, may be described as having "a steep learning curve".

It's the same for me. I doubt I can hit 200 WPM, but when I'm typing what I'm thinking (like right now) I'm significantly faster than when I type something I've never read, especially if it's just random words. On the other hand, I've never been much into measuring my WPM (I can type sufficiently fast for everything I need), so I just assumed this was a skill one can train to actually get those insane scores.

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

#140

Post by ars »

gowld wrote: post #98
ars wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not everyone thinks while typing. I do all my thinking ahead of time, then I just need to record it on the screen after I'm done. I'm usually thinking of other things at that time, since I just need to transcribe the words in my head, not think about them.

How much text do you memorize before you type a round?

It's not a specific amount, and it's not memorization of specific words, it's more like assigning a sub-processor the task of converting the ideas into typing, while the main brain moves on to other things.

You've never had that with programming or other tasks? You think and figure out what to do, and then it's just a matter of getting the idea down on paper (or computer).

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