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The Joy of Typing

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Re: The Joy of Typing

#31

Post by barrkel »

taeric wrote: post #5

60 words a minute is still very slow, when it comes to thinking speed. Unless I'm just off my rocker, of course. This is also why folks that take really good notes by hand often have some sort of shorthand system. My question, then, is it worthwhile to investigate some of the more advanced typing techniques out there? I'm curious, but highly skeptical.

I normally type somewhere in the region of 85-105 depending on the app, and I was only getting 85 on the app embedded in that page. It has a slightly higher frequency of long words than most colloquial speech, typical of discussion fora like this one.

Re: The Joy of Typing

#32

Post by larrys »

mikestew wrote: post #4
nbouscal wrote: post #2

> one 2007 study measured a small group of 21 college students and found their average typing speed was an abysmal 12.2 words per minute That blows my mind. That's less than a tenth the speed I type at. How do they get anything done??

I can type that fast on a phone. I'll assume for the sake of discussion that this number is accurate across a general population. If you sit at a keyboard long enough, how can you not get faster than 12.2 wpm? So much for "kids growing up with computers". All that time in front of a keyboard since kindergarten, and you're output is still restricted by your abysmal typing speed? OTOH, do typing classes even exist anym…

"which I attribute to that typing class. Had I just been left to my own devices to hunt-and-peck my way around"

I learned on a manual as well. But by using a book. It took about 3 weeks. I actually stopped at the part where you practice numbers (and regret it to this day).

"that we could only use in a blinding snow storm while walking uphill"

I was lucky to be able to convince a college instructor to allow me to bring in the manual typewriter so I could type the answer to an essay instead of using one of the blue books. Same blinding snow storm that day!

Re: The Joy of Typing

#33

Post by kbenson »

mikestew wrote: post #20

"because you’re no longer struggling with the tool at hand." I saw this coming somewhere around the first paragraph. Those students who are trying to transcribe lectures and not actually learning anything? My guess is it's because they're burning cycles mentally saying "'the', I need to find 't' and an 'h', aaaaaand 'e'. 'quick', where the hell is 'q'?" As a parallel, take Jimmy Page (Led Zeppelin) as a guitar player…

> the two probably intersect more often than you think they do

One of the reasons I like more terse, concise languages is because it allows me to get the idea represented quicker, so I spend more time thinking about the problem and solution and less time transcribing the solution.

There is,of course, a downside in legibility, but I believe that's mostly mitigated for people familiar enough with the language.

Re: The Joy of Typing

#34

Post by viseztrance »

Unless you're a professional typist, 40 wpm as an average speed is definitely OK. Realistically there are few people that average over 120 wpm (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Words_per_minute). As far as schools go, I hope they stick to using pens, as I don't know anyone who got RSI after using one.

Re: The Joy of Typing

#35

Post by nbouscal »

streakerbee wrote: post #24
nbouscal wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I average 140wpm without any "advanced typing techniques", so I don't think they're really necessary. I can't speak to whether or not they would be helpful, though. I do think it's very worthwhile to be able to type this fast - people speak somewhere around 150wpm on average, and being able to type as fast as you speak is useful for instant messaging, etc.

How did you get so fast? I seem stuck at around 55 wpm.

At some point I just sat down and did some deliberate practice. I'm actually still not as good at typing as I would like to be, I have some glitches like only using my right thumb for the spacebar and sometimes using the wrong Shift key. There are a lot of programs out there that will help you do deliberate practice, it's just a matter of putting in some time.

Re: The Joy of Typing

#36

Post by mikestew »

skywhopper wrote: post #23
nbouscal wrote: post #2

> one 2007 study measured a small group of 21 college students and found their average typing speed was an abysmal 12.2 words per minute That blows my mind. That's less than a tenth the speed I type at. How do they get anything done??

I don't know how fast my middle-school daughter can type, but she doesn't touch-type. Her school does insist that they spend a lot of time using computers for research and writing, and they even take some standardized tests on computers, but they do not teach the kids how to type. Seems to me if you are going to have the kids using computers, then typing should be an early skill to teach them as well. On the flip sid…

> Her school does insist that they spend a lot of time using computers for research and writing, and they even take some standardized tests on computers, but they do not teach the kids how to type. (emphasis mine)

That's just asinine. When I was in high school 30 years ago, if a school had insisted that all reports be typewritten and yet did not offer typing classes, I'm pretty sure some job losses would have occurred. What other tools shall we insist that children use without instruction? Hand them pencils in 1st grade and demand that they produce legible communication that they're left to just figure out on their own? Here's a band saw for shop class, have a bookshelf done by end of day?

Re: The Joy of Typing

#37

Post by Avshalom »

e12e wrote: post #19
coffeecodecouch wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> That blows my mind. Really? I don't find it that shocking at all that most people might type at a tenth of the speed a programmer can type. I'm sure a chef could express the same awe at my inefficiency when making Kraft Dinner.

These are not "most people", these are college students. If you can't write an essay at a reasonable pace (and don't have an excuse like studying pure math -- by your own admission computer science is out) -- it would appear basic education has failed. Not that that's much of a surprise -- the only reason I'm not hobbled by poor, self-taught, typing is that I was offered touch typing (on a typewriter, mind) in junior…

What's a reasonable pace? 12 wpm is 2-3 pages an hour.

Re: The Joy of Typing

#38

Post by jimmaswell »

kbenson wrote: post #33
mikestew wrote: post #20

"because you’re no longer struggling with the tool at hand." I saw this coming somewhere around the first paragraph. Those students who are trying to transcribe lectures and not actually learning anything? My guess is it's because they're burning cycles mentally saying "'the', I need to find 't' and an 'h', aaaaaand 'e'. 'quick', where the hell is 'q'?" As a parallel, take Jimmy Page (Led Zeppelin) as a guitar player…

> the two probably intersect more often than you think they do One of the reasons I like more terse, concise languages is because it allows me to get the idea represented quicker, so I spend more time thinking about the problem and solution and less time transcribing the solution. There is,of course, a downside in legibility, but I believe that's mostly mitigated for people familiar enough with the language.

You can have the best of both world with an IDE with good autocomplete where you only have to type a few characters and hit tab most of the time, resulting in less time typing and improved legibility.

Re: The Joy of Typing

#39

Post by mvid »

kbenson wrote: post #33
mikestew wrote: post #20

"because you’re no longer struggling with the tool at hand." I saw this coming somewhere around the first paragraph. Those students who are trying to transcribe lectures and not actually learning anything? My guess is it's because they're burning cycles mentally saying "'the', I need to find 't' and an 'h', aaaaaand 'e'. 'quick', where the hell is 'q'?" As a parallel, take Jimmy Page (Led Zeppelin) as a guitar player…

> the two probably intersect more often than you think they do One of the reasons I like more terse, concise languages is because it allows me to get the idea represented quicker, so I spend more time thinking about the problem and solution and less time transcribing the solution. There is,of course, a downside in legibility, but I believe that's mostly mitigated for people familiar enough with the language.

When is typing speed ever really the bottleneck? Code gets read 100x more often than it gets written, and any editor or IDE worth it's salt can auto-complete faster than you can think anyway.

#teamReadability

Re: The Joy of Typing

#40

Post by jimmaswell »

nbouscal wrote: post #2

> one 2007 study measured a small group of 21 college students and found their average typing speed was an abysmal 12.2 words per minute That blows my mind. That's less than a tenth the speed I type at. How do they get anything done??

Most of them probably don't need to type that much.
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