Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not OP but I type ~140 and there are definitely situations where you feel a desire for higher WPM. Informal writing is the most common one - for example, with this comment I'm basically just typing out what I'm thinking and it reads more like a conversation than a well-planned chunk of text. I'm going nearly full-speed because, like most people in the world, I can compose casual sentences in my head much faster than…
well, I'm sorry, but that seems like too many words for the idea you expressed in them. maybe it's just me, but at least sometimes brevity pays off.
A new digital divide: Young people who can’t use keyboards
271–280 of 365 posts
Re: A new digital divide: Young people who can’t use keyboards
#272Earlier quoted context omitted.
Do you really find a benefit much past ~60wpm? Unless you're just transcribing, I would think compositional speed is the limiting factor.
Not OP but I type ~140 and there are definitely situations where you feel a desire for higher WPM. Informal writing is the most common one - for example, with this comment I'm basically just typing out what I'm thinking and it reads more like a conversation than a well-planned chunk of text. I'm going nearly full-speed because, like most people in the world, I can compose casual sentences in my head much faster than…
It was an an honest question, and I appreciate you taking the time to respond. I can't say that I have ever bumped in to my typing speed limit when writing, even informally, and I am certain my max is well below 140. Different strokes and all that. :)
Re: A new digital divide: Young people who can’t use keyboards
#273Earlier quoted context omitted.
On a tangent here but curious, if you know: what's the closest input method you can get to flick for Chinese? I realize the languages are quite different (might be botching this, but my fuzzy understanding for Japanese is it has kanji+katakana+kana+romaji, where Chinese has only hanzi + pinyin|zhuyin/etc.) Do you think flick is compatible with Chinese?
They don't have that. They do have handwriting recognition.
Well the question was what do they have that comes closest. They do have a lot more than just pinyin and handwriting. If you don't know, it's fine to just say that, or stay away from the discussion, especially when you seem to be answering with such certainty on something where you didn't read the question.
Re: A new digital divide: Young people who can’t use keyboards
#274I'm in high school. I know how to double click, I know how to work with excel spreadsheets. I plan to pursue a CS degree and eventually get an engineering job in the future. Heck, I even read Hacker News.
Yes, us teens are on our smartphones a lot, but the majority of us know how to use computers... this article is pretty misleading.
Re: A new digital divide: Young people who can’t use keyboards
#275Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I've seen children accustomed to using touch interfaces blurring the line between physical and virtual, i.e swiping at physical objects like books, photos, even walls. I've not seen this behavior with those used to non touch interfaces. Why do you think this is a bad think? This is how kids learn how the world works, by trying the same thing in different contexts, like how small children put everything in their mou…
I don't think that making information access easier is ever a bad think. Except when it decreases learning and perseverance, and deemphasises the benefit of careful thinking. The term 'spoonfeeding' is very relevant here.
> deemphasises the benefit of careful thinking.
This may be a bit of a tangent, but that reminds me of what is, by my guess, a core flaw of the US Constitution - it is deliberately written in a difficult to follow style (most notably, double inversions are slammed in everywhere). Even if the intent is to cause people to more carefully consider the subject matter, in the hopes that they come to a more accurate understanding, the literal effect of making information harder to access is that more energy is spent trying to access that information. In turn, the likelihood of errors in the course of accessing that information increases.
addendum: It's good to make things less error-prone.
Re: A new digital divide: Young people who can’t use keyboards
#276Earlier quoted context omitted.
I started touch typing at around 18, after just forcing myself as I knew it'd be beneficial in the long run. I could type around 60wpm using two fingers, I know where they keys are... Just not how to use every finger! Now I touch type 'properly' I can get close to 100wpm. My speed has kind of plateaued now though unfortunately.
Do you really find a benefit much past ~60wpm? Unless you're just transcribing, I would think compositional speed is the limiting factor.
Also not op but I can type fast and it definitely helps with verbose things like a SQL query or while chatting with coworkers on slack... .... But that can frequently be frustrating if the person on the other side isn't nearly as fast....
(edit autocorrect)
Re: A new digital divide: Young people who can’t use keyboards
#277Earlier quoted context omitted.
> being too good at something is leading to pigeonholing People who are good at something tend to ask for help when they need it. Asking for help is a way to get better. Blindly persevering wastes time and tends to force one into dead ends.
I don't think giving up instantly is the same thing as asking for help when you need it , and I don't think e.g. spending 30 seconds minutes googling the definition of "ENOENT" before calling someone else over is blindly persevering. I think there's a path through the middle of the two extremes, where you try a bit of basic problem solving on your own, but ask for help when you're stuck, and learn from the experience…
> spending 30 seconds minutes googling the definition of "ENOENT" before calling someone else over is blindly persevering
It's not blindly persevering. It is, however, giving up an opportunity to learn from and interact with a colleague. Whatever you were working on related to the query might have additional context filled in or expanded upon through conversation. Some of my most productive and unexpected insights came up as a result of such banter.
When you ask "what does this mean," you're asking for a definition. You're also communicating the problem and hinting at your angle of attack. Possible valuable and unexpected responses include "you're approaching it wrong" or "why are you working on that problem when X looks more lucrative"
Re: A new digital divide: Young people who can’t use keyboards
#278Smartphones are easier to use. One only has to remember how to scroll and how to use an app store. Compared to them, PCs are much more difficult to use: they have windows, taskbars, file browsers, right and double clicks, and often don't have a sane browser preinstalled. Installing software on a PC is complicated and it is easy to download a virus instead of Flash Player. Often external devices don't work without drivers. As desktop OS don't have proper process isolation, one usually has to use an antivirus.
Also, smartphones have physical volume keys and sleep/wakeup much faster than PC.
And PCs still don't have dedicated keys to switch input languages.
But typing on a smartphone is a hell. I always make mistakes and hit the wrong button.
Re: A new digital divide: Young people who can’t use keyboards
#279The first example provided in the article (indeed the first sentence) is “How do I double click?”, and I want to focus on this. As a kid in the 90s, I just took double clicking as a necessary evil. But after many many opportunities of trying (mostly successfully) to teach it to both the elderly and to kids, I've gradually grown to hate it. It's such a horrible gesture, difficult to perform, complicated to reason abou…
I often encounter people having issues double-clicking. Actually, a lot of people have trouble just single-clicking, so double-clicking is even more of a challenge. A lot of people just can't get the knack for clicking twice in quick succession. And the inconsistency between when they should single-click and when they should double-click causes a lot of confusion. I think it probably would make life easier to get rid…
> And the inconsistency between when they should single-click and when they should double-click causes a lot of confusion.
There's a lot of anecdotes about how uneasy/annoyed/bothered it can make you feel when watching someone unfamiliar with a scroll wheel instead mouse over and slowly click+drag the scrollbar, but the big one for me is seeing someone double-click on a hyperlink...
Re: A new digital divide: Young people who can’t use keyboards
#280Earlier quoted context omitted.
Part of the reason for the decline in self-built in homes is advancements in modular home building. They're much better, and more economical than ever before. Even my Dad, who self-built two large homes himself, admitted it doesn't make sense to self-build. One is better off just working more in whatever specialty they do, and getting a modular home.
We're not buying those either. I've seen only one prefab in my area. We're not even building Tiny Houses. That movement has faded away as the land permission issue dominated over their advantages. Meanwhile: https://youtu.be/M73r32vK7C4 That's not a joke - there is a steep decline in being 'handy' - I'm doing everything I can to learn how to be but it still feels a bit unnatural. That lack of adaptability is like an…
> ...there is a steep decline in being 'handy'...
That's fixable, you're experiencing that yourself. The Net makes it easier than ever before to learn new skills. It's glorious. My biggest challenge is finding time to pick up all I want to learn. Physical space is also a consideration.
> ...a generation that bought their houses at 5x-15x lower prices so millennials like me could really do with being more hands on.
In the US, and to a certain extent in other developed nations, this unfortunately is much less fixable by being more hands on. You'll tinker at the margins of affordability to be sure, so by all means become more handy because it vastly enhances your house-owning opex costs, and capital improvements can be made with sweat equity. But the core problem space is the dirt is expensive relative to median wages. Fire insurance to replace buildings hasn't grown nearly as fast as the dirt the buildings sit upon; that's your tell that the Millenial cohort is getting completely screwed by the price of dirt.
Staying mobile in your single years with van dwelling is a viable strategy. So is co-op and intentional community living, or extended families. Remote tech work in small villages. Lots of other strategies depending upon personal situations. But you will likely have to ditch lots of conventional aesthetics and sensibilities along the way. This can make it challenging to find romantic partners (4-6' thick insulating walls scream "I'm different" in a not-so-good way to a majority of the population), so there are trade-offs.
> ...The cost of good power tools is lower than before and they're more effective....
If the tool has any life or limb-threatening characteristics, stay away from picking up the cheap stuff made in China or third world countries. Hand power tools can be okay, but for example any tool that expresses a Safe Working Load Limit (WLL) you should only buy US, Japanese, or EU-made for now. Go talk to a few rigging companies in the US, or find a test company and grab some made in China/India rigging gear from Harbor Freight and test to failure yourself, and observe that safe WLL should be about 3x (ideally 5x) less than breaking point.
Plan on a logistical tail of about the the cost of the original tool itself (twice the cost if you are buying used tools) if you are getting into a new tooling area as a rule of thumb. I got a chainsaw last year, and the safety chaps, safety shirt, helmet, face guard, gloves, maul, wedge, fuel cans, sharpening tool, funnel with water filter, etc. are about 150% of what I spent on the chainsaw. Generally, this is the weakest area of information gathering on the Net in my experience. If you are a noob, then plan on digging around a fair bit to find out what else you need to pick up to stay safe. If you are on HN, then you likely depend a lot upon your fingers and your eyes to make a living; with many kinds of tools, those body parts are awfully easy to damage to the point where it is hard to do work in our fields, so take safety around tools seriously, and invest the time into reading up on the right way to work with the tools you pick up.