Steve Yegge talks about touch typing in today’s rant. I’m linking to it only because it reminds me that I love to tell people that typing is the most valuable class I took at any level of education. I took one semester of typing in high school, and it was the best thing I ever did.
September 11, 2008 at 1:47 am
If you know what ALPS mechanical keyswitches are, you’re probably a touch typist.
September 11, 2008 at 11:54 am
I’ll echo many of the comments on Steve’s site and say, “They still make people who can’t touch type?!”
September 11, 2008 at 12:45 pm
I don’t know if I agree. I don’t touch-type but I don’t hunt and peck either. It’s some weird hybrid of both. Clearly, I don’t type as fast as a touch-typists but I don’t find that the slower speed of typing affects me much.
September 11, 2008 at 2:53 pm
Likewise, the year long (I think…) typing class I took in junior high school was the single most useful course I have ever taken (including college).
September 11, 2008 at 9:06 pm
Yes, typing was the most valuable class. I’m so relieved that I’m not alone on that.
Any residual remorse about not taking shop classes? …Every time I call a plumber.
September 12, 2008 at 9:31 am
well, it was useful, but then again, it took sitting at a computer keyboard to really ingrain it in my head, so that I can think with my fingers. typing something from a sheet of paper (letting it pass through my mind without digestion) was really the original skill, and I’m still not great at that — can’t type from the number row without looking, for example…
September 13, 2008 at 1:00 am
I think I mostly evolved into a touch typist. But obviously the key to writing overlong (but still interesting) blog posts is getting your rate up to 120 wpm. I’m only 2/3 – 3/4 of that, but I can pound out emails while carrying on conversations with co-workers that drop by my desk. At least until they get that scared look in their eye and I have to give them my full attention.
September 13, 2008 at 4:21 am
Does anyone recommend any good programs to make a good typist better?
I type 70-80, but 120 sounds like way more fun.
April 28, 2009 at 10:00 am
Brownback: Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing is one of the best commercial programs. If you’d rather go free, I recommend KTouch.