Monday, July 19, 2004
Typing
In the past few years, I've become a much better typist. This was not something that I ever tried to do, which is kind of strange. In fact, even though I've always been enamored of computers, I never really gave much thought to typing properly. I remember at a young age, on my Apple IIc, there was a typing program. I tried it a couple of times and quickly became bored with it. Eventually, I became fairly proficient at the "hunt-and-peck" method, never really using the "ASDF" and "JKL;" hand position. I figured it was stupid to type without looking at the keyboard - was there ever going to be a computer that had an invisible keyboard I couldn't take a peek at?
Of course, it's apparent to me now that the reason you shouldn't be looking at the keyboard when you type is that you should be looking at the screen to catch typos. Silly me. What's strange is that my typing skill progressed pretty naturally, and before long I could hunt-and-peck quite rapidly. Eventually, I would still look at the keyboard for help, but I would just start intuitively knowing when I had erroneously typed a key. So, I could still cheat and catch typos at the same time.
It wasn't until I started working full-time that I think I became a good typist. It's strange, too, because a significant part of what I write is C code, which involves a lot less rapid typing of text, and a lot of punctuation marks, indentation, etc. In an odd twist, whereas usually you have to use proper form in order to develop a skill properly, as I've gotten faster, I've just naturally migrated to the proper hand position. I think if you were to watch me type (and believe me, you should - it's simply mesmerizing), you would find that I do use the proper form. I guess it's the sign of a good system, if it's naturally the most efficient way to do things anyways.
I never realized I was getting to be a fast typist until a co-worker (a non-programmer) came into my office and I was typing us changes to a web page as he was making suggestions. He was impressed by my typing, and wished that he could type that fast. I imagine that compared to a lot of programmers, I'm not that fast - I remember feeling the same sense of awe a few years ago when I was watching my current boss type out code - but it's still nice to know that I can impress someone with my typing. Hey, it may not be as innately impressive as running blazingly fast, or having a photographic memory, but at least it's something. Those stupid Microsoft keyboards are still for shit, though.
Of course, it's apparent to me now that the reason you shouldn't be looking at the keyboard when you type is that you should be looking at the screen to catch typos. Silly me. What's strange is that my typing skill progressed pretty naturally, and before long I could hunt-and-peck quite rapidly. Eventually, I would still look at the keyboard for help, but I would just start intuitively knowing when I had erroneously typed a key. So, I could still cheat and catch typos at the same time.
It wasn't until I started working full-time that I think I became a good typist. It's strange, too, because a significant part of what I write is C code, which involves a lot less rapid typing of text, and a lot of punctuation marks, indentation, etc. In an odd twist, whereas usually you have to use proper form in order to develop a skill properly, as I've gotten faster, I've just naturally migrated to the proper hand position. I think if you were to watch me type (and believe me, you should - it's simply mesmerizing), you would find that I do use the proper form. I guess it's the sign of a good system, if it's naturally the most efficient way to do things anyways.
I never realized I was getting to be a fast typist until a co-worker (a non-programmer) came into my office and I was typing us changes to a web page as he was making suggestions. He was impressed by my typing, and wished that he could type that fast. I imagine that compared to a lot of programmers, I'm not that fast - I remember feeling the same sense of awe a few years ago when I was watching my current boss type out code - but it's still nice to know that I can impress someone with my typing. Hey, it may not be as innately impressive as running blazingly fast, or having a photographic memory, but at least it's something. Those stupid Microsoft keyboards are still for shit, though.
Comments:
Doesn't this fall in line with the previous discussion of learning from the combined experiences of tens of thousands of others instead of striking it out on your own just to make the same mistakes made in the past (like bowling and darts techniques, for example)?
There's no way that you'll ever be able to type nearly as fast if you have to hunt and peck as you can if you do it instinctively...sure, it takes a few days of forcing yourself not to look at the keyboard to get started, but once you do that, you're golden and will improve very quickly. For me, if I LOOK at the keyboard, it trips me up and dramatically slows me down. In fact, if I even THINK about where the keys are, I screw up....by practicing not looking you get to the point where you just think about what to say and your fingers automatically do what they need to do.
Perhaps you can learn from this experience (discovering that the accepted methods of typing are indeed far superior to your chosen hunt and peck method) and try learning from others in different ways...I suggest starting with how you bowl and play darts...not that I'm perfect at that either, but you neither are you, just like everyone else...and not that everyone else is always right, by any means...but on things like this there's often a good reason that the "experts" all arrive at the same conclusions...
-Dave Shear
There's no way that you'll ever be able to type nearly as fast if you have to hunt and peck as you can if you do it instinctively...sure, it takes a few days of forcing yourself not to look at the keyboard to get started, but once you do that, you're golden and will improve very quickly. For me, if I LOOK at the keyboard, it trips me up and dramatically slows me down. In fact, if I even THINK about where the keys are, I screw up....by practicing not looking you get to the point where you just think about what to say and your fingers automatically do what they need to do.
Perhaps you can learn from this experience (discovering that the accepted methods of typing are indeed far superior to your chosen hunt and peck method) and try learning from others in different ways...I suggest starting with how you bowl and play darts...not that I'm perfect at that either, but you neither are you, just like everyone else...and not that everyone else is always right, by any means...but on things like this there's often a good reason that the "experts" all arrive at the same conclusions...
-Dave Shear
# posted by 
: July 20, 2004 at 4:19 PM
: July 20, 2004 at 4:19 PM
On the other hand, if you do things by the conventional means, you'll be a lot less likely to discover a new, brilliant means of doing thing. In fact, since I've never really typed in the proper manner, maybe I've actually discovered a vastly improved method. Similarly, it's possible that with a lot of practice, I could discover a revolutionary new form of dart throwing. Maybe not, but nothing ventured, nothing gained.
True, true...I'm certainly not trying to say that you should do things the way everybody else does them...because most people aren't too sharp and that will often lead you astray...
But in situations where it's more of a general experience thing as opposed to needing brains to figure out how to do something (like typing, throwing darts, etc., as opposed to computer programming or solving differential equations), the vast experience of lessons learned by others can save you the trouble. I suppose what I should really say is that you should have a good reason for wanting to do something in some other way than what seems to work best for most people - like a reason why the hunt and peck would be better in the long run, or why you should expect to be better at throwing darts in such a retarded manner.
-Dave Shear
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But in situations where it's more of a general experience thing as opposed to needing brains to figure out how to do something (like typing, throwing darts, etc., as opposed to computer programming or solving differential equations), the vast experience of lessons learned by others can save you the trouble. I suppose what I should really say is that you should have a good reason for wanting to do something in some other way than what seems to work best for most people - like a reason why the hunt and peck would be better in the long run, or why you should expect to be better at throwing darts in such a retarded manner.
-Dave Shear
# posted by : July 22, 2004 at 1:10 AM
: July 22, 2004 at 1:10 AM
