6
benj
6y

I have sort of an embarrassing question...

I never learned touch typing, hated it as much as I hated my calligraphy lessons in elementary. Forward a couple of years, I'm a developer and trying to dig deeper into vim seems to require learning touch typing... it has been a struggle to say the least and lowered my speed to a frustrating rate. 😥

I know the arguments for putting the work and learning proper technique but, are there any other arguments out there? I mean, as a developer I find myself using a lot of numbers and symbols which are not totally covered in touch typing curricula, together with a bunch of key combinations...

Idk, maybe I'm just asking for encouragement or different perspectives or unknown advantages about learning touch typing even when you feel fast and confident without it... Thank you guys!

Comments
  • 4
    I can't describe how great it is to just look at the screen and have your thoughts translated into characters while your fingers seemingly act on their own (special characters/symbols included).

    When I was a kid I was super bored at church. Whenever I was stuck sitting there listening to someone speak, I would practice touch-typing what they said on my legs or on the back of the bench in front of me. Try doing the same. There are lots of opportunities to practice like that away from the computer.

    Keep going, it's very much worth it. The same amount of time will transpire whether you stick with it or not. If you slow down to build the skill properly now, you'll be even faster than you were before, in time. It's an investment like any other. It hurts at first, but this one is guaranteed to pay off.
  • 0
    I had done 5 courses (complete courses with multiple lessons) and only learned it after I started programming. So I suggest try doing it the way you type fastest.
  • 2
    I’ve never properly learned it, if you just type loads you’ll pick it up
  • 0
    Never learned it myself but you'll get used to those symbols the more you get used and use your programming language of choice. I can now touch type but not as fast as those who learned it properly
  • 2
    Touch typing is an absolute necessity. If you haven’t learned it yet you are just prolonging the inevitable. One day you will learn and when you do you will say “why did I wait so long to learn this??”

    It’s not hard. It’s just repetition and practice and it will become muscle memory.
  • 0
    Can someone educate me on what touch typing is?
  • 2
  • 3
    @duckWit Oh damn, we call that "blind" typing haha. Just a different use of words.

    But yeah I learned it without any course. It's an awesome skill to have!
  • 1
    @linuxxx I also never heard of it, just guessed the meaning with the context provided :D
  • 1
    @Codex404 I was thinking about touchscreen/phone blind typing but I'm tired haha 😅
  • 0
    @linuxxx that was the first thing I thought as well :)
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