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Comment by erfgh | Hacker News Reader

You can learn touch typing to a very good standard in 1-2 weeks if you give it a try. It is not required but it will definitely help you.

Sure, you can learn to type fast using another way, but what's the point? It's like learning to play the guitar stand-up. You can do it, but what's the point?

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I never learned. (I think the first time I used a typewriter was senior year in HS.) I went to a "prep" school and we didn't have classes for secretarial-type stuff.

I type quickly enough and have developed good enough typing muscle memory over time that I've never quite gotten up the incentive to properly teach myself to touch type but I would almost certainly have benefited from both typing and shorthand classes at some point.

Same. I generally rest in the home row, but I'm sure the fingers I'm using to strike specific keys are not the "correct" ones. I've never been formally trained in typing. I do find that I make fewer errors when I have a correct keyboard height and I keep my wrists elevated.

Didn't have a computer till I went to university(grew up poor in a developing world). I am pretty fast without touch typing and I move my hand all around the keyboard. I also feel it when I happen to strike an incorrect key. Currently I look at keyboard occasionally when I make a mistake, but I think I have got an idea as to which keys are where. Its almost touch typing except I never start with the "home" position and yet manage to almost touch type. I believe as we type more and more we will eventually develop the touch typing pattern. The pattern might be different than the standard recommendation of "home" positioning.

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