Poll: How fast do you type?
There's a poll going around to see how many people can touch-type. I figured this would also be interesting to know
Oddly enough, I never really type the proper way. I do some sort of hunt and peck using primarily my middle and index fingers for typing, with only the occasional thumb, ring, or pinky finger. If I grew up typing how you're supposed to type I might be a little faster, but usually the brain is the bottleneck for me.
This is a pretty large shift, considering a few years ago, I did little else but read books constantly, and at relative speed; finishing several books a week.
I picked up on the speed-reading method[1] where I first read about on NP[2]. Basically, you read quicker in chunks and don't use subvocalization[3], which we all do involuntarily.
I've found better success by reading in progressively-sped-up chunks; I comprehend the information better this way and find I spend too much time thinking if I'm subvocalizing or not with the second method.
Of course, the best thing would be to spend less time reading from and using the computer, and more time actually reading IRL.
[1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speed_reading
[2]: http://www.nuclearphynance.com/Show%20Post.aspx?PostIDKey=13...
I only type using three fingers on each hand. My three left hand fingers rest on A, W and E (in QWERTY) when idle. My three right hand fingers rest on M, L and : when idle. My right pinky holds down shift when necessary, so I can type nearly full speed in all caps. I actually do not use either of my thumbs to hit the spacebar; my right index finger does as it's right next to the spacebar when idle.
I realise this is really weird and it's probably why my thumb starts to involuntarily twitch (in addition to hurting in general) when I use laptop keyboards too much. :(
But, FWIW, when I was taking "keyboarding" in college back in the early 90's, I was somewhere in the 80-90wpm range.
That's a fun game to play when you're really bored. It also feels nice when, after a couple of rounds, it asks you to fill a captcha because it thinks your speed is so high you must be cheating :)
For me my speed varies by what I'm actually doing: typing code, writing emails/comments have different speeds.
Actually, now that I think of it, it's difficult to measure the speed of typing code since a lot of programming involves editing existing code as opposed to just banging out line after line of new code.
Like a few on here, I never learned the proper way to type although I use all 10 digits. My typing were from countless hours coding or chatting.
I have a hairbrained theory that this has helped me avoid carpal tunnel because it forces my hands to move around a lot more, rather than hover in one specific position. I have no data whatsoever to back this up.
Never learned to touch type the "right" way...
Not sure I'd want to...