How many keystrokes do you have left? | Hacker News Reader

How many keystrokes do you have left?

keysleft.com

38 pointsInception42 comments

I wonder how many decent devs spend anywhere near 4 hours a day typing. I spend most of my day working out what to build and how to build it, not typing.

I agree. According to the site, I could write another 483 programs before my demise - I suppose that doesn't factor in coming up with what all those apps are going to accomplish :-) Maybe I could dump 483 non-apps into the blackberry app store.

I'm a front end developer. The calluses on the tips of my fingers have their own calluses.

I'm put in mind of my favorite tweet from a friend: "If I had a dollar for each time I typed <div> today... wait, I do"

Decent dev or piss-poor dev, or anyone else, the only people spending half their day typing at full speed are secretaries, note takers, etc.

I long ago reached the point where I can type much faster than I can coherently code. I haven't reached the point of being able to type as fast as the nonsense that my mind thinks up.

500,000 keystrokes per computer program left? What monstrosities to they think I'm going to write?!!

if that includes backspace, not so very far off in my case ;-)

a fair point, I hadn't factored that in...

A Fizz Buzz implementation.

This fails to account for the possibility of direct brain interfaces within our lifetimes. It also fails to account for the possibility that I'll be revived after the singularity. The chances of that are low, but the number of keystrokes I'll be able to type if it happens is extremely high.

Keys left seems to just be standing in as a surrogate for time. Sure, try to use your time valuably. And maybe blogging is a good way to save time by avoiding repeating yourself.

But I'd start with silly consuming-not-creating timesucks like TV, movies, even reading HN ;-). These eat more of my time than email.

I would assume for 72, not 90.

At least for the USA, 90 seems a pipe-dream unless you are fortunate to be wealthy or a congressperson awarding yourself gold-plated healthcare.

If you are in China, your government is killing you with unregulated industrialism that is making the very air posionous.

If you live in Japan, the radiation may already be seeping into your area and causing cancer.

And if you are in the middleeast, your government might kill you for the wrong trivial actions against their religion, being a woman, or daring to challenge a dictator.

90 definitely seems like a pipedream unless maybe you are in Canada, Europe, Iceland/Greenland, or Australia/NZ (apologies to all those I missed, ie. South America and Africa, may you live a long and happy life).

Wow I just depressed myself.

If you're making a point about how low a number is, you need to base it on an upper bound. 90 is certainly high, especially to assume you'll maintain your current typing speed, but you have to shoot high if you're saying "You only have this much left to type".

It would be nice if this included some sort of WPM test.

I could easily just Google "WPM test" and take it, but that just turned me off on carrying on with this.

http://www.goodtyping.com/test.php worked for me.

Try keyhero.com.

I feel slightly depressed...

This too will change.

Because he'll be dead?

Or maybe he'll get a typing course. Not all change has to be for the worse.

By this metric, any time you spend in a typing course uses up your remaining pool of keys left. Unless you're increasing your WPM enough to offset the number of keys you've typed in taking the course, you're then running a negative in taking the course.

Only slightly? How do you manage that?

Nice one. I type insanely fast (makes grown secretaries cry) so the outcome didn't worry me too much but it definitely gives you pause. For added effect, make a browser plug-in or an app that reminds you. Next level: a count-down timer that adjusts based on detecting the keystrokes you type in audio picked up through a mic.

Would be nice as a wrist watch too. Tempus fugit.

How fast is "insanely fast", and is that your speed when testing your speed, or your speed when actually writing (code, emails, HN comments, etc.)?

Personally I hit ~105 when doing a speed test (no idea where this falls on the "reasonably quick" to "insanely fast" scale), but would never hit this when I have to think about what I'm writing, as opposed to just ignorantly copying text put in front of me.

I go much faster when I'm typing what I'm thinking than when copying text, especially if it is a text that I have no clue about or in a language that is not native or near native to me. Given a typing test in French, German or Spanish I would probably fail miserably. But typing rarely involves copying text and rarely involves writing in languages that you don't know.

While technically true that typing what I think is quickest, I very rarely find myself with more than a few words to write without needing to think about what I'm writing, which slows me down. This may be in the form of an actual break to decide what to write next, or may just be pausing to decide on best wording, etc.

Is this different for you? When was the last time you managed to write more than a sentence or too without your brain slowing your hands down?

(Speed tests on the other hand - I can read them as fast as my fingers can move, so as long as I understand what I'm reading I can do that pretty much as quick as my typing ability lets me.)

I don't think while I type. By the time I start typing I know what I want to write.

When writing long blog posts I go through a couple of revisions, but that's not so much typing as it is editing which is much slower.

I type insanely fast

Let's whip'em out! I typed 75 wpm in my first year of typing instruction. In my second year, I was 90 wpm. Third year (which was first year of Word Processing with WordPerfect for DOS version 5.2) I was 120 wpm. Today I'm just over 130 wpm with near perfect accuracy which if you think about it is more than 2 words per second.

Now if you want to see how lame even my insane fast typing speed is - watch this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9EXEpjSDEw

I think the author of this site is a tad bit too optimistic regarding the advancements in code development, that are waiting for us in the future. Code writing tools or new input devices, maybe some other paradigm shift.

I do like the concept, and it makes an important point, but...

Please change the text or background colors for higher contrast. I'm young, with semi-decent eyes, and white-on-light-blue and brown-on-tan are difficult to read.

perhaps i'm missing something, but your death will not come sooner or later by typing less or more - perhaps your muscles will wear out if you type to fast or so - so spending more or less time typing doesn't matter with regard to how many average days are left to your death. Can someone enlighten me?

> Can someone enlighten me?

I think you're taking it a bit too serious.

The site is only telling you that you have finite keystrokes left, so don't waste it writing comments on HackerNews.

Does this account for the fact that you type slower as you get older? What about typing less?

The number is lower if you take into account the probability to develop RSI each year.

try with multiple languages: I do French and German on a regular basis (more or less).

I was a little upset when I was forced to take typing in junior high. Now I think I should send them a thank you letter as I watch everyone hunt and peck.

Please do that. You may just make someone's day better.

Agreed. An excellent use of time.

I hunt and peck at 80 WPM :-).

Yours, A Happy Pecker

Sierra games deserve my thanks. Hero's Quest, Space Quest, Kings Quest, Police Quest - all of the early games required a deep amount of typing, and some of the really early ones could get harsh about it (the v1's often didn't "pause" the game while you typed). I shed a tear when they moved to the mouse-only adventure games.

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