I found out the complete opposite. I'm a pretty fast typist but I learned touch typing at a rather late age, at around 26 or so. I still don't have a perfect technique but I have not really practiced it either.

Typing slowly pinpointed several flaws in my technique, some which I wasn't aware of. I already knew that using the "y" key with the wrong hand, but playing this game for some minutes also pointed out that I use the wrong hand or finger. For example I noticed that I use my index finger to type out x and c (rather than my ring and middle fingers).

I thoroughly enjoyed this and found it helpful.

Sure, but I don't agree that touch typing is "the" technique and that it's impossible that someone else has come up with a better one independently. Touch typing is a good way to type well, but I don't think it's distinct from "typing", it's one way to type. Just like you can play the guitar even if you don't know the technique.

> - Why do you think you did slow down after the switch to touch typing?

I have no idea, the way to hit the keys just feels less convenient to me. For example, the x and c are harder to hit because my fingers don't like going there, I can't really explain it better.

> - Why did you feel the need to switch to touch typing if the skill you already had was so good?

Half because I got an ortho split keyboard and couldn't use my old technique with it, and half because everyone said touch typing is so much better.

> - Do you regret switching to touch typing? Why?

Yes, my old technique is much more comfortable and faster. I still type the "old" way on regular keyboards, but it's not such a big deal either way, since I'm usually limited by the speed of my brain rather than my hands, and I don't much mind the reduced accuracy either. I'm touch typing this on the split keyboard right now.

> - How many years did it take you to get to 120 wpm at 98%?

I've been typing that way for 20 years, so I can't really say. I definitely remember being pretty good around 4 years in, possibly long before that.

> - Is there anything you miss from your old technique (beside the higher stats)?

It just feels more comfortable, when I touch-type I feel a bit like I'm fighting the keyboard, or as if I'm wearing shoes half a size too small. With my old technique (e.g. on my laptop) I feel at home.

Wut?

I've been touch typing for years, and none of my fingers have experienced any strain, or ever been overworked. In fact, the reason I learned how to touch type was to _reduce_ the strain on all my fingers.

In my opinion, no. It always amuses me when somebody wants to learn to touch-type just to learn touch-type. If one really needs it (i.e. writes a lot on a keyboard), they'll learn it soon enough just from the practice.

That said, you may grow with time using more of your fingers. It may even be because you decided to try using those fingers that otherwise were idle (maybe one at a time; that was my case). But forcing yourself to learn? I would say it's not worth the hassle.

What actually matters to me is how fast I type and how accurate it is. You may want to check your results in some on-line test. If you have typing speed average or better, don't bother with specifically learning more.

That's kind of sad. The most productive 2 week class I ever took was a touch typing class in 8th grade. We learned on mechanical typewriters where you really had to hammer the keys. This has paid off for me enormously.

> quite slow by coder standards

I spend very little time typing code in, that's not where my typing time is spent. For example, I am typing this while looking at the screen, not the keyboard. I catch and fix mistaeks much faster. When I'm transcribing text, touch typing doubles the speed because I read the original while typing.

I also try and optimize my code for readability, not minimal keystrokes.

I sometimes look to align myself when I've had my hands off the keyboard, and now that I've got the wrong keycaps on some letters[1], it throws me off sometimes (I'll start on K or ; instead of L). However, when I'm actually typing, I almost never look at the keys (usually only when I'm pausing anyway, and more to take my eyes off the screen for a second). My only training has been using a keyboard for 20+ years.

It's not 'proper' touch typing - I almost never use my little fingers (I use three on my left hand, but bias towards just using index/index and middle on my right), I've got a tendency to reach across with either index finger depending on what I've just typed, and my hands at rest are around AWD/JIO rather than the home row - but I've never felt limited by my typing speed (80-100 WPM if I'm copying something).

I suspect my typing style is largely habits developed from gaming more then typing when growing up (rest on AWD and being more fluent with my left hand).

[1] Laptop keyboard - S where I should be (I got an S sent by mistake for a broken C key, and the I broke later), moved Fn keys to replace L and E

Yeah, "touch-typing" is incorrectly used to refer to home-row touch-typing by people who hadn't learned another style.

I use a totally different one, with my left hand resting on roughly shift-a-w-d and my right on j-i-o-; which requires little to no twisting to reach every key. I think I'm also more likely to lift my hands than home-row typists I've seen - those keys are just resting positions between typing bursts, not actually where I move my fingers back to while typing. The whole thing is based on the edges of the keyboard, rather than the nubs on the f and j keys.

Absolutely! This was a huge factor in my decision to switch. I learned to type quickly on QWERTY mostly from FPS shooters - which meant that I would start typing while moving my hand from my mouse to my keyboard, which meant that I would type much more with my left hand than my right. I probably used my left hand for 60 to 70% of the keyboard, rather than 50/50 for each hand. I really wanted to learn to type properly, but breaking old habits on such a familiar layout was hard.

> I also don't look at the keyboard

> I just know where the keys are from muscle memory

You are touch typing though. You may have an unconventional style, but that is irrelevant.

I'm in the same exact circumstance, and use only about half of my fingers, and clock in at around 100 wpm.

Touch typing is a special technique. Typing and touch typing being distinct things isn't a "way of thinking", it's a clear fact. It's not open to interpretation.

The keyboard is an instrument. Anyone can use it without learning the proper technique, but the technique helps a great deal. That's the whole point.

It is greatly comparable to musical instruments. For instance you can learn how to play the guitar yourself, but if you know the proper technique, you'll have better mastery in a shorter time. This is why it needs to be teached, especially to knowledge workers, who type, type and type all day long.

Maybe the skill you currently have is enough for you, but you shouldn't dismiss the proper technique, especially if you haven't tried it (you sound like you didn't really).

Though if you can answer yes to all the questions below, then you probably don't need the technique:

- Can you easily do 80+ wpm whether it is prose or code?

- Do you have more than 95% accuracy at all times?

- Do you never (no exceptions) look at the keyboard?

These things all make a difference. Having less friction with the input instrument results in a higher stamina in a knowledge worker, which means more productivity per unit of time. Few realize this.

I used to type at 120+ wpm using my self taught typing experience.

I purchased a new keyboard recently with ortholinear layout and figured it would be a good time to learn proper touch typing. I'm at 70-80 wpm and cannot see how to improve unless I _free_ myself from pure touch typing.

There are just limitations to how a single hand can move when multiple keys have to be hit on the same side or even the same finger.

Anecdata, but: I got ~160 WPM without learning touch typing. I was a regular computer user from the age of 12.

This is a false dilemma. Plenty of us type quickly without hunting and pecking, or looking at the keyboard, without home-row touch typing. This comment was typed as such.

There isn't anything "proper" about home row style touch typing, it is merely one of multiple ways to type fast.

OMG, seriously?

Are touch typists rare these days? I feel like people these days forego even learning to type properly. I dont understand why they refuse to just learn it, it is such an essential skill to have.

This reminds of my situation. I'm not a piano player, and I used to type with basically two fingers (plus thumb for space and pinky for ctrl/alt/shift). Since I've started trying to use more fingers, I've noticed that using a traditional, non split keyboard, is more painful, because it requires me to twist my wrists sideways. With my old way of typing, I would move the whole hand instead, so the wrist angle would stay roughly the same.

I'm merely a sighted user here, but I can personally attest that when you've mastered touch-typing, you can tell when you make a mistake and correct it without needing to look at the screen. It is a bit of an eerie feeling the first time you do it.

Full disclosure: I touch-typed this reply, and I made five mistakes when doing so, and fixed all of them without looking at the screen.

We use to have 7+-2 layers of thinking. When you program, you hold in these layers: what word are you typing, where are you typing, what problem are you solving, what parts of codebase are you changing. If you do not touchtype, you are wasting at least 1/9 of your brain's possibility. Each time you are interrupting your stare from a screen you actually performing some extra scanning job which gives you nothing except of fatigue.

Actually my first programming decision which I did in my tenths was to get rid of QWERTY and it was one of few things in my life which I did absolutely right. So telling me that touchtyping skill is not important is just counterproductive.

> I wouldn't put that much importance into a specific editor

vim does to my text editing experience as much as touchtype does to my text input, no not-touchtyping person can understand how cool is to make all kinds of edits without getting my fingers off the 5 rows of keyboard (3 rows plus digits plus space but in default configuration you also need Esc).