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Comment by yuhe00 | Hacker News Reader

Keyboard layout matters. I used to type around 80-85 WPM on a standard keyboard with QWERTY layout. A little more than a year ago, I started getting into custom mechanical keyboards and built a split ortho Ergodox and switched to Colemak all in one go, and have had to re-learn how to type. You can see my progress here:

https://www.keyhero.com/profile/yuhe00/

As you see, I'm quite a bit faster now then I was before. Not to mention the added benefit of reduced risk of RSI. It's been an interesting experience to completely rebuild muscle-memory. For the first month or so, I was not very productive, but it was during a not-so-busy period ;) In my opinion, it's a good investment for anyone who types a lot as part of their profession.

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I switched to using the Dvorak keyboard layout several years ago and haven’t looked back. Never focused much on typing speed but I feel very well with Dvorak in terms of it reducing the amount of finger movement necessary.

When I switched I bought a TypeMatrix 2030 USB with two skins — one with Dvorak layout printed on it and one that was all black. Used the printed skin for like a week or so before switching to the black skin. Had no idea where almost any keys were but this forced me to learn where the keys were very quickly. Only took about three days from not knowing where any keys were to being able to touch type Dvorak quite well.

After having used the TypeMatrix keyboard and Dvorak layout for many years I finally found a mechanical keyboard that looked very compelling. I read about it a bit and decided to go for it and am very glad I did. The ErgoDox EZ Shine. It’s programmable so I defined a Dvorak-based layout for it that was similar to the layout of the TypeMatrix. One of the best things I ever did was to buy the ErgoDox EZ Shine keyboard, it’s great :D

My layout: https://configure.ergodox-ez.com/keyboard_layouts/qppwjy/edi...

How do you insert spaces with that layout?

The ⎵ symbol represents spacebar.

Ah, it was showing up as a box in my browser

I switched to Dvorak then Colemak then Carpalx. The most interesting part to me was that switching a keyboard cold turkey seemed to only take about a week of solid use before I got used to it. I think when a lot of people thing of switching keyboards they think "it took me years to get fully comfortable with Qwerty" and it scares them away or causes them to switch back in the first day or two thinking it'll take months.

I also vouch for my hands feeling better after the switch... I can't type in qwerty for extended periods of time without getting cramped but I rarely run into issues with other layouts. To be honest this is probably more important/impactful for me than speed.

Is that due to the layout itself or the fact that you are a) probably spending more time practicing (or at least focusing on improving) and b) unlearning bad habits you may have had when typing QWERTY?

Everybody is different, but there are plenty of people that type faster than 85 WPM with QWERTY.

Also, I'm not saying there's no reason to switch. I can believe some alternative layouts are more comfortable and/or better for your hands (these are far more important than raw speed, anyway). I'm just not convinced on the claims as to the size of improvements.

Either way, I can totally get behind self-improvement.

Oh, I think you're spot-on. I've definitely spent more time consciously practicing typing and I used to have some bad habits when typing QWERTY (e.g. using the wrong shift for certain characters or typing 'Y' with my left hand). In fact, what initially prompted my interest in custom ortho keyboards was trying to rectify some of my bad habits in QWERTY and finding it really painful on my wrists to touch-type the "proper" way using a standard staggered keyboard.

I think the biggest benefit for me has been exactly that - taking a whole new look at a skill I thought I had figured out - Or going beyond what I thought was my limit by approaching it in a new way. I think the numbers and WPM don't really matter, but it's a nice way for me to personally quantify my improvement and progress over time. That said, I think it would've been impossible to for me to do all this without discarding the familiar (QWERTY) and starting from scratch. In that sense, the layout matters.

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