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Comment by im3w1l | Hacker News Reader

In what way(s) do they deviate from proper form?

It’s hard to say really, each person does things differently. Some people consider their pinkies too weak and only use the stronger three fingers.

I saw one video of a guy with a bone problem who was actually able use his thumbs to hit speeds in excess of 190.

Sometimes people will type properly but shift the home position depending on the word. I’ve even seen some people use 5 fingers on their left hand and one finger on their right hand.... quite astounding really.

One thing all of them have in common, which is excellent accuracy.

Trying to use your smallest finger to get all of the programming-relevant punctuation isn't going to make you happy as a programmer. I tend to just shift my hand over and alternate my ring and pinky fingers for the -=[]\;'./ keys.

That's a good point. I know I definitely do that for the -= keys... but then again, my proper form breaks down for the top row of the keyboard. That's my biggest weakness by far. For ,./;'[]\ I would argue that you should be able to use the proper finger just fine.

Also, fun fact, Dvorak has one major flaw if you are a CLI addict like I am. The command "ls -l" is typed entirely with the right pinky finger. If you want to know what it feels like on a qwerty keyboard, then simulate it by typing "p; 'p"

I struggled with this combination a lot, but eventually I drilled it into my fingers, and now I can type it totally naturally.

Here's a jaw-dropping video of Hunter Shaffer typing >200wpm for 60 seconds despite not using "proper" technique: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GrOhwPryAs

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