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Comment by hermitcrab | Hacker News Reader

After >30 years as a professional programmer I have finally learnt to touch type. While watching TV with the family I have been practising on typing programs. I am still fighting old habits and muscle memory, but I am getting there.

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I still haven’t learned to touch type even though I’m in my 30’s and a professional software engineer. Other than people making fun of me, I don’t see the point. Programming has so many symbols and it’s not like I’m limited by my typing speed as far as I can tell. And for most non-programming text entry I’m on a phone nowadays, so touch typing skill is moot.

What would you say is the advantage to learning to touch type at this point? Has it been particularly helpful in some way?

It is true that programming involves a lot of symbols, so touch typing doesn't make as much difference for programming as it does for, say, typing a novel. But spending more time looking at the screen, not the keyboard helps. And even a few percent improvement in productivity adds up over time.

Also, even as a programmer, you are probably writing quite a lot of prose in the form of documentation, emails etc.

I hardly ever do any text entry on my phone.

Hey. I am 37 and a week ago started to learn to touch type the proper way. It's not a problem for me to touch type, but I did it with like 4-5 fingers and Never could get past 80 wpm. Now I started to learn the 10 fingers method and I feel like I miss almost every stroke. So frustrating

Me too! After nearly 40 years of programming, though not all of it professional. It was worth it just for the improvements to my posture.

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