> It takes two seconds to decide upon which special-function key to press. Deciding among abstract symbols is a high-level cognitive function. Not only is this decision not boring, the user actually experiences amnesia! Real amnesia! The time-slice spent making the decision simply ceases to exist.
That's not my experience at all. Once you learn a keyboard shortcut, it doesn't take two seconds to recall it. Were his tests on expert users, or on beginners?
Sure ctrl z everyones got down. But what about alt k to kill that one process in that one program you have to keep fixing for that one client?
Not really.
It ends up in a weird situation where if someone asks what the keyboard binding for, say, inserting a row into a org-mode table, I wouldn't be able to answer. Something with maybe a c in it, and a '-', not sure? Yet, once in the situation that needs it, the fingers move by themselves.
Also related, musicians don't spend two seconds figuring out how to play a note.