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Comment by bluGill | Hacker News Reader

> but takes more time than you think, and definitely slows me down.

Are you sure? I mean have you done a real test with an independent observer using a stopwatch? Back in the 1980s Apple did run those tests and were able to setup many situations where an experience keyboard user was still faster with a mouse - but they all claimed to be faster with the keyboard. Now to some extent they were gaming the tests (not all situations where realistic), but enough were that we can confidently say that the mouse often is faster even when it feels slower.

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In my view, whether or not you're actually faster isn't nearly as important as whether or not you feel faster.

Feeling faster means closer to a flow state, and so more productive. Actually faster does not automatically translate to increased productivity.

In the end, I think the best method is the method that the individual is most comfortable with.

It really depends on the software someone uses.

Windows or macOS? It isn't going to compete with a twiddled Linux distro.

Use mouse-heavy programs like DAWs, Photoshop et al? You're going to have a bad time in those mouse-heavy programs if all your cursor usage is with arrow keys, getting further and further away from the speed-of-thought.

If all someone does is lurk the CLI and their IDE, great for them, they'll probably love it. For the average schmoe or digital creative, not so much.

Equally though, I do a good chunk of my computer usage with just a keyboard, but the right tool for the task is required for anything else, e.g., MIDI controllers, mouse, graphics tablet, touchscreen, TrackPoint, trackball etc. They're just options. Pros and cons to all of them.

The "extermination" mentality is an extreme view, and inherently very niche. That's without even getting into gaming, or users who do game dev.

I specified “work desk” for a reason. Of course I still have a mouse for gaming and music.

Shockingly, some work desks include MIDI controllers, mine included.

I replied to a comment and didn't leave a top-level comment for a reason.

I mean, sure, but Apple at the time also had a vested interest in showing mice were better for productivity.

IME, having actually worked on replacing an old mouse-less DOS package for a company in the past, it was 100% faster for the employees to use keyboard shortcuts for everything. In fact, it was their main complaint about the new package they were trying to substitute for it -- it slowed their workflow down dramatically. Some of that was down to unfamiliarity with mice but most experienced users of a given bespoke system that need to do quick data entry can mentally map out how many tabs it is to any given field, and I'd bet even money they can get where they need on any given data entry form faster than a person using a mouse.

In this era of web based UIs though, we've lost complete use of keys that can provide specialized functionality with one button press (what the F1-12 keys were designed for). Software just isn't designed to be keyboard-first for the most part these days.

Those test results are pretty irrelevant: https://danluu.com/keyboard-v-mouse/

I would like to see the results of much better testing, though.

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