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Comment by ivraatiems | Hacker News Reader

I type 120 wpm using a bizarre method I acquired through trial and error as a kid. It uses mostly my thumbs and index fingers and has been described by observers as "disconcerting". But it works great for me, and about perfectly matches the speed of my thoughts. My typing teachers hated it. It's touch typing in the sense that I don't need to look at the keys, but it is definitely Not Right.

It does mean that I can't use "ergonomic" or split hand keyboards easily, though.

I have a couple different inexpensive Aula and similar mechanical keyboards I prefer to use.

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The whole premise of "correct" typing on a traditional keyboard is absurd. It's trying to force good ergonomics into a system that is simply incompatible with it. You're better off either making yourself compatible with the system, or vice versa.

I type "incorrectly" on traditional qwerty keyboards, too. I also type "correctly" on my split ergonomic keyboard, using the workman layout. As far as I can tell, I'm not any faster with either; but I definitely enjoy using the ergonomic keyboard more.

This sounds like me. I've been described as "high speed hunt and peck". I have slowed down a bit in the last decade or so, but I can still type fast enough for everything I want to do. I've had no reason to pursue anything different because it's not an impediment to my work.

I'd like to how the incidence of repetitive strain injury from typing compares between populations who follow a rigorous technique versus personalized. I've never had the slightest discomfort typing, albeit I'm sure I'm not in the upper echelons of typing quantity per unit of time either.

Try taking 3 1 minute typing tests back to back at your full speed and maybe you'll feel a little something. Any discomforts I had mainly revealed themselves under heavy loads like this. If you never type a lot in a row, it can be easy to miss

I did similar as a kid, weird random typing, mostly left hand, thumb used for some of the letters, etc. If you're willing to dedicate 2-4 weeks of fully immersed proper typing, you can definitely undo the old habits. Takes a bit longer to regain your old speeds, but it's mainly the very beginning that is frustrating. Whether that's worth it is hard to say. I use both shift keys now, and a split ergonomic keyboard. The numrow is easier to hit accurately as I have internalized the placement as well as the rows of letters after a lot more typing practice (columnar stagger rather than row stagger also helps, I think, I slide my fingers straight up and know which numbers are there).

Yeah, I've been told this. And I can type the "right" way at like 40-60 wpm. But I haven't seen any real reason to bother.

I also mostly use only my thumbs and index fingers, but probably only up to 60 words a minute because that is how fast (or slow) I think.

I always thought I was a touch typist because I rarely look at the keyboard. But then I got a keyboard with blank keycaps and realise how very much I rely on my peripheral vision.

I kind of wonder what the key difference is over 40 years for typing text vs code.

I type text at a rather slow rate due to poor training and never having really tried to improve, but when it comes to code I can output code sequences so much faster.

120 wpm using mostly thumb and index fingers sounds insane to me. I type using standard touch typing and can only get to about 60 wpm. I've always been a bit of a slow typist. Can I ask how you measured the 120 wpm?

Just the standard online typing tests you can find by googling. In fairness, 120wpm is a maximum. I'm often slower than that. But always over 100.

Edit: For those who are curious, I took this test: https://www.typing.com/student/typing-test/1-minute and got 116 wpm at 99% accuracy.

At https://www.typingtest.com/benchmark.php over two minutes, 117 wpm at 97% accuracy.

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