Hi Monkeys,
As many of you may know as an elderly millenial, I'm a few years older than the average monkey, and I never learned to touch type. "Computer class" in my elementary school was once a week doing very basic things on (even back then) ancient Commodore 64s.
While I've taught myself a decent bit of coding, I still use a bit of a modified hunt-n-peck method. I'm not exactly slow at 20-40 WPM, but I'm sure I could be much faster, and not looking down would probably reduce the number of typos that I need to go back and fix.
For those of you who can type well, particularly those that didn't learn at a very early age, how would you recommend learning? I'm impatient, and every time I try, I just get frustrated and go back to my old method, since I'm still faster with it. Right now I'm thinking of getting a Das Keyboard Ultimate with the blank keycaps and taping a keyboard diagram to my monitor to force myself to learn, but before I go out and drop $150 I was wondering if anyone else had better ideas.
Hey, if my MD who was at IB for 20 years can type with only his index fingers, you should be ok. I'm being completely serious.
We are the same age-ish right. I am right there with you, learned on Logos with the little turtle, oregon trail and math blasters, leisure suit larry, doom. Best way to to learn is to put a cardboard box over the keyboard. Cheapest and most cost effective way too.
Bringing back memories with Oregon Trail... anyway. I second covering the hands with whatever you want, you can also put one of those sleep masks over your eyes as well.
One trick that I did when I was younger was to type out the alphabet on the keyboard. Each time you hit a letter, bring your fingers back to the 'ready' position. That helps build the discipline to not hunt down letters, and builds muscle memory as to where they are along with matching the motion to the letter. It also helps keep you tied to the F and J keys so your hands don't wander around as you go. The 5 on the numpad has the same thing - but I never use it.
I still have a recurring fear that my entire family will die of dysentery lol
I’ve taught typing in adult education and your best bet is to get some software with games and typing drills to get better.
Try keybr.com, is good for people learning to touch type, but can also help people who are looking to squeeze out a bit of extra WPM.
this is a really good website op
In what type of cuck and beta situation does WPM matter? Are you a secretary or librarian? I type with one hand on my phone while eating or jerking off with the other for 99% of my work typing stuff. I'd be luck to type 5 words a minute.
Das is in no way a waste of money. Razer is a waste of money. Das is in the tier of Filco or Ducky, in that you'll pay a bit of a premium in order to get a solid product that is good to go out of the box. Which IMO is great for someone in OP's position, who does not know what wonders await when you go down the rabbit hole of high end keyboards.
Similar topic recently came up and thebrofessor mentioned Mavis Beacon teaches typing. Can second it. Buy the program and go through it, it will teach you far better than any online program.
Gonna disagree here too, typing is not something you need someone to teach you how to do. Nothing to it but to build that muscle memory.
It's $50 new and if you buy older editions can realistically get it for around $30. That's very little money to fret about imo.
Going to back two of the points listed in the replies: 1) get a cardboard cover so you can't see yourself type. It'll make your mind learn it. Whether you then want to use a typing game, or tape a page from a book to the side of your monitor and recreate it you'll force yourself the rythym. 2) Das Keyboard is definitely worth it. Just be aware what kind of switches you get in your''s because some are imperiously more sensitive than others (I refuse to use blues to this day due to how sensitive they are)
Go to Typeracer. If you're competitive, it will motivate you.
Mavis Beacon
Second this. at the risk of showing my age, this was used in my schools, everyone learned pretty quick.
delete
Fun fact we had some BS ice breaker thing with new interns and I wanted something cool and non-material to flex so I said I can type 160 WPM+ (true) and one of the directors said no fucking way what could that possibly look like and then I kind of pulled up a site did it on the spot and he was majorly impressed. I also did secure the return offer although the typing probably had 0 impact on that haha.
I 100% attribute how I learned to do that on Runescape when I was young and typing "Selling lobbies 200 GP ea minimum 10K" at the Grand Exchange or "Looking for quest partner for shield of arrav - I'm phoenix gang". Good times. But yeah you can also just practice on 10fastfingers or typeracer.
Nice
Recently went through a "typing transformation" and completely changed my style. Used to use index fingers @ 40wpm, now I use all fingers, touch-type etc @ 100wpm. What I'd recommend:
- Start by watching this video by Ali Abdaal (can’t link for some reason so type on YouTube: *How I Type Really Fast (156 Words per Minute)* ). Gives a good general overview of typing and how to improve speed
- Practice practice practice using Key.br, was invaluable for me
- Get a good keyboard. Personally, I recommend Logitech MX Keys. Quiet, sleek and very nice to use
For best results, take a hardline approach. The way I "converted" was to take one weekend and force myself to learn touch typing. No going back to only index fingers. It's hard, and your brain is like "WTF" for the first couple of days, but you'll adapt a lot faster than you think and your typing speed won't actually go down when changing to touch typing.
(Also, don't buy a course on touch typing. Biggest waste when there are so many free resources/guides out there)
https://www.daskeyboard.com/daskeyboard-4-ultimate/
Forget covering the keyboard, get yourself one of these bad boys. It’ll be a real struggle at first but once you master it, you’ll know where every single thing is, including symbols like @ and #. A guy in my banking class accidentally ordered one when we started and was too lazy to return it, their typing was like a machine gun 6 months in (particularly with the loud blue switches)
I started typing a long time ago and not looking at the keyboard. Thanks to my job as an accountant.
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