Adventures in Keyboarding (Part II)

2016-03-11

Some further observations from my attempts to become a better typist.

The Workman Layout

I love it; no regrets. However, if you are already good at QWERTY and your hands aren't suffering, I wouldn't recommend switching unless you think it would be fun or interesting. I switched because I didn't want to carry over my bad QWERTY habits as I learned to touch type properly, and because it seemed like a cool optimization, but QWERTY's strength as the universal default (until we start talking about QWERTZ and that pesky Swiss keyboard with its elusive "@") is probably reason enough to use it.

The layout of the keys is wonderful. Many common words just fly.
On a day to day basis, the layout is great. It was easy to install on OS X and is even easier on Ubuntu (built in). With both you can use the menu bar to switch back and forth for other people to type.
The preservation of the important shortcuts is very useful in the short term. The position of the command key is relatively constant between my different keyboards, so shortcuts can be done without looking down (and stay on the left side, useful in combination with the mouse).
Like any deviation from a ubiquitous standard, there are still pain points.
- My custom vim command mapping works brilliantly (I like it even more than the original layout) but is a problem when someone else wants to use my machine (one could probably define a vim macro to swap between the standard commands and my new ones). I have my vimrc in a git repository on bitbucket, so it's usually very quick to transfer it to a new unix-based system.
- You cannot use the layout when using very barebones environments or miscellaneous machines. This was especially aggravating when (already frustrated) I have been forced on a couple of occasions to log into my Ubuntu machine in some sort of "safe mode" which can't remap the keys. Until I can buy a keyboard with workman built in (you can do this for Dvorak) I am out of luck in that case. There will always also be situations in which I don't have control over the layout (typing things into collaborator's machines, using Windows machines attached to scanners and printers, etc.)

Learning to Type

I have switched to other training tools from keybr.com. That site is highly recommended for learning a new layout from scratch but once you have the lowercase letters down, it's probably time to move on. For learning capital letters and symbols, I got a lot of use out of TypingClub. Once you have all the keys down, it's time to move to the venerable TypeRacer or something similar. This is the way to practice because
- Unlike the tools above, it only highlights the word you are looking at, and the text you enter appears in a separate field. I think that is very important, and increasing speed involves learning to type entire words, without error. Watching as each character is entered (as is unfortunately the case with most incidental practice) encourages one to confirm each one and correct if needbe, when the goal should be to approach 100% accuracy.
- It gives you natural text to type (albeit low on symbols, so supplement with something else to learn those well if you want to write a lot of code!).
- Your score/speed suffers greatly if you make many typos.
My biggest problem is rushing. I want to be able to type as fast as I think, but I cannot do so yet, so I inevitably try to go faster than I can accurately type (which is somewhere in the 75-85 wpm range, but slower when I have to write source code which involves more special characters). Related in my tendency to still want to "burst" on easy words, but speed and accuracy seem to be increased when I focus on consistent speed and flow. I think that these tips are a very well thought-out and concise set.
I have resigned myself to the asymmetry of the standard keyboard layout, and have sold my TypeMatrix. Being able to move between machines is worth it, and with a quality standard keyboard (from Das Keyboard) and proper posture I find that my hand pain has disappeared.

Speed Typing

This is not something that I should be thinking about. However, I like to practice typing on typing websites, which show you your speed very prominently.

Again, the natural idea that there is a tradeoff between speed and accuracy is a false one. In any real usage, making a mistake means having to delete that mistake, which will slow you down unless your error rate is very, very, very low. Also, trying for consistent speed and flow seems to be more effective (at this point) than trying to type easy words as fast as physically possible. For practicing, an error rate of 0 is your goal. That said, here are things I have noticed help me go faster:
Pretend you are playing a musical instrument
- Assume proper posture. This actually makes a difference, especially if you are a sloucher like me - your fingers coming in at a low angle can create inaccuracy.
- Relax. Float over the keys.
- Try to get into a "flow", easily progressing over the words in their natural rhythm. This is what musicians are doing with their crazy wobbling around, and it seems to also work with typing.
- Drill slow/fast/medium. First, go as slow as you want, getting everything perfect. Then go very quickly to try and warm up the processes of linking things. Then, go actual speed.
Look ahead (exactly) one word. You can hold this word and the one you are typing in mind, it seems, and this will prevent a lot of pauses. [This is the only useful tip I got from reading about extremely fast typist Sean Wrona, whose main advice seems to be "start in childhood and develop your own intuitive style which frees you to improve your speed by not always using the same finger for each key."]
For some reason I was watching a video of someone playing a speed-typing game . I was surprised by a comment that they prefer that the keys to press scroll faster, so that they are forced to recognize small patterns without being distracted by larger structures. This seems to also be true for speed typing: it's better to not get bogged down in the sentence structure.