{"id":7765,"date":"2004-08-05T06:22:00","date_gmt":"2004-08-05T04:22:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/2004\/08\/05\/on-touch-typing\/"},"modified":"2005-05-22T10:20:56","modified_gmt":"2005-05-22T07:20:56","slug":"on-touch-typing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/2004\/08\/05\/on-touch-typing\/","title":{"rendered":"On touch typing"},"content":{"rendered":"<!-- google_ad_section_start -->\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft\" src=\"\/wordpress\/wp-content\/tn_20040805-keyboard.jpg\" alt=\"Keyboard\"\/>One of <a href=\"http:\/\/ask.slashdot.org\/article.pl?sid=04\/08\/04\/1919229&amp;tid=146&amp;tid=126&amp;tid=4\">today&#8217;s post<\/a> at <a href=\"http:\/\/slashdot.org\">Slashdot<\/a> asks an interesting question: should touch typing be taught in schools as mandatory subject?<\/p>\n<p>This is one of those questions where I have the side which I am almost fanatical about.  <b>Yes!<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Until recently, seeing a computer guy not using all 10 fingers to type made me all made and crippled inside.  Especially programmers.  Especially in our office.  It is as unprofessional as it can get.  Touch typing is the most basic computer skill.  If you don&#8217;t have it, what kind of programmer are you?  I have real problem with respect towards computer programmers who cannot touch type.  But, as I mentioned, until recently, I felt so strongly only about computer professionals.  Since some time now, I start to get the same feeling towards any computer user.<\/p>\n<p>Don&#8217;t you hate it when people who driving around don&#8217;t look in the mirrors, or turn their head to make sure the path is secure, or don&#8217;t show turn indicators when maneuvering?  It&#8217;s pretty ugly when regular cars behave this way.  But when professional drivers (taxi cabs, buses, police) do the same it is even worse.<\/p>\n<p>After all, touch typing is not that difficult to learn.  It takes only about a week or two.  During this time you learn to use fingers properly and you get used to the idea.  After two weeks you are pretty much touch typing.  The speed is horrible, but you are on the right way.  Just keep your fingers at place and your speed will increase dramatically with practice.  There are also tons of ways to learn touch typing.  You can take a course in almost any school or college.  You can get a book and study it by yourself.  You can use a program.  You can learn it for free or you can pay for you studies.  You can learn it anyway you like.  But &#8220;Just Do It&#8221; &copy; Nike.<\/p>\n<p>Even if you are fast typer with your 4 and half fingers, you will be amazed how faster you will get after learning touch typing.  If you think that you don&#8217;t need to type that much, you&#8217;ll be surprised how many more things are typable.  Unless you are touch typing you are avoiding (consciously or unconsciously) a lot of text.  It is similar to fork and knife usage in some way.  If you are in the restaurant with someone taking notice on your manners (business meeting, date, or whatever) and you don&#8217;t know how to use knife and fork properly, you will avoid ordering food that comes in large pieces.  Like stakes.  Why should you?  Learn the damn thing and get over with it.  It will save you more than two weeks during the next year only.<\/p>\n<p>If you need an example &#8211; I spent less than 5 minutes on this post, while not being an extremely fast typer myself.  <b>Learn it!<\/b><\/p>\n<!-- google_ad_section_end -->\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<!-- google_ad_section_start -->\n<p>One of today&#8217;s post at Slashdot asks an interesting question: should touch typing be taught in schools as mandatory subject? This is one of those questions where I have the side which I am almost fanatical about. Yes! Until recently, seeing a computer guy not using all 10 fingers to type made me all made &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/2004\/08\/05\/on-touch-typing\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">On touch typing<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<!-- google_ad_section_end -->\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1,62],"tags":[2416],"keyring_services":[],"class_list":["post-7765","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","category-technology","tag-thoughts"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":12196,"url":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/2010\/02\/22\/the-power-of-the-keyboard\/","url_meta":{"origin":7765,"position":0},"title":"The power of the keyboard","author":"Leonid Mamchenkov","date":"February 22, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Lifehacker covers an experiment which tried to compare the speed of different input methods. \u00a0As you might have guessed, full-size keyboard wins. Nobody should ever doubt the power of the full-size keyboard (+ touch-typing). \u00a0It's faster than pen and paper, and thus is faster than anything that imitates pen and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;All&quot;","block_context":{"text":"All","link":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/category\/general\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/02\/input_graph.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":15478,"url":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/2011\/09\/08\/unix-learning-tips-from-miguel-de-icaza\/","url_meta":{"origin":7765,"position":1},"title":"Unix learning tips from Miguel de Icaza","author":"Leonid Mamchenkov","date":"September 8, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Miguel de Icaza - a very well known programmer in Linux circles - shares a few tips to having a better experience in Unix environments. \u00a0Here is a summary of what he recommends: Read, learn, and memorize the \"Unix Programming Environment\" book by Kernighan and Pike. Read and learn the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;All&quot;","block_context":{"text":"All","link":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/category\/general\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":25949,"url":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/2016\/03\/16\/falsehoods-programmers-believe-about\/","url_meta":{"origin":7765,"position":2},"title":"Falsehoods programmers believe about &#8230;","author":"Leonid Mamchenkov","date":"March 16, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"I thought I've posted some of these links a while back but alas I can't find them in the archives. \u00a0Maybe I just thought I did. \u00a0So here they go with some new additions: Falsehoods Programmers Believe About Names Falsehoods Programmers Believe About\u00a0Time Falsehoods Programmers Believe About\u00a0Addresses Falsehoods Programmers Believe\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;All&quot;","block_context":{"text":"All","link":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/category\/general\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":24901,"url":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/2015\/10\/29\/swiftkey-goodness\/","url_meta":{"origin":7765,"position":3},"title":"SwiftKey goodness","author":"Leonid Mamchenkov","date":"October 29, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"For a few years now I've been a happy user of the SwiftKey app. \u00a0SwiftKey is a predictive keyboard for Android and iOS. \u00a0I was very skeptical when I tried it the first time, but my mind was blown almost instantly. \u00a0The app does not just make generic predictions T9\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;All&quot;","block_context":{"text":"All","link":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/category\/general\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"ninja themes","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/ninja-themes-500x278.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":21804,"url":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/2014\/05\/14\/code-org-learn-an-hour-of-code\/","url_meta":{"origin":7765,"position":4},"title":"Code.org &#8211; Learn an hour of code","author":"Leonid Mamchenkov","date":"May 14, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Maxim mentioned code.org to me a couple of times last week, but I didn't have the time to check it out. \u00a0Today, however, he said that \"Learn an hour of code\" was his homework for the computer class. \u00a0That got me quite interested. \u00a0After all, I was exploring looking for\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;All&quot;","block_context":{"text":"All","link":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/category\/general\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"code.org","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/code.org_-500x304.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":10350,"url":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/2006\/08\/16\/on-new-skillsets\/","url_meta":{"origin":7765,"position":5},"title":"On new skillsets","author":"Leonid Mamchenkov","date":"August 16, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"After reading this: Instead of only teaching journalism as a profession, they should think of journalism as a basic requirement for a good education. It's a skill they should be teaching everyone who gets a bachelor's degree, from now on. I remembered my own thinking about new skillset. While I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;All&quot;","block_context":{"text":"All","link":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/category\/general\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7765","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7765"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7765\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7765"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7765"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7765"},{"taxonomy":"keyring_services","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/keyring_services?post=7765"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}