Why I'm Learning To Type All Over Again ​And why you should too

[pietergen]

Learning a new keyboard layout is an alpha-nerd pursuit.

I came across a nice article in Popular Mechanics. It's about the Colemak layout, but it's interesting for non-Colemak user (such as me, I use an AdNW version). I don't agree with a lot of it, but find it funny nonetheless.

Some fun quotes:

Yes, I know. Learning a new keyboard layout is an alpha-nerd pursuit

Devotees for this format or that one will bury you in keyboard heatmaps, or statistics about finger-travel optimization and letter frequency even though it's ultimately so wrapped up in personal preference that you might as well be trying to argue "Star Wars vs. Star Trek" through to an objective conclusion.

I just sit there and carefully type out sentences like "Saint Rosa restores ornateness in rosaries" mumbling letters to myself aloud and laughing at how absurd it all feels.

and other layouts so obscure that they likely only have one (devoted!) user who is probably living in a literal cave.

Guilty as sin

Here's that link again.

Edit: typo

[Alkhar]

10 things that you woudnt believe !!!

Is DT becoming buzzfeed or what, seems that there is a lot of promoting this days ...

[ohaimark]

You won't believe what this clickbait says about your love life!

Yep, but that's the direction of the whole internet. This forum has a remarkable useful posts:spam/shitposting ratio.

I think that's the only reason we even notice stuff like this.

[fohat]

When and if I am able to retire from the "working world" I will seriously consider ditching the numpad and changing over to Colemak. It seems like an easy and logical move, but it is not practical when I have to help manage a number of other people's computers, as well as my own.

[zslane]

Yeah, I don't know what any of those alternate layouts is really supposed to do for me. I don't suffer from RSI and I already type faster than I need to. There's really no point in trying to retrain 35 years of entrenched muscle memory.

[BesselFunction]

I'm just now starting the switch to Colemak, and I can vouch for the increase in efficiency. I'm still not anywhere close to where I was with QWERTY, but through my typing lessons, I can definitely tell that my hands have to contort far less than I'm used to with QWERTY. I'm making the additional switch away from staggered keys as well, which is also much better than I'm used to, especially for touch typing.

[zslane]

I think if you're contorting your hands to type on a QWERTY keyboard, you're doing something wrong.

[kbdfr]

I still think all this fuss about optimizing finger travel and the like is just absurd
as long as you have to take your hand off the keyboard to use a mouse (or other pointing device).

[Techno Trousers]

I went cold turkey onto Colemak for about a year. I have to say that I loved it, once I got over the initial learning frustration. I am a 100 wpm typist in QWERTY, and probably got up to around 65-70 in Colemak at my fastest.

What I liked about it the most is that I could type for much longer periods without feeling any finger fatigue. It really is noticeably more comfortable.

But you'll notice I write about it in the past tense. I just had too many issues using it in my work. I have to use other people's computers from time to time, and my QWERTY skills declined to almost nothing as my Colemak skills improved. The funniest/worst times were when a vendor would be remoted into my workstation, and when they typed it would come out in Colemak. Really embarrassing.

So I'm like Fohat. Once I can retire from the rat race, I'll likely take up Colemak again, and spend my comfortable typing years working on those novels I have lurking in the back of my brain.

[Ray]

I am surprised the experiences are so similar here.
I tried AdNW for about a month and never got to the speeds I have after years of QWERTZ. But it feels more easy to learn than QWERTZ, and especially more comfortable to use.
I switched back to QWERTZ because I do not suffer from RSI, nor do I see any real improvement for my life. The moment I switched back and retrained, it felt like "this layout is so wrong on many levels, why is this still the standard?"

Of course there is no optimal layout for everybody, but QWRETY/Z is just aweful for anyone. I would advise anyone not proficient in QWERTY not learning it. Get/make a hardware adapter for whatever layout you learn instead.