
The QWERTY myth (1999) - dsr12
http://www.economist.com/node/196071
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bediger4000
This is just a lame re-hash of Leibowitz and Margolis, "The Fable of the
Keys". Sometime in the 90s, I printed out a copy of "The Fable of the Keys"
from CU Denver's library microfiche. I was very disappointed. The paper has no
original research at all, it's just ragging on other's research that Leibowitz
and Margolis don't like. The whole paper reads like they started with the
conclusion ("markets don't fail" maybe, or "path dependence doesn't exist")
and tried to assassinate various studies that showed the opposite of their
conclusion. Don't get me wrong, it's very possible that the Dvorak keyboard
isn't very good, or it's worse than QWERTY. Leibowitz and Margolis just didn't
show either conclusion. I'm really surprised that this paper has gotten as
much citation as it has.

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ggreer
"There is no market failure." cuts both ways. If QWERTY dominates Dvorak, why
does Dvorak continue to exist? It seems to me that any marginalized standard
must have at least _some_ advantage, otherwise it would go extinct.

~~~
kazinator
By that reasoning, magnetic bracelets must have some advantage.

