
Ask HN: Are any developers slow typers? - BostonBob
I know this may come off as silly, but I feel like I cant be the only one with this issue. I&#x27;ve been a professional developer for the past 5 years and I still feel a bit embarrassed at how slow I type compared to my co-workers and peer developers. Anytime I pair program, do a live demo, or even chat on slack I feel like I should hurry to keep up. On occasion, people would call me on it asking if I need a different keyboard to get more comfortable. Any developers also fall guilty as a slow typer? Have you done anything to try to improve your typing speed and actually made progress? Would really love to know.<p>-Bob
======
aquifer736
I was 25 when I started professional software development, and once I joined a
company with strong developers my typing really stuck out as poor. So when I
was 30 I forced myself to learn touch-typing and I think it's been invaluable.
It's certainly true that you do a lot of thinking when writing software, so I
think there's an upper limit on how much typing speed can help you. But the
ability to type fast really opens the door to making quick code changes, and
in turn this really helps when you're trying to find a good programming
approach. So for me, it's a skill that allows you to explore quicker, leading
to faster feedback and better decision making. It also makes it easier to
crank out any pesky emails/documentation that might come along, so you can get
back to coding asap! I always advise any junior devs I meet to invest the time
to get reasonably good at touch-typing, it just enables faster learning IMHO

~~~
rietta
Learning to touch type is the key. One way to really, really force it is to
get a keyboard that is completely blank as it discourages looking down.

~~~
aquifer736
yes although I just went with the painful self-discipline approach ;-)

The hardest part is when you make the switch to touch-typing but you're
initially slower than you were before. It takes a real effort not to cheat

------
rietta
I was never really a slow typer, but I am now faster than I have ever been
before since switching to Dvorak 4 years ago. I do want to point out that it
is not that Dvorak is so fast, but in order to switch as an adult who programs
for a living I had to dedicate hours of dedicated typing practice in the first
few months. The result of that is that I'm a significantly better typer than I
ever was before. I actually blogged about this a few years ago at
[https://rietta.com/blog/2014/02/14/my-touch-typing-
journey-c...](https://rietta.com/blog/2014/02/14/my-touch-typing-journey-
continues/).

------
oakesm9
I generally type with just 2 fingers on each hand and my touch typing skills
are pretty terrible. I've been programming professionally for about 6 years
and overall I would consider myself a fast developer. In my experience, you
spent most of your time thinking, not typing (hence why lines of code is a bad
measure of productivity) so typing speed != development speed.

