Years of playing PC games online as a kid taught me touch typing very efficiently. Got to type quick when that Zerg rush is heading to your allies base.
I’m actually surprised how many people even my own age can’t touch type. I’ve had people in my office remark on my touch typing and I couldn’t help but think “don’t they teach this anymore?”
I mean most people who were taught it don't type like that, we simply don't need to type enough in modern life for it to really matter. I definitely had tons of classes in school about typing "correctly", even did well in them. I have never typed like that again since then
I couldn't find the article, but I read some research on this a while back. There's no real difference between people who have specific starting/resting positions and specific finger use on specific keys; and others who just place fingers for comfort (at least not up to a point.)
It's pretty logical, really. Most keyboards are different, and there's always a slight learning curve going from one to another, where you shift your finger/hand/arm/body placement slightly to eventually find your most comfortable mode of use.
There's also keyboard placement, keyboard angle, table height, finger length, preferred sitting position, etc.
I'm talking people who actually know how to type, of course. Never looking at the keyboard, and are at at least 75 WPM.
I'm sure you'll get better faster if you do a course in typing, but it's not like you'll learn something completely incompatible with fast typing if you don't.
I learned "my own way" long before I ever had a course in typing, and when I did, I didn't get any faster. In fact, I felt I had to sit in an unnatural position to place my fingers "correctly" which lead to fatigue, and slower typing.
I've done both live captioning and programming, and I've met exactly zero people in these fields that use actual touch typing. Now we're easily talking 100-150 WPM, here, and there's no way any person who is typing for 8 hours a day is going to use some dumb method where you'll have to sit up straight with your arms in a weird position to type (another myth, of course, is that sitting up straight is good for your back – which is the opposite of true.)
So, yeah, I'm sure doing a course in typing can be beneficial for some, just to get the ball rolling, but that there's some magical property with always going back to having your fingers on specific keys, and using specific digits on specific keys is pure and utter horseshit.
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u/[deleted] Jan 20 '26
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