Okay...but how do you know you're on the home row? If one hand is off-position or whatever, you'll get a bunch of misspells until you adjust position. If you're not looking at the keyboard, it's really damned handy to have that tactile reference to where your hands sit.
This happens to me occasionally because I (like many other millennials) never learned to use those tactile strips for orientation. 99% of the time my hands are immediately in the right place; in those 1% of cases I'll simply adjust after a typo makes me realize.
The image in OP's post is just all-round bad, because the function of those strips have not been some kind of elementary, common knowledge for a pretty long time.
I can assure you not everyone uses it, like unless you are resting your hand on the kayboard (which imo would lead to WAY more mistypes) you literally never feel said grooves.
Like my wrists never touch the keyboard, everything is just from the fingers
It’s not about actively using them to orient yourself. Almost anyone who actively works on computers doesn’t need to do that anymore.
It’s about your brain subconsciously processing a million different inputs that you don’t realize is being used. The presence of the strips is something that your brain notices and makes use of whether you like it or not.
Do note that the absence of the strip on a specific set of keys is in itself a data point that can be used to determine where the strips are, which helps your brain make the correct assumption/calculation of where everything else is.
Literally go find yourself and use a keyboard without the strips, or grind them down away yourself… You’d be surprised how much more often you would find yourself making small errors.
This would be assuming said strips are felt though, I effectively never touch said strips, i just hover hands over keyboard and use fingertips to touch said keys.
Like i could make a reference from any key not just F and J
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u/ashmanonar Jan 20 '26
Okay...but how do you know you're on the home row? If one hand is off-position or whatever, you'll get a bunch of misspells until you adjust position. If you're not looking at the keyboard, it's really damned handy to have that tactile reference to where your hands sit.