# Typing question **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 15, 2016, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/typing-question/749056 "2016-03-15T12:48:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2016, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/typing-question/749056/41 "2016-03-17T15:01:28Z")
I don’t see how you can keep track of where your fingers are if you don’t have a place where you keep your fingers. Of course you don’t actually let them touch the keys most of the time, but you need a starting location to keep their relative locations mapped in your head. Otherwise you’d have to look. (I actually only wind up actually touching the home row when I stop typing with that hand. I just noticed-that. It slowly just moves back there.) ---
**Author:** ![naita](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naita/32/5862_2.png) [@naita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naita)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2016, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/typing-question/749056/42 "2016-03-17T15:33:49Z")
I touch type, but don’t adhere strictly to the rather too asymmetric “this is how it’s done” rules for the rows above and below “home” that are shown in the image linked in the OP. My long fingers get to press a few more keys, which shove everything on the top row to the right, and takes away some of the responsibilities of the left little finger. I wonder how common such changes of the norm are … ---
**Author:** ![curious11](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ac91a4/32.png) [@curious11](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/curious11)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2016, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/typing-question/749056/43 "2016-03-17T16:44:55Z")
> [@Scougs](#): > > That’s how I learned to type, and that’s how I still type. That’s how I’m typing right now. I can do it with my eyes shut, while holding a conversation, and can easily crank out 100 WPM. > > The single most useful thing I learned in school. Ditto for both! ---
**Author:** ![spamforbrains](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e274bd/32.png) [@spamforbrains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spamforbrains)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2016, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/typing-question/749056/44 "2016-03-17T16:51:01Z")
> [@](#): > > I start on the home row but I tend to use a hybrid method that is neither “correct” nor “hunt and peck.” I type pretty fast (around 90ish wpm) so it works for me I do that too. We had “keyboarding” in elementary school and they taught the “finger on the home row” method but over time I adjusted it a bit to speed up. I can hit 120 wpm on a good day. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2016, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/typing-question/749056/45 "2016-03-17T17:19:53Z")
I took a semester of typing in high school (1982). My father mandated it; he believed that knowing how to type was a good skill to have, and would save me money in college (since, in his own words: “you won’t have to hire a co-ed to type up your term papers”). I fought the idea, because I was concerned about my GPA, and I knew that I was unlikely to do well – in the words of my college fencing coach, I’m a “slow physical learner”, and it takes me a long time to master physical skills. In that class, we had to get up to 20 WPM on a manual typewriter to get an A (this was an all-boy Catholic high school, and I don’t think that they were too concerned about creating highly skilled typists). I practiced like crazy, and I was eventually able to just get to 20 WPM for the final. I still use home-row / touch-typing, and as others have already shared, it’s been a tremendous godsend, as I work on (and write on) computers on a daily basis, both for my career, and for my hobbies. I now type at about 75 WPM. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2016, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/typing-question/749056/46 "2016-03-17T17:49:38Z")
> [@bob\_2](#): > > I never learned to touch type, but I used to work in an office next to two very experienced typists. One generally did audio work. Various people, including me, would dictate onto tape for her to type up. It used to fascinate me that, with an earpiece on one ear and typing nine to the dozen, she could carry on a conversation at the same time. I remember typing some document in an office setting, and the radio was on. I started whistling the tune while typing and another guy in the office asked, incredulously, “Are you whistling while you’re typing?!” 😃 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/typing-question/749056.md?page=2)