# When geeks type
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-geeks-type/233163
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [March 8, 2004, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-geeks-type/233163 "2004-03-08T19:02:33Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)
#### Post date: [March 8, 2004, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-geeks-type/233163/1 "2004-03-08T19:02:33Z")
Can you touch-type with your eyes closed and do your typing teacher proud?
Do you slowly h-u-n-t-a-n-d-p-e-c-k your way through the day, cursing the person that laid out the keyboard that way?
Or, do you type quickly, but just using one or two fingers?
A quick survey of my ofice shows we’re all doing some sort of fast two or three finger thing, and we’re all ID management and security geeks.
How about you?
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### Author:  [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)
#### Post date: [March 8, 2004, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-geeks-type/233163/2 "2004-03-08T19:10:08Z")
I can touch-type but I tend to look down occasionally to make sure my fingers are where they’re supposed to be. The only place I use just a couple of fingers is on the numeric keypad.
My official typing speed is 55WPM but that was on a typewriter, I’m probably much faster on a PC keyboard. And I was probably the worst one in my typing class in high school, I was probably around 25WPM at the time! My teacher even put a sheet of paper over the keys to make sure I wouldn’t look at my hands.
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### Author:  [@liirogue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/liirogue)
#### Post date: [March 8, 2004, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-geeks-type/233163/3 "2004-03-08T19:11:03Z")
If I have to, I can touch type with my eyes closed. I usually keep my eyes on the screen, but sometimes I look down to make sure I’m placing my fingers correctly.
Why do I suddenly hear shouts of nerd? 😃
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### Author:  [@Nightsong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nightsong)
#### Post date: [March 8, 2004, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-geeks-type/233163/4 "2004-03-08T19:37:40Z")
I touch type, but I’d give a typing teacher fits: my fingers are all over the keyboard, not hovering over the ‘home keys’ like a good little touch typist should do. 😛
(Not my fault I have small hands, and can’t always reach all the keys comfortably depending on the keyboard.)
Speed? Dunno, haven’t timed it any time recently. The last time I did, I was getting 80-85 wpm on a plain-ol’ electric typewriter. However, I can type quickly enough to occasionally get a computer to bleep unhappily at me, under the right circumstances. (The ‘too much input from keyboard to handle! Help!’ bleep. One of the systems I need to use occasionally is an older mainframe via remote log-in and this is the one that I usually type too quickly for.)
The others I know? Two fingers, or hunt and peck: I don’t know anyone else who touch-types with any degree of proficency.
* * *
\<\< Whee! \>\>
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### Author:  [@Hal\_Briston](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hal_Briston)
#### Post date: [March 8, 2004, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-geeks-type/233163/5 "2004-03-08T19:53:55Z")
Reasonably fast typist, four fingers (index and middle), generally no looking at the keyboard.
I’ve always been thankful that I got into computers in the days of the text adventure. 🙂
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### Author:  [@Missy2U](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Missy2U)
#### Post date: [March 8, 2004, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-geeks-type/233163/6 "2004-03-08T19:59:14Z")
Last test I took I was over 100 WPM.
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### Author:  [@Anonymous\_Coward](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anonymous_Coward)
#### Post date: [March 8, 2004, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-geeks-type/233163/7 "2004-03-08T20:05:00Z")
I’m a fast but sloppy touch typist. Generally I don’t look at the keyboard unless it’s to start typing (sometimes I use the tabs on the home keys, sometimes not), but I backspace a lot which brings my official WPM down.
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### Author:  [@Ponder\_Stibbons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponder_Stibbons)
#### Post date: [March 8, 2004, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-geeks-type/233163/8 "2004-03-08T20:10:03Z")
[Old Timer Mode] Shoot! You kids got it easy today, _easy_ I tells ya! I learned to type on a manual typewriter! That’s right, all gears and levers no electricity in sight! And in the snow! Marching uphill the whole way!!! [/Old Timer Mode]
Last time I took a test (almost 20 years ago), I came in at 70wpm. I don’t think I’ve slowed down too much over the years. 😛
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### Author:  [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)
#### Post date: [March 8, 2004, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-geeks-type/233163/9 "2004-03-08T20:11:30Z")
The single most useful class I ever took in high school was a personal typing class. Every day that work at a keyboard (pretty much every working day), I bless my typing teacher.
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### Author:  [@viking](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/viking)
#### Post date: [March 8, 2004, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-geeks-type/233163/10 "2004-03-08T20:11:40Z")
I used to hunt-and-peck at some slow speed. Never really measured it. But I kept being beat to the punch on IRC, so I resolved to finally learn to touch-type properly. Problem was I could not stop myself from looking at the keyboard to save my life. So I told my OS to use a Dvorak layout. Then I opened a small window with the Dvorak layout in a corner of the screen. Now, there was no point at all to looking at the keyboard, as all the keys were wrong anyway 🙂 That dropped my typing speed to about 5 words a minute, but after a few days I didn’t need the layout on screen anymore, and after a couple of weeks I was back up to the speed I had hunt-and-pecked at previously. Since then it’s been getting faster all the time, though I still haven’t timed myself or anything. Not sure I want to know, really. I type fast enough. And reasonably accurately, unless I’m thinking about it or being timed 🙂
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### Author:  [@jastu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jastu)
#### Post date: [March 8, 2004, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-geeks-type/233163/11 "2004-03-08T20:24:57Z")
My kids laugh at the way I type. I learned to touch type back in the days of typewriters so I still tend to pound the keys. I haven’t mastered that flat hand tap.
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### Author:  [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)
#### Post date: [March 8, 2004, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-geeks-type/233163/12 "2004-03-08T20:26:13Z")
Touch typing was the most useful course I took in High School. It gave me a skill to fall back on – I can do 60 wpm and get a temp job as a typist when things are going badly.
I watch the screen, but can follow copy if I need to (it’s harder). I don’t have to watch my fingers.
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### Author:  [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)
#### Post date: [March 8, 2004, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-geeks-type/233163/13 "2004-03-08T20:32:15Z")
I touch type. When I was in high school we had just switched over to have a gender mix in all classes, so boys were forced to take typing or home economics and girls were forced into shop class. I took typing because I thought that I might one day want to be a writer…
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### Author:  [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)
#### Post date: [March 8, 2004, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-geeks-type/233163/14 "2004-03-08T20:35:18Z")
I touch type. I never took a class - I just picked it up somewhere. Last time I tested myself, I was working as a computer guy, and I was at about 95 wpm. I might have gone down a bit since then, since I don’t work with computers any more.
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### Author:  [@Dragwyr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dragwyr)
#### Post date: [March 8, 2004, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-geeks-type/233163/15 "2004-03-08T20:37:12Z")
I touch type and I’m an IT person. I took a semester of typing in HS and have been using it every day since. I can type average about 60 wpm. At the height of my helpdesk days, where we had to document every call we took I easily was up to 90 wpm.
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### Author:  [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)
#### Post date: [March 8, 2004, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-geeks-type/233163/16 "2004-03-08T20:57:06Z")
I touch type. I started taking lessons in elementary school. In true old-fogey fashion, I learned on a manual typewriter, which means that I learned to strike with even pressure with every finger, lest some characters come out lighter than others on the page.
One thing that’s changed about my typing style is that I’ve noticed that now I only shift with the left shift key, even for left-handed capitals. This doesn’t really slow me down, but sometimes I become aware that I’m reaching awkwardly and I have to concentrate to type the letter and move on.
Do kids today start learning with the same lame stuff we learned with? Making home-row words such as “a lad has a sad lass” and such?
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### Author:  [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)
#### Post date: [March 8, 2004, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-geeks-type/233163/17 "2004-03-08T23:29:14Z")
I touch type, and I’m fairly fast – haven’t been timed in years, though. Anyone who’s had an IM conversation with me can vouch for me, though.
Learned the summer before 9th grade, but didn’t get fast till I was in grad school, when I had a part-time office job and did all my own typing for school. (Last two years of college, my bf typed most of my papers for me.)
Work in publishing – not all my coworkers touch-type, and I feel for the ones who don’t.
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### Author:  [@ComeToTheDarkSideWeHaveCookies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ComeToTheDarkSideWeHaveCookies)
#### Post date: [March 8, 2004, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-geeks-type/233163/18 "2004-03-08T23:39:15Z")
Touch-type. Home-row nubs are toyed with while contemplating my next passage. Along with being able to play sports and shower with my teammates…0:)…I’d say that typing was one of two good things I got out of highschool.
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### Author:  [@Chastain86](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chastain86)
#### Post date: [March 8, 2004, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-geeks-type/233163/19 "2004-03-08T23:47:12Z")
My brother taught me to type in 4th grade or so, around the time we got our first home computer. (A PC Junior) :rolleyes:
Last I was tested (more than 10 years ago now) I clocked in at around 75 wpm. I’m sure it’s comparable now, but I find myself slowing down a lot more these days, since I attempt to think about what I’m saying before I say it.
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### Author:  [@SmackFu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmackFu)
#### Post date: [March 8, 2004, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-geeks-type/233163/20 "2004-03-08T23:49:08Z")
I’m much more accurate in touch typing if I look at the screen. Not so useful if you’re transcribing notes or something, but for programming or extemporaneous typing I get along just fine.
I’m sure instant messaging is having an effect on kids’ typing skills. When it was just a skill used for school, who cares… but when your friends are waiting on you in a conversation, it starts to matter.
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