undefined | Better HN

0 pointsdeno7y ago0 comments

> Qwerty has high percentage of combinations that require jumping rows or contorting your hand.

And my point is it doesn’t matter when your wrist is not glued to your desk. You don’t need to contort anything if your hand is free and relaxed over the keys. If something is far away, I just move my entire hand over there.

Look, here’s me typing “nice” using two different methods:

https://streamable.com/mlys1

(I’m just typing “hello world” at the end)

> I still get some [pain] from being a heavy typer, but I no longer experience the worst of the pain.

In the second example you can see my hands are completely relaxed, I’m not “contorting” anything, I could type like that for hours. Zero pain. None. Nada. Nil.

Colemak, Dvorak, etc, they’re all optimizing how to do least damage with the horrible typing method that no one ought to use in the first place.

0 comments

SkyPuncher7y ago

That's a bad example because you don't follow standard keying methods. In you're nice example, you're using your pointer finger to press the "c" key. Standard recommendations say both "c" and "e" keys should be handled by your middle finger on qwerty.

You're also typing incredibly slow where you can physically move your hand to avoid contorting your finger. At faster speeds, which I personally hit frequently when slacking or typing up emails, I can't be moving my hands all over the keyboard.

denoOP7y ago

> In you're nice example, you're using your pointer finger to press the "c" key. Standard recommendations say both "c" and "e" keys should be handled by your middle finger on qwerty.

Do you mean in the wrists down example? I used natural fingers and it was still horribly unpleasant.

> You're also typing incredibly slow where you can physically move your hand to avoid contorting your finger. At faster speeds, which I personally hit frequently when slacking or typing up emails, I can't be moving my hands all over the keyboard.

How do you figure that? I can easily hit 100 wpm and that’s way above my thinking speed already.

I take typing seriously. We can race and I’m going to win. Guarantee it. In addition, I can sustain that speed for an hour. Can you?

What do you think moving my hand entails anyway. It’s not going to the other room to pet the cat, it’s literally 0.5–1.0 cm that I don’t even think about… It’s what the brain figures out makes more sense than “contorting” fingers when you have the ability to do so, i.e. if your wrists are not artificially glued down to your desk.

denoOP7y ago

Or another way to think about it is it’s the home row moving around. Each hand has a dynamic <x,y> offset, units being keys.

It’s like JIT compilation for your typing… Instead of having AOT plan how to hit each key, with what finger, etc., the brain just figures out which finger is best positioned to hit the key at any given time, which varies depending on context.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

0 pointsdeno7y ago0 comments

> Qwerty has high percentage of combinations that require jumping rows or contorting your hand.

Look, here’s me typing “nice” using two different methods:

https://streamable.com/mlys1

(I’m just typing “hello world” at the end)

> I still get some [pain] from being a heavy typer, but I no longer experience the worst of the pain.

In the second example you can see my hands are completely relaxed, I’m not “contorting” anything, I could type like that for hours. Zero pain. None. Nada. Nil.

Colemak, Dvorak, etc, they’re all optimizing how to do least damage with the horrible typing method that no one ought to use in the first place.

0 comments

SkyPuncher7y ago

denoOP7y ago

> In you're nice example, you're using your pointer finger to press the "c" key. Standard recommendations say both "c" and "e" keys should be handled by your middle finger on qwerty.

Do you mean in the wrists down example? I used natural fingers and it was still horribly unpleasant.

How do you figure that? I can easily hit 100 wpm and that’s way above my thinking speed already.

I take typing seriously. We can race and I’m going to win. Guarantee it. In addition, I can sustain that speed for an hour. Can you?

denoOP7y ago

Or another way to think about it is it’s the home row moving around. Each hand has a dynamic <x,y> offset, units being keys.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse