You know, around here nothing’s too trivial to blog about. NOTHING.
My carpal tunnel’s acting up, so I went to buy an ergo keyboard today. (I chose the MS Natural Ergo Keyboard 4000.) That got me thinking about the joys of touch typing, and how pleased I am that Microsoft isn’t mucking around with key placement…all my function keys (and the Windows key) sit where they should, my enter, backspace,and shift keys are double-wide, my 6 key Insert-Home-PageUp-etc grouping is perfect…just as it should be.
You know why this is so important to me? Because I’ve been touch-typing for about a zillion years. Touch-typing is to computers what proper indexes are to OLTP databases. Sure, you can get by without it, but it’s going to make for a long and painful career.
I might’ve let it go at that, but then I saw this:
I took typing in middle school, two years of programming in high school, worked as a computer intern and web guy in my early teens and 20s, and so on and so forth in college. You know what really got me typing fast? Chat rooms. I wanted to be able to keep up with the conversation and still read – it really meant something to me – so I got good at it. Creating Office files for college, programming in Windows, and working in SQL Enterprise Manager (and then SSMS) got me completely hooked on shortcuts, and I’ve never gone back.
We’ve had our daughter typing on the computer since she was around 8…we’ve gotten her games and apps, and we chat with her in instant messenger, and have her type school reports. She’s not fond of it, but it will serve her well for the rest of her life. The boys are in for it too, once they’re old enough. Even now, at 5 and 2, we’re having them use the old laptop to play around – get their favorite youtube videos, play with MS Paint, whatever…just to get them familiar with it all.
I’m still astounded at the percentage of computer professionals I see hunt-and-pecking, or some hybrid form of typing. So I blog it here. Do whatever it takes: get a program, find something free online, get in chatrooms, practice transcribing pieces of text, do whatever it takes to become fast at typing. It will do you nothing but good.
Happy days,
Jen
Thought this was pretty amusing. I never learned how to type correctly, but can probably get close to 70-80 WPM without too much trouble, especially if I know what I’m going to type already. Of course, a lot of that comes from text adventure games, needing to troubleshoot my DOS problems, or just wanting to be done with my essay/term paper as quickly as possible. I was even faster as 5 finger typist than some of my friends who had taken typing as a class. Of course, I don’t have any style, but it gets the job done.
I’ll have to see about starting the kid on typing soon. Right now we don’t have much in the way of papers and she likes to send IMs so that could be a start. Guess we’ll go from there and see how it works out. She’s still not gonna get a real computer in her room, though.
Peter,
I’m not sure I’m preaching about learning to type RIGHT, so much as learning to type WELL. I think if you type fast, without having to look at the keyboard and without permanent injury, I’m not going to get on your case.
We’ve given the girl a computer of her own – she’s 11 now – but I’m sure we’ll need to install something safety-conscious soon. She’s a very responsible kid, and we’ve talked about internet safety, but better safe n all that jazz…
Ooh – without getting hurt. Knew I was doing something wrong. 🙂
I didn’t figure you were talking to folks like me. I agree that people should know how to type well if they’re around computers for any length of time and use the keyboard a lot. I just find it amusing that I type faster than several who have taken keyboarding/typing courses. Of course, it’s all down to what you do every day. I can’t imagine the torture of writing so much ad-hoc SQL by being a two-finger typist. That would be horrible.
You may want to look at something like OpenDNS.com for your daughter – just to help proactively keep out the bad stuff. They just introduced a free, no sign-up requited family friendly filter to block out malware, adult sites, etc. You just change the DNS addresses on the box and you’re good to go. May be worth putting in as a backup. For our part – we’re just keeping the family PC in the family room. It’s not even close to a concern right now as she’s still young, but it works for us.
Yes, when I started working my first “real” job I was shocked by the number of techs I saw hunting and pecking (and their spelling). When I was a senior in high school my Mother (Mom’s know best) made me take a typing class because, in her words, “You’re going to have to write term papers and so you better learn to type.” Now I look at it as the #1 skill my Mother forced upon me; I’m so glad she did even though I didn’t understand at the time. I don’t know how I could’ve gotten through all those Windows and Linux command lines if I couldn’t type!
Pingback: Tweets that mention SQL Awesomesauce » Blog Archive » Learn to Type -- Topsy.com
She will be amazing at typing. When I was 8 I started typing my mother’s stories for her. A default typing class in high school continued my already solid foundation. And then as you said, chat rooms.
Y i’ve often said that typing was the best class i took in HS as well. I didn’t know it at the time but y, it was fabu. And trying to get my daughter to understand why she needs it has been hard but her school is starting to require that things be typed so she’s just barely starting to get it now.
On a slightly different note… man doesn’t it just piss you off to be trying to talk someone through something over their shoulder and they can’t type. It takes all my strength to not dump them out of the chair and do it myself.
Nice comments, guys! I’m not alone in my dedication to typing (, she typed).
Sean, I know…there should be a new rule of etiquette that says you can do just that, if the person’s typing slower than, say, 1.5x their age WPM…
I find it amazing that so many people also took typing in high school because their mothers told them they’d need it for term papers in College. That’s exactly what my Mom told me and why I took typing. I’m so glad that I did learn to type at that time because I certainly have needed it throughout my career.
I graduated from high school in 1982 and we had two diploma offerings: regular and college-prep. To get the college prep diploma you had to (among other math, grammar and science requirements) take a year of typing. Thank goodness, since much of my adult life has been spent at the keyboard.
I’m also a fan of the Microsoft Natural Elite keyboard. Seven years ago our security admin came over to my desk at work, unplugged my keyboard without asking and plugged in a Natural as I said “Hey, come on, I don’t need that thing.” He just said “Use it for a week, you’ll fumble around on it for a few days but I bet you end up thanking me for it.” He was right.
Learned proper typing in highschool. MUDs in college built up my speed.