this post was submitted on 24 Nov 2024
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Sounds like I'm glad "home row" style typing fell out of favour. It may be the theoretically fastest way to type eventually, but it seems to lead to pretty rigid behaviour. Adapting to new things as they come along and changing your flow to move with them instead of against them is just a much more comfortable way to live. Even if I only type 80% as fast.
I have no idea what you mean by "fell out of favour". Does your keyboard not have pips on F and J? People still touch type. Dunno what to tell you.
You're getting hung up on "home row". You still have to move your hand from the keyboard to the mouse and back. It's the same problem, whether or not you know how to type well and stare at your hands, except now you have to add steps for "look at the screen" and "look back at your hands".
Fell out of favour in that it isn't taught as "the correct way to type" any more. Largely because most devices you type on now wouldn't even have physical keys. So learning home row typing for the occasional time the thing you are typing on is a physical full sized keyboard just disrupts the flow of everything else.
Being perfectly optimal isn't as productive as it feels, especially when it leads to resistance to change and adapt.
Home row is absolutely still taught as the "correct" way to type. Source: kids are in elementary school
Yup. My kids learned how to type properly, and they're in elementary school. And no, their teachers aren't boomers, they're a mix of millennials and gen z.
That's great. It seems like Gen Z didn't learn typing. Maybe I'm over generalizing, but my three niblings can't type for shit. The only things they know about computers are what I've taught them and then what they learned outside of school using the computers their mom and I got them.
That doesn't mean they weren't taught, they probably just didn't practice. My kids (elementary school) play Minecraft, write stories in my computer, and like searching for stuff online (Amazon and YouTube).
That said, we don't let them use tablets or phones very often, because we don't want them getting that much screen time. So it could come down to parenting. That said, I'm a software engineer, and I'd teach them if the school didn't (in fact, I started teaching my first, and stopped because they taught it in school).
What I don't understand is they teach cursive when that's quite useless. IMO, they should spend that time on more typing practice and maybe calligraphy (much cooler than cursive).
Yeah fuck cursive. Bury it in a dump and then set the dump on fire. My handwriting now is mostly regular, with cursive flourishes and joined letters here and there that I picked up. My handwriting is terrible for what that's worth. I want to go fast like a keyboard and it ends up looking bad.
These kids are older, 21, 15, and 14. They're such cool little shits. The younger two were stuck on Minecraft or specifically videos of adults playing Minecraft and screaming like fucking idiots. I'll never understand the appeal.
The youngest, I taught to play Superhot with mouse and keyboard and she was a total natural at age 11. Jealous of that neuroplasticity for sure.
They used to beg to come stay with us on the weekend. I loved it, but many times we just didn't have the energy after working all week, so we said no. Now they don't want to hang out with us at all, which is sad. So it goes.
My kids like it too, and I ended up banning those videos. I told them I'm fine with things like learning to use red stone, but they're not allowed to watch regular Let's Play or "challenge" videos. In other words, educational content is fine, entertainment needs to be vetted by us, which is a fancy way of saying "no."
If the video says, "Minecraft, but...," they're not allowed to watch it. Simple as.
So my kids are way better than me with red stone, which is awesome. They make elevators, traps, and all kinds of other stuff, which is dope. They're also not allowed to play F2P nonsense with MTX, so they tend to play creative, sandbox-y games (mostly Minecraft). They used to complain, but when the alternative is no computer use, they adapt (oldest still whines about Fortnite, but that's a hill I will die on).
Good work. I'm not cut out for parenting and I don't want to bring kids into this world anyway. I love my niblings but I get to give them back.
It sounds like you're doing great with yours. Good luck. 🤙
Yup, it's not for everyone, which is why I tell my coworkers to never have kids. I figure that if they really want kids, they'll ignore my advice anyway, so it can only help those on the fence (and no, kids won't make you happy, but they can be worthwhile).
I hope you taught them how to pirate. ;-) Seriously though, my 20-something associates have absolutely no idea how to, they think it's some kind of dark art rather than clicking on a link.
I did not. They are terrible with computers, especially the 15 year old boy. I debloated the computer I gave him less than a year ago. He downloaded so much malware and spyware. I got it all fixed up and he told me it wasn't running games fast anymore since he switched bedrooms. I'm proud of him for setting it up again himself but he had the HDMI plugged into the onboard graphics instead of the GPU.
I acted like I didn't see all the porn and deleted it from his history.
We assume they're both having sex, so my wife got them five boxes of plan B before that becomes illegal. I also slipped condoms into his backpack just like I did with his older brother at that age. No pregnancies yet!
Hmm, is that a states thing then? Typing courses around here have capitulated on it. You can choose to learn it if max typing speed is the most important factor, but alternate forms of touch typing and muscle memory are fully accepted now. Often times just due to the varying amount of personal practice, the fastest typer in class isn't even a home row kid.
But way back when I was in school, they constantly tried to force me to switch to home row, despite already having years of practice typing outside of school. I was already a faster typer than the teacher, so they had a hard time convincing me that their way was better. I eventually saw enough data on it to believe it, but I'm still glad I was unconvinced at the time. I still type fast enough to get any typing job, but I'm not so rigid and can use various types of keyboard equally well. Home row is very good at one thing, but it makes you prioritise that one thing too much. If you really wanted to type fast, but be limited to only one set of hardware, stenography is one step more in that direction.
I get it. I had been messing with computers for years by the time I had a typing class. I was very fast with the method I came up with, and I tried home row. I ended up combining bastardized home row and my homebrew method and got even faster.
fascinating take on touch typing from someone who doesn't practice, understand, or respect it
Touch typing is not only home row typing. I do touch type, I just do it in "hunt and peck" style, just without the "hunting" part, and much faster pecking. I feel it's a much more transferable skill.
And while I don't practice home row, I do feel that I understand it. And I respect it for it's purpose, I just think it's outdated, and incongruent with modern life now. It's more likely to hold someone back rather than benefit them now.
Yes, it is taught. If you take a typing course, you will be taught to use home row. What you mean is, you were never taught to type because we don't teach that in school anymore. If you do most your typing on a touch screen, I have to imagine: you are so young. In 20 years when no one is using a touch screen to enter text anymore (but likely still use physical keyboards), you will remember this conversation, and have some greater insight.
Whether or not you know how to touch type, in any situation where there is a mouse, THERE IS A PHYSICAL KEYBOARD. Not knowing how to touch type just makes the task switching overhead greater.
My kids were taught in elementary school in like 1st grade, largely because using laptops (Chromebooks) is part of the curriculum.