Are You a Pecker or a Toucher?
Do you hunt and peck when you type or are you a touch typist? I’m a toucher, but not very proficient. My wife is an excellent typist and gets a real kick out of proofreading my stuff because of all the typos. I often forget to spell check and hit publish and then go back and correct things (sometimes).
There’s an interesting post at Freakonomics about the merits of the Dvorak keyboard and the QWERTY keyboard. The Dvorak keyboard was designed to make typing for efficient and replace the QWERTY keyboard which allegedly was created to slow down typists to prevent key jams on manual typewriters.
Sounds like emotions run high.
But then another commenter (saharvetes) linked to this furious letter to the editor that appeared in the next issue of Reason. Randy Cassingham, who wrote the letter, also wrote a book called The Dvorak Keyboard in 1986.
One of the commenters is proficient in both. The old pat your head/rub your stomach deal times ten I would think.
I can type like a cat on fire, mostly because when I was growing up my mother instilled in me that I should “learn how to type because then you’ll always have something to fall back on”. These days, of course, legal professionals all have to do their own typing, so it serves me well. I was once clocked at 120 wpm.
I think you will find that most women are touchers, and most men are peckers. Hee.
“like a cat on fire”
Gretchen, you are a true wordsmith.
I’m touch…took it in high school to be close to a pretty gal. Ended up taking it two years and it has served me well, both in my Communications career and, naturally, in blogging!
Close to da wimmin! Alrighty then.
When I was in High School they decided that I was on the college/professional track and therefore didn’t need to learn how to type. My sister however they felt was born to be a secretary and to typing class she went and then to a law firm and now a paralegal.
So who laughing now??? My sister can type circles around me, I was a 1970’s hippie college drop out and even typing this is taking longer than it should. But still I persevere.
So much for guidance counselors.
That’s interesting. I can’t see a viable alternative to keyboards for masses anytime soon. Hundreds of thousands of cubicle workers all talking?
I can’t type fast and i hate this…my husband’s typing speed is awe some.