WPM standards/expectations ludicrous in the keyboard community

[Lunatique]

One thing I find amusing about the keyboard enthusiasts community, is how absurd the expectations/standards are for WPM speeds. I see people commenting about how they are slow typers and that their typing test scores suck, and it makes me laugh because these are people who are touch-typing at average of 90 WPM or so, which by objective professional standards is already damn fast. I don't know if these people are being falsely modest or they really have no idea how fast the average human being types, or even how fast the average professional secretary types.

So is it just the myopic mentality of a niche community? Do people really think that 90 WPM is "slow"? I'm a novelist and to the ears and eyes of the average person, my "slow" average speed of roughly 75 WPM (which is faster than about 88% of the people on 10fastfingers.com) is already impressively fast, and to them, the insane WPM at 100+ speeds is barely even human.

What are your thoughts on this?

[berserkfan]

90wpm is my speed and I think it's snail like.

Not false modesty or anything. I just believe in typing as fast as I can think, and anything less is a disappointment.

I suspect this is the case for professional writers and programmers as well. They want their keyboards and fingers to keep up with their need to express themselves.

[jaemzp]

It's pretty insane and I'm actually impressed at those who can type that fast. The fastest I've ever typed is 85 WPM but I average and float around 70 which is more than enough for me. I type reports every now and then but otherwise with programming I generally think more than I type and change things around a lot so I don't think speed is really an issue for that.

To me 90 WPM is pretty fast and is more than enough in my opinion. Anyone that typing at 100+, hats off to you

[Belfong]

I can't touch type and is actually doing more pecking than anything. So, my wpm is low and I am not ashamed at all. It gets things done, that's what important.

[vivalarevolución]

It's like anything else in life.  You care about these standard/expectations/false claims, or you don't give a sh!t.   You type at a speed that is effective for you, and if you want to improve, take the steps to improve.  Life really is not a pissing contest.

[SpAmRaY]

Honestly I don't think most people care. But you occasionally get a highschool kid who wants to trash talk.

[baldgye]

Honestly I don't think most people care. But you occasionally get a highschool kid who wants to trash talk.

Typical talk of the sub 150 plebs

[berserkfan]

  You type at a speed that is effective for you, and if you want to improve, take the steps to improve.  Life really is not a pissing contest.

So, my wpm is low and I am not ashamed at all. It gets things done, that's what important.

If you don't need to get many words written, even 10wpm is irrelevant. If you have to write a lot and you're thinking faster than you write, 200wpm is insufficient.

What I do like to make fun of, however, are the people who spend tons of money on keyboards who don't really need or use keyboards. EG sometimes on geekhack you read about some guy who spent $1k on his super keyboards and keycaps, but who is too busy at work or mainly uses his phone keyboard so he only gets to use his super keyboard at home for a couple hours each month. And then he will talk about how reliable and awesome his keyboard is, when he has only typed 1000 words on it!

To me it's like the guy who spends money on a Ferrari that he only drives once a month.

[noisyturtle]

I you're above 60 WPM you're fine.

90 is pretty dang fast.

[DrHubblePhD]

I would love to say that there is no real limit, but I have been known to harass people who use the old two finger peck or even four finger methods to try and get them to learn touch typing. It really saves a ton of time, so I think that everyone should try to learn touch typing, because if it becomes a habit you are stuck wasting time.

[FrostyToast]

My absolute limit on 10fastfingers is 100 wpm.
However, that of course gets lower in practicality as that site doesn't use the most sophisticated language for their standard typing test.

[tp4tissue]

135wpm pleb here..


High wpm is not really a measure of total productivity.. Your final output is very unlikely to exceed 60wpm.


What high wpm brings to the user is a more fluid and connected experience when transcribing their thoughts upon the PC..


Writing/ Coding itself is a stop,drop-n-roll  experience..       staccato..   Not glissando

[tp4tissue]

I do believe there is a large barrier between 135 and 200...

essentially.. at 135, I can still somewhat think about something while I type..  if I was trying to push beyond 135, it requires complete focus, and dropping anything else I may be thinking about..

[tp4tissue]

As for EXPECTATIONS in the keyboard community..


From the perspective of the COmmited keyboard hobbyist::

YES... you are Expected to use that Expensive keyboard, because otherwise, you're just a shopaholic poser..

You can go into keybaording @ 10wpm.. or 5wpm..  there's no shame in that..

But if you buy 5x $200 keyboards...  and you're STILL only 30wpm..  That is shameful..


From the Perspective of the Shop-til-death shoppoholic:

Do whatever you want.. your fix is not keyboards it's shopping...  Regardless, here at the Keyboard domain,  we welcome you.. and it is our hopes that you will transfer some of that shopping energy into keyboarding energy..



Tp4's personal experience.. in the beginning, I was a steady 70wpm guy, with wrist pain..

Then after I got my first TKL and created my split layout, and modified my technique, I was up to 100-110,  still plenty of wrist pain..

Eventually, after 3 more tkl, 1 full size, and 4x razer blackwidows( yea I used to be n00b)..

I was doing 120wpm.. still wrist pain..


THEN ,,  the dawning of the EGDX..  Life changed completely, no more wrist pain, no more shoulder pain..  My love affair with computers ended.. I am the PC and the PC is me..  We are 1

[Puddsy]

??

I've never seen anyone try and berate someone for having low WPM. It's just that the "average" is a lot higher because we all know how to type.

If you're self conscious about your typing speed, increasing it isn't a particularly difficult task. Just takes a bit of practice.

[SpAmRaY]

??

I've never seen anyone try and berate someone for having low WPM. It's just that the "average" is a lot higher because we all know how to type.

If you're self conscious about your typing speed, increasing it isn't a particularly difficult task. Just takes a bit of practice.

Didn't you ever see linkbane's attitude that those who don't type >150wpm don't deserve mechanical keyboards?

[tp4tissue]

??

I've never seen anyone try and berate someone for having low WPM. It's just that the "average" is a lot higher because we all know how to type.

If you're self conscious about your typing speed, increasing it isn't a particularly difficult task. Just takes a bit of practice.

Didn't you ever see linkbane's attitude that those who don't type >150wpm don't deserve mechanical keyboards?

Well.. he's on the extreme end..   and he is a Devotee of keyboard excellence..

So he is absolutely correct with respect to his Creed...



Just like How Tp4 doesn't consider anything in the shape of a single rectangle a keyboard..  It must at least be 2 rectangles.. and wired.. absolutely-no wireless..

[ConscienceDrop]

spent 10k on a HHKB anniversary special limited edition.

type at like 15WPM, hunt and peck with both index fingers COME AT ME

[tp4tissue]

spent 10k on a HHKB anniversary special limited edition.

type at like 15WPM, hunt and peck with both index fingers COME AT ME

So you're a shopper.. that's ok..  we welcome you here..  but when you claim to be an enthusiast.. some mastery of the art is required.. 


Is everyone that buys a fast car suddenly a race car driver ? 

NO...

[henz]

Im trying to improve my speed, i guess im around 40-50 which i think is slow. But currently im troubled with alot of errors, which  is my main issue. Have a bad habit of reaching yu with my long finer. therfor screwing up those 50% of the time.

[hwood34]

Im trying to improve my speed, i guess im around 40-50 which i think is slow. But currently im troubled with alot of errors, which  is my main issue. Have a bad habit of reaching yu with my long finer. therfor screwing up those 50% of the time.

My dad's one of those typers, except he hits around 70-80 wpm, which went up a little when I got him a board with MX blues. He types incredibly quickly, but makes more mistakes than any person I've ever seen

[tbc]

I type reports every now and then but otherwise with programming I generally think more than I type and change things around a lot so I don't think speed is really an issue for that.

this.

no programmer who isn't trying to just look busy ever needs to type at 100wpm.

although measuring 'programming speed' by wpm is stupid.  you don't type out english sentences.

[baldgye]

Real talk, I struggle with 20-30 words a min... Unless I'm bm'ing someone in a game of sc2... Then I'm like a typing God... Problem is that I type so fast that I'm typing faster than I can think of what to say... So it just looks like nonsense...

[henz]

I type reports every now and then but otherwise with programming I generally think more than I type and change things around a lot so I don't think speed is really an issue for that.

this.

no programmer who isn't trying to just look busy ever needs to type at 100wpm.

although measuring 'programming speed' by wpm is stupid.  you don't type out english sentences.

no programmers sprout out code in anywhere near that wpm, if they do. They need to delete most of it

[Coreda]

So you're a shopper.. that's ok..  we welcome you here..  but when you claim to be an enthusiast.. some mastery of the art is required.. 

Is everyone that buys a fast car suddenly a race car driver ? 

NO...

Statistically most people buying fast cars aren't race car drivers That 10k confession tho, impressive.

[henz]

So you're a shopper.. that's ok..  we welcome you here..  but when you claim to be an enthusiast.. some mastery of the art is required.. 

Is everyone that buys a fast car suddenly a race car driver ? 

NO...

Statistically most people buying fast cars aren't race car drivers That 10k confession tho, impressive.

it sounds like lulz, i doubt one cost that much, so he has probably in that case bought more than one.

[Geroximo]

Just throwing this in here, because I don't want to open a new thread:

I'm typing with 3-5 fingers at around 70 wpm.
Now I want wo learn 10 finger typing.
When I'm textbook-touchtyping it really feels weird to my pinkys and ring fingers and they get exhausted quickly.
I watched some really fast typists and none of them was doing proper touch typing ... many of them didn't even use their pinkys ...
Now, should I just go with the bad habits I'm developing (not using pinky) or is it worth learning 100% proper touchtyping, even if it hurts?

[iri]

90wpm is my speed and I think it's snail like.

Not false modesty or anything. I just believe in typing as fast as I can think, and anything less is a disappointment.

I suspect this is the case for professional writers and programmers as well. They want their keyboards and fingers to keep up with their need to express themselves.

i usually type at 55 wpm. but when writing code, my typing speed raises greatly due to some russian magic.

Real talk, I struggle with 20-30 words a min...

that's still excellent for an official retard 

[berserkfan]

Real talk, I struggle with 20-30 words a min...

that's still excellent for an official retard 

Aah AAH AAAAHHH

Discriminating against people with disabilities!

Dsylexia isn't retardation.

But that said I thought baldgye should be having spelling problems all over the place and no difficulty talking up a storm whatsoever.

[baldgye]

Real talk, I struggle with 20-30 words a min...

that's still excellent for an official retard 

Aah AAH AAAAHHH

Discriminating against people with disabilities!

Dsylexia isn't retardation.

But that said I thought baldgye should be having spelling problems all over the place and no difficulty talking up a storm whatsoever.

Hey man, I got benefits so I'm a retard. Thems the rules!

[Findecanor]

As long as 10fastfingers.com says that I am better than 75% of all users, I'm a happy elitist.

[iri]

Real talk, I struggle with 20-30 words a min...

that's still excellent for an official retard 

Aah AAH AAAAHHH

Discriminating against people with disabilities!

Dsylexia isn't retardation.

But that said I thought baldgye should be having spelling problems all over the place and no difficulty talking up a storm whatsoever.

Hey man, I got benefits so I'm a retard. Thems the rules!

i'm moving to uk!!

[baldgye]

Real talk, I struggle with 20-30 words a min...

that's still excellent for an official retard 

Aah AAH AAAAHHH

Discriminating against people with disabilities!

Dsylexia isn't retardation.

But that said I thought baldgye should be having spelling problems all over the place and no difficulty talking up a storm whatsoever.

Hey man, I got benefits so I'm a retard. Thems the rules!

i'm moving to uk!!

Do it quick while your currency is still worth something!!

[iri]

i bought enough pounds back in the days, when the rouble was worth something.

[berserkfan]

As long as you are getting benefits, and a lot of them, you cannot qualify as a retard in my mind.

I am getting no benefits. I am paying for other people's benefits.

This means I am the retard.

[baldgye]

As long as you are getting benefits, and a lot of them, you cannot qualify as a retard in my mind.

I am getting no benefits. I am paying for other people's benefits.

This means I am the retard.

Hahaha tbf my benefits amounted to a free laptop at uni which never worked and I later harvest parts from for my own laptop, a free printer and extra time in exams.
I don't really know what qualifies people to be retarded, I'm just fed up of people being needlessly 'PC' 'for my benefit'.
I have a really high iq that would make me hella ****ing smart, but it's meaningless because I'm retarded and can't do basic ****. I think that qualifies as being a retard

It also makes 'special needs workers' hella uncomfortable when you announce to them that your ready for your 'retard lessons' ^^

[berserkfan]

Hahaha tbf my benefits amounted to a free laptop at uni which never worked and I later harvest parts from for my own laptop, a free printer and extra time in exams.
I don't really know what qualifies people to be retarded, I'm just fed up of people being needlessly 'PC' 'for my benefit'.
I have a really high iq that would make me hella ****ing smart, but it's meaningless because I'm retarded and can't do basic ****. I think that qualifies as being a retard

It also makes 'special needs workers' hella uncomfortable when you announce to them that your ready for your 'retard lessons' ^^

Am surprised that you live in UK and dare to talk like this. Is is because you get a free pass (being officially 'disabled')? I find political correctness very limiting and annoying which is why I rant against them all the time.