How many of you programmers here know touch typing? After 10 years of being a professional programmer, I finally decided to learn touch typing. Its been two months since I started and now I am wondering why I didn't learn this before. I am not good with symbols and special keys like cmd and option (mac) yet but my productivity has definitely increased. If you know touch typing already, did you see a change in your productivity after you gained the skill? What were your next steps? Did any of you "upgrade" to a keyboard other than qwerty? If you don't know how to touch type, I highly recommend to gain this skill. I used https://www.typingclub.com/ to learn.

If you know touch typing already, did you see a change in your productivity after you gained the skill?

Yes, by a lot. I don't have to waste time looking at the keyboard anymore.

What were your next steps? Did any of you "upgrade" to a keyboard other than qwerty?

Didn't do much anything after learning to touch type. But, have been toying around the Dvorak layout in recent times. Also thinking to switch to a ortho linear keyboard like the Planck.

You don't need touch typing if you're using a half-decent programming language 😛

I knew it like it exists and it’s benefits but couldn’t actually practice, any tips to slowly get into?

@acceptable-flag-71699 haha. But seriously though. I does help.

I have been touch typing since college. I remember one of the issues of Chip (or Digit) which came with free software on a CD had a typing master app which I used. It doesn’t take long. Once you get the basic flow of it, over time, it gets easier even without deliberate practice.

@loud-glass-33663 Same! I think it was Digit.

I learned touch typing about a decade ago using a software called KTouch Initially learned in qwerty then found out about Colemak and mastered that too Now I use colemak layout on PC and laptop

Learnt touch typing just before entering college. To me personally, apart from saving time of course, the biggest advantage of touch typing is that I can type along as I am thinking about some programming logic in my head. There isn’t a context switch that happens due to back and forth glancing between the keyboard and the screen. And as @acceptable-flag-71699 pointed out, language also matters. When I used to code in a verbose language like Java, knowing to touch type did make a difference. However, I didn’t feel the same difference when typing in Ruby.

Beyond coding, we of course have to do a lot of normal English writing. So touch-typing is definitely very valuable life skill. In fact, the main reason why many of Indian languages are disappearing from the Internet is because the keyboard layouts and software just don't make it efficient.

Oh man I've been trying to learn this on keybr for the past 6 months on and off. I usually end up failing because I switch back how I usually type when doing something important. Need a lot of discipline and practice for the first 1 month. Check out Ali Abdaal's video on this, has good suggestions