Subscribe a first time for everything....
posted in life by jon on 2005-03-26
I have a confession to make: despite being part of the first generation to grow up with computers; despite writing hundreds of essays; despite working full time in IT, and spending 60 plus hours a week in front of a keyboard.... I can't touch type. Actually that's not quite true, I can do it....it's just excruciatingly slow. See, the one thing that of computer use did accomplish was to make me a truly impressive hunt-and-peck typist. I've managed to work out my own system: by using 6 fingers and cursory glances at the keyboard I can make 50 or so words per minute, .. fast enough to make crawling along at 15 wpm an excersise in frustration. I picked up the key memory quickly enough, but it isn't muscle memory,. So every time I really needed to type, I'd revert back to my own, much faster ( for me ) system. The problem is, while I'm a pretty fast typist in my own way, I wasn't going to ever get much faster; I had hit my ceiling. Also, not being able to look at the screen while typing meant that errors were more prone to go uncorrected.
Finally, I'm making the jump. This entire post is touch-typed ( except for the numbers ). I'm going to suffer through this time, even if it kills me, I'm starting a new job this week, which will make it hard to stick it out if I don't ger faster pretty quickly, but I'm certainly going to try.
Wish me luck!
