My mom taught me how to type before it ever came up in school, so by the time testing came around, my wpm scores were always ridiculous. In middle school, I remember I had to take one of the typing tests three times because the instructor thought that I had found some way to cheat at it.

I annoyed the hell out of people in my first semester composition class. For a while my living situation was screwed up and I didn't have reliable access to a computer off campus, so I was usually working on two or three different essays at the same time. One girl asked if she could swap with someone else because she "couldn't work next to Speedy Gonzales."

My problem is that sometimes when I'm writing a short story or something, I just sort of get lost in the rhythm and don't even pay attention to what I'm typing - I have to go back and read it to know what the hell I was saying. Also, when I'm trying to type correctly, I make more errors then when I don't think about it.

oh yeah I'm so fast I broke the sound barrier and my entire classroom was blown out of the window and ended up across the nearby state line

beat that

Killer Wolf: King of Everything

Killer Wolf: King of Everything

Nah, I'm terrible at playing drums. I'm a little better at it when I use a kit set up for a lefty, but still... terrible.

heh, drule you think YOU'RE the best?  just check this out

red lorry yellow lorry red lorry yellow lorry red lorry yellow lorry red lorry yellow lorry

typed in 0.004 seconds, not the slightest stumble

O REALLY CUS IT TOOK YOU A WHOLE 4 MINUTE TO POST THAT

FUCKIN NUBE

my computer doesn't have a modem so i listen to the phone line and type down everything in real time

O REALLY CUS IT TOOK YOU A WHOLE 4 MINUTE TO POST THAT

FUCKIN NUBE

says who?  there's a little thing called tabbed browsing we have nowadays that lets you leave a page open for a bit while you look at other pages, MAYBE YOU'VE HEARD OF IT?

I only type with one hand.

i'm using three keyboards and a typewriter right now. sorry guys that was a lie, i just wanted you to think i was cool ​(((

i dont type. i scream at my computer in binary and it understands.

we have a platonic relationship at best.

i dont type. i scream at my computer in binary and it understands.

we have a platonic relationship at best.

That's a good point.

I think I type properly because when I push the keys the words appear on the screen automatically.

Also has anyone ever used one of those "palm" computers? I remember trying one a few years ago and there was that "stylus gesture" thing so if you wanted to type a K you had to draw a certain squiggle and if you wanted a W it was a different one, does that still exist? Is anyone in gw good at that?

I can't get my head around killer worlf's posts at all

edit nvm that's his sig haahah

I had to learn to type properly in middle school thanks to a wonderful program called ultrakey.  I think I learned more about how to cheat the program than to actually type by using that program, but eventually I realized that it had the right concept underneath all of its pain and misery.    I think mostly though after that though, everything that I've ever done in terms of typing and being able to do it well and fast is the result of plain old experience.

yeah i figure i should learn a proper form but i'm dreading the unlearning stage, especially as the keyboard feels really cramped and awkward that way. maybe keyboards were designed for dainty women hands or something

I've never had any formal typing training and have developed my own method, I didn't look at the keys but I used 2-3 fingers only and it was pretty random. My typing speed was good enough (around 60 wpm) so even when I learned that there's a proper method for typing I didn't think it was worth it. However, I'm in a profession where I have to type a lot (computer programming), and my typing method was just impractical and properly not healthy for typing over extended periods. This is important, if I didn't have to type all the time then I suppose it doesn't really matter how you type. This blog post was an inspiration as well.

Like you, I struggled with the unlearning phase, tried to look up articles that advocated against proper typing (they're all wrong), and tried to convince myself that it just wasn't worth the effort. But in the end that was just my laziness and frustration over the great drop in my typing speed and the apparent complexity of touch typing. After having forced myself to touch type for around two weeks I managed to reach a decent speed (40 wpm) and I'm still getting better. I can see why this method is more efficient than mine as it allows better utilization of your fingers, reduces stress on them, and also forces you to set in a proper posture. The only problem I still have is dealing with numbers and symbols, but I suppose you get used to that too.

I use both thumbs for the space bar but tend to use the left one more often.

Oh, and btw, a software that really really really helped me learn touch typing is GNU Typist. It's a wonderful cross-platform command line application that teaches you proper typing using a lot of lessons and in a lot of languages. I've tried other software with GUIs but none of the free ones have as many exercises as GNU Typist.