I Feel Impotent
I’m a fast typist. Ninety words per minute. Take it.
That last line, however, took three minutes to type. It’s excruciating. Why?
I’m switching to the Dvorak keyboard layout. For those who don’t know, typewriters started out with their keys arranged in an “ABCD” configuration this caused the hammers to bind, so the standard “QWERTY” keyboard was invented.
This layout turns out to be very inefficient for us humans, so a guy named Dvorak came up with a better one. His arrangement requires 90% less finger movement which is better for speed as well as accuracy and not getting carpal tunnel syndrome.
There is a good program I am using called Ten Thumbs Typing Tutor that teaches you how to do it. I will not use the old layout for anything anymore. Burning bridges, baby!
This took 32 minutes to type. Posts may be on the short side for a while.
(7 votes, average: 3.71 out of 5)
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April 7th, 2008 at 11:15 am
Woah and I thought I was the only one!
Night before last I rearranged all the keys on my laptop (ok some wouldn’t go, only increasing my DVORAK enhanced laptop security by obfuscation).
Last time I had a sit down job was my first solid attempt… everyone at work looked at me weird when I took apart my keyboard, and my boss got really pissed every time I wasn’t there and he had to use my computer. It’s been a while though and things are going slow… would you believe I only just realized it was even doable on windows.
Take it from someone who’s been there before and who’s going back - it’s a long road, but it’s worth it. “Dude can I use your laptop?”
“Yeah no probs”
“Dude WTF your keyboard is… it’s…you’ve got issues”. Oh it’s allll worth it. I think we need a support group.
April 7th, 2008 at 3:08 pm
I knew I loved you, Tynan.
I switched about two years ago. The first time, I gave it up after about a week and a half out of frustration and a need to get other work done. I picked it back up a few months later and managed to stick to it.
The first two weeks are hell. It’s like being forced to speak a new language with nothing but a translation dictionary. The next month was work, but I was able to type at a reasonable rate by the end of it.
It’s now been well over two years. Within the first year, my typing speed jumped from 80 wpm in QWERTY to 90 wpm in Dvorak and the huge balled up knots in my wrists were totally gone. It wasn’t an easy switch, but it’s one of the best improvement choices I’ve made in my life.
And Josh is right; confusing the QWERTY-only folks never stops being amusing.
One weird thing though: I am totally fluent in Dvorak as long as I’m looking at the screen, but I can’t type QWERTY. If I look at the keyboard, I’m fluent in QWERTY and get confused typing Dvorak. The human mind is a strange thing sometimes.
Soldier on! It’s worth it.
April 7th, 2008 at 3:24 pm
did you pry the keys of your x61 and rearrange them or did you just change the settings in windows.
April 7th, 2008 at 3:57 pm
I live next door to French people who sometimes ask me for help with their computers. Now that is a weird keyboard.
Trouble is, all the keys on my Microsoft Natural Keyboard are slightly different shapes, so I’d have to relabel them rather than move them around.
My Laptop keys are all the same shape, except some of them have little numbers for when Num-Lock is on.
Give it a few years and both sides of a laptop clamshell will be a touchscreen, so keyboards will be instantly reconfigurable in software.
It’ll make Mr Qwerty proud.
April 7th, 2008 at 4:21 pm
Biggest reason that stopped me from learning dvorak:
1. Loosing the ability to type on qwerty keyboards, which is %99.999999 of all keyboard types out there. I dont want to be stuck on using my computer and nobody elses.
(That and the dubious evidence of better results)
One handed dvorak is really cool although.
And this programmer’s dvorak is even cooler:
http://www.kaufmann.no/roland/dvorak/
April 7th, 2008 at 5:13 pm
Good luck with the switch, it’s not exactly easy but it’s definitely worth it.
I have found myself back on the QWERTY layout after switching to Dvorak about 9 years ago. I do a lot of programming and the placement of [] {} are annoyingly far away from home row on Dvorak. I suppose I could remap those into some sort of custom Eli-Dvorak layout but that’s too geeky even for me!
@elai, it is relatively easy to go switch your mind between layouts once you have Dvorak down pretty well. Just stay clear of QWERTY as long as possible, 1-2 weeks minimum! Also, nice name!
April 8th, 2008 at 8:43 am
Good luck on the Dvorak. I switched probably 4-6 years ago, and never looked back. I haven’t tested the absolute speed difference — I’m at around 80-100 WPM either way. At that level, a couple more WPM isn’t going to really benefit, unless you’re transcribing or taking dictation or something. I did it for the comfort — I find it much more comfortable on the hands, with the less movement required.
Also, for those worried about loosing QWERTY, don’t. It is like learning another language. After a couple weeks to a month, you can switch back and forth smoothly between keyboard layouts. It’s actually transparent for me now — when I sit down at my computer, I automatically start typing Dvorak. When I sit down at someone else’s box, its automatic QUERTY.
April 9th, 2008 at 2:04 am
Are you carrying that keyboard around with you wile you travel?
April 9th, 2008 at 5:33 am
Interesting to hear you’re going for the change. I thought about going over to Dvorak a while ago, and spent a while reading up on it and considering whether I should learn it.
At the end of the day though, I felt that the difficulties with learning the format far outweighed the potential benefits, so I didn’t pursue it any further and quickly forgot about it. It’s definitely a nice concept in theory, but in practical terms, as much as I tried, I found it hard to build a case for Dvorak.
Learning it takes a lot of time and effort, and the fact is that the vast, vast majority of keyboards out there used QWERTY. So, anyone who would want to use my computer simply wouldn’t be able to, and I consider that a serious downside rather than an amusing quirk, particularly in any professional setting. Also, my skills would not be transferrable if I was going to use another computer, which - especially in this age of ubiquitous computing - reduces the potential benefits a whole lot.
Not only this, but keyboard shortcuts and commands for various programs, and especially games, would be totally screwed up. I’d have to spend time relearning or reconfiguring every program and game I use, which would make me wonder whether the inconvenience and time lost would outweigh the comfort and time gained in typing more quickly.
That said, an even bigger issue for me was the fact that the benefits of Dvorak aren’t even proven to be true, as far as I’m aware. Even if there are benefits, they would need to be pretty significant for me to consider it worthwhile.
I don’t mean to sound totally negative! I thought Dvorak was quite interesting back in the day and thought I would share what I found. I’m all for people who want to learn Dvorak, I think it sets apart people who are serious about improving their skills at the computer. It’ll definitely be interesting to hear how it goes.
April 9th, 2008 at 10:29 am
You can instantly change any computer’s keyboard map to dvorak, or yours back to qwerty.
It’s all about 1337 factor. If you’re trying to find other reasons to do it, you’re totally missing the point.
April 9th, 2008 at 4:58 pm
I switched to DVORAK about 6 months ago and it was one of the best things I have ever done. I love every key position except for L, i always hit / instead by accident because i have huge hands, but overall i love the new layout, stick with it, the first month sucks but it gets a lot easier after that. I will miss reading your long posts until you get your speed back up, I never thought of a blanket as a giant pancake, interesting analogy.
April 9th, 2008 at 5:52 pm
Just don’t try to do any instant messaging or IRC for a couple of weeks — it feels like you have some horrible brain disease that prevents you from communicating. You have to stick with it though, and resist the temptation to go back to QWERTY. It’ll start paying off after a couple of weeks and it only gets better in time.
And as mentioned in the other comments, watching people try to use your computer (or their own computer, after you’ve reconfigured their keymap) is highly amusing.
Best of luck.
Dani
April 16th, 2008 at 10:15 am
Mmmm, I’d actually suggest doing IM etc…anything to force you to keep inputting content, preferably to people who understand you’re learning again, that’s how I learned a bunch of mine, transition took under a month.
I prefer to just leave the keyboard standard and touch type, one reason I switched was to make myself learn to touch type again, and on the latest keyboard I bought (Logitech UltraX - great flat keys, totally recommend them) I just left it standard. I also set it up so that Ctrl+Shift+8 goes to Dvorak (default) and Ctrl+Shift+9 switches to standard, that way anyone can use my keyboard if they need. Aside from that, my laptop got switched, I pried the keys, but that was mostly to learn, now I’d leave them as is or go to blank keys.
April 26th, 2008 at 1:13 pm
LOL, when I first read your post I thought to myself: Wow! 90 words per minute! Amazing! I just came across this (http://speedtest.10-fast-fingers.com/) website and on my first try had 94 words
581 characters, and english isn’t even my native language.
I’m kind of not sure if Dvorak really helps you. It’s a bit like polyphasic sleep: in a perfect world, everybody would do it. In this world, the benefits are countered by lots of social disadvantages.
July 17th, 2008 at 1:05 pm
How do you change your keyboard map in windows to dvorak from qwerty?