The Human-AI Partnership: Why Mastering Touch Typing is Your Next Generative AI Superpower

Generative AI requires humans to establish thought partnership rather than allow AI to take over critical thinking skills. I believe that typing prompts effectively and efficiently is a key skill today. Human-computer interfaces are getting better everyday, there are many modes of computing. For serious AI users, getting rid of the computer keyboard. Learn QWERTY from the 1870s or Dvorak, Colemak. Get used to typing effectively with AI GPTs interactively and effortlessly.

Like many people I too perfected the awkward dance of looking at my keyboard as I typed and then glacing up at the screen. So what's the problem? Well, I realized there are many problems with doing that. I learned to type on my dad's manual typewriter as kid, and making a typing mistake was costly. I typed slowly and deliberately looking at each key as I punched it with all the force to make an impression on the paper behind the ribbon. With that habit set, I transfered it over to coding on a keyboard in just the same and continued with that for most of my life. Until COVID-19 lockdown. 

During the lockdown of 2020-2021 I had a lot of free time. It occurred to me that the way I typed interrupted my flow, created friction between my thoughts and what I typed and did not help my neck and spine ergnomics. I took it upon myself to learn how to type. I humbly decided to get back to the basics of writing with a keyboard. 

According to Quora only 1% of people can type above 90 WPM.

Touch Typing @100 WPM FTW

I made it my mission to improve that, I don't do that anymore I never look at my keyboard, I simply look at the screens and my fingers are trained to find the keys via my kinesthetic sense. This simple yet monumental shift has helped me tremendously in life, career as well as my digital health due to improved ergonomics. Touch typing is not just about speed or a flex for me, it is actually good for my spine and posture, it has helped with note taking and enhanced my productivity significantly.

Fig. My typing speed peaked at 100 WPM in 2023. I call it good enough for a technologist.

Typing fast enough while focussing on the words rather than the mechnics is an important skill. Why not just dictate? I think there are really good dictation tools that can help with speech to text, and it works if you are able to articulate well. In my case, I find editing text skills, and typing are still essential to valuable work. It is also not possible to always have a distraction free, quiet room to be able to dictate and if you care about privacy, it is best to simply stick to typing. Good typing skills are a "forever skill" - is it a no-regrets training because over time, the return on your investment isn't just better typing - it's better flow and improved thinking.  If you force yourself to think slower than you type, the you must learn to type faster. The faster I typed the better my thinking flowed. Optimal speeds of speech are around 200-250 WPM, I can type at around 90 wpm today, so it's still kind of slow. I do think that it's much better than my best non-touch typing at 65wpm that has a lot of interruptions to optimal flow. Touch Typing is a Win-win. 

Typing Club

I signed up for Typing Club and began practicing and training my fingers to find the keys on the keyboard with the correct finger. My typing speed plummeted from 67 (max) down to 20-40WPM range. After a month of this I was ready to give up and really questioned the value of the pain that I was enduring. 

The goal is that each finger should know how to reach the correct key, and it is imperative that technique be mastered slowly. Patience is required. I picked QWERTY for myself just because I was not ready to embark on another layout. I probably won't. I am aiming for good enough. I don't want to type at 200WPM, I am happy with being close to 90+ on a good day.

Left Hand

- Index R T F G V B

- Middle E D C

- Ring WSX

- Little P ;: /?

- Backspace and Delete

Right Hand

- Index Y H N U J M

- Middle I K <,

- Ring O L .>

- Little QAZ

I would highly recommend completing the basic training offered by https://www.typingclub.com

My Journey of 10 months with 10FastFingers

Which typing site has the most common words for typing practice? 10FastFingers has good statistics and a collection of tests that lets you type away at one minute tests as well as longer tests with the most popular words in the language. 

I spend a few minutes of break on 10FastFingers - its just out of habit. What I have discovered is that my typing speed tells me a lot about my energy levels, focus levels and has a lot to do with the quality of my sleep.

I started practicing typing in 2020 for the first time ever. Until September I literally did not know why there was a bump on the F and J keys on keyboards.

September 11th 2020

This record came in with a eye on the keyboard method. This is the high water mark. This was never achieved again. Most subsequent tests came in at 70 WPM.

Fig. Looking at the keyboard and typing the best I knew how!

September ranging from 55-70, mostly getting to 60-62 wps on average 

The 78 WPM was from my non-touch typing skills. Personal record.

Early morning typing. Mouthed the words. Looked at the words to type, the keyboard and the word that I was typing. Not using my little fingers and not using my forefingers properly.

Starting mid-September 2020 I embarked on a journey to learn touch typing i.e. no look typing

Oct 3rd 2020

My average touch typing speed has reduce by half or more, my error rates are very high. I need to make a lot of corrections on the DAS Keyboard. It is a struggle. 

Sadly its around **35 WPM** with 90% accuracy.

Goal is to increase the touch typing to 100% accuracy with 40 WPM by end of the year with 99% no look touch typing.

Oct 30, 2020 

I am able to hit 50 wpm or higher with ease by Oct 30, 2020.

These results were really making me question the whole endevour. I almost gave up. I slept on it, and then decided to analyze.

I reflected on what I was missing.

Main issues in october that I identified:

- Letter C - instead of using the middle finger i use the index finger

- Letter R and T - i use mostly the middle finger unless there is a sequence. I must always use the index finger.

- I need my left hand to learn better typing.

Nov 4, 2020

I was able to get my Words-per-minute up, but the error rate was close to 10%. As I pushed higher, my error rate increased beyond 11%. 

Fig. 66 WPM Low Accuracy

I went for 400 characters per minute typed, pushed harder - I had a need for speed!

I went for 400 cpm - and hit it ! Of course the number of errors were much higher. But it is possible to hit that number. I can be in the 80s if it try harder. I think hitting 425 correct key strokes may do it. It is all going to be muscle memory. The most efficient memory of all - it is all about procedural memory.

I hit a higher number in competition with greater accuracy.

Pivot to Accuracy First

I decided that it was time to stop pushing speed. Instead, a refocus on perfection was in order. At any cost, I must not be willing to type fast at a rate where the accuracy drops.

Fig. Nov 13, 2020 - 100% accuracy but speed drops to 44 WPM.

Back to the drawing board, I must focus on accuracy and technique and let the speed follow from there on out.

December 2020

Fig. 60 WPM at 100% accuracy.

I was able to hit 60 wpm with 100% accuracy.

Fig. 95% accuracy

Fig. 94% accuracy

I hit the 80s in 2021

Fig. Low Accuracy but touched the 80 wpm mark

I wanted to improve my accuracy and at the same time my speed improved as well. I was a happy camper.

Fig. 85 WPM 2-12-2021

Fig 86 WPM higher accuracy

Fig. 86 with high character count

Fig 86 at 98% accuracy

Fig. Almost perfect accuracy at 88 WPM!! 

Each typing result at this level gave me tremendous motivation and purpose to forge ahead. The lockdown was creating all kinds of time for me, and I knew that I was close to my goal of hitting the high 90s or even a 100. So close!

Fig. Accuracy 98%

Fig. Accuracy 98%

Jun 2, 2021 I was hitting 95 WPM at accuracy greater than 95%.

I had purchased the IQUNIX F96 Mechnical Keyboard

Brown switches, and also the DAS Professional Keyboard with the clicky blue switches.

Neither keyboard had any markings on the keys. This was purely a flex. Only "real" geeks could use my computer.

I watched a lot of videos for motivation, tips and tricks to keep improving.

I used a few other sites as well for fine tuning, variety and fun.

KeyBR

A site that is driven by Artificial Intelligence that detects issues in common key combinations and provides practice specific to an individual weakness. KeyBR helped me by learning what key combinations were my weakest and helped practice those specific areas. It's simply a great free resource for fine-tuning.

MonkeyType: A clean, minimalistic site that really helped me track down my rate during the minute of typing, and it is also extensible in many ways. I would use this a lot.

Type Rush: This site provides a boat race as well as car race with full gamification like prize winnings. It was fun to compete and added an element of pressure to perform against others. As I typed the car went forward. I won many races, and it does get progresively more challenging.

Key Hero: I most enjoyed the quotes, and paragraphs provided by this site. If you do NOT fix the errors, a penalty is added to the infal WPM score. I am not a fan of how the scoring is done. I consistently scored low on these test, and paradoxically enjoyed them.

Conclusion

It was well worth it. This one skill is a forever skill and has continued to pay me dividends. I enjoy thinking, and writing. It enables me to use my mind creatively, and think better. I use my skills today to prompt AI to help partner with me and my touch typing skills are an essential tool, skill and method that help me get the most in and out of my brain.

References

1. https://10fastfingers.com/typing-test/english
2. https://www.keyhero.com/free-typing-test/
3. https://zty.pe/
4. https://www.ratatype.com/typing-test/
5. https://www.how-to-type.com/touch-typing-lessons/how-to-type-home-keys/
6. https://medium.com/@mantasd/touch-typing-how-long-does-it-take-to-reach-100-wpm-129ba855d038
7. https://www.keyhero.com/free-typing-test