By JAMES O’KEEFE
December 27, 2018
“As such, Colemak remains a niche choice for tech enthusiasts such as myself. Despite taking 2 weeks of frustration to regain my muscle memory, I’m really happy with the results, as I can now type at 85 Words per Minute, a massive improvement from my speed in Qwerty.”
6 months ago, I learned one new skill that 99.9% of the population doesn’t use, and since then I’ve gained hours in productivity.
L fork lj C;ukman
That’s how ‘I type in Colemak’ looks when typed in the Qwerty layout. Instead of Qwerty, I use Colemak, a rare yet extraordinarily efficient key arrangement for my keyboard.
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The reason I ditched Qwerty was due to its inefficiency. Qwerty was created in 1873, optimized to prevent the keys from sticking together. It had little regard for typing speed, with frequently-pressed keys in awkward positions, and little hand alteration while typing.
In contrast, Colemak was released in 2006, with the sole goal of creating an optimal layout for typing as fast as possible. Frequently-pressed keys are in the ideal position, and the left and right hands are used equally. As studies[1] have shown, it consistently defeats Qwerty and Dvorak (another popular, alternative layout) in terms of efficiency.
If typewriting was never invented, and the Apple II was the first time a computer gained mass usage, I’m sure a speed-oriented layout such as Colemak would be the world’s primary keyboard arrangement. Alas, the vast majority only learn to type once, and children sensibly learn the universal layout of Qwerty.
As such, Colemak remains a niche choice for tech enthusiasts such as myself. Despite taking 2 weeks of frustration to regain my muscle memory, I’m really happy with the results, as I can now type at 85 Words per Minute, a massive improvement from my speed in Qwerty. If you sacrifice 2 weeks of low productivity while typing emails or coding software, I’d really recommend you learn it.
