[kstenerud]

Typing speed beyond an intermediate level will not improve your software development prowess. The more experience you gain, the less of your time developing will be spent hitting keys on the keyboard. If you're spending more than 10% of your time typing, you're probably not thinking enough.

The biggest bang-for-your-buck skill to learn as a software developer is delving one level below what you're working at and learning enough about how it works so that you can debug effectively. It will also expand your horizons so that you can see more possibilities than the next guy. Problem solving is the bread and butter of the software developer.

[eimrine]

Not answering your question, I have asked HN about keyboard layout: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26112993 . As a touch typist, I think that ability to use keyboard without looking at is a great skill in any use of computers. It is not about time spending, it is about ability to think and typing simultaniously without interrupting the process of viewing code.

[kstenerud]

Yes, that's a common belief, but what's really freeing up your mind to think and type simultaneously is the muscle memory, which doesn't actually require touch-typing.

It's similar for players of instruments. Proper posture and hand position will greatly help in playing the more difficult passages, but it's the muscle memory that allows you to play without thinking (regardless of posture or hand position).

While hand position does matter for playing an instrument well, it's far less important on a keyboard you spend 10% of your time typing on.

[eimrine]

There is nothing wrong in the muscle memory point, but the key point is different. Whether you DISTRACT or NOT DISTRACT from your lines of code? Do you spend some extra energy for returning your view to your line of code or not spend? Are you able to free your visual stream into your brain from seing keyboard or not able?

Look at Vim workflow, one of the most popular editor for programmers, its command mode seems absolutely pesky for those who not touchtypes.

[kstenerud]

I don't view code as lines, but rather as chunks of logic. When I'm writing, I don't need to see what's on the screen because I already know how it is; the task is transforming it into how I want it to be. The process goes: thinking (5-10 minutes), typing (30 secs to a minute), thinking, typing. Most of the time I'm not even looking at the screen, even when typing. The typing part is just writing the stream of completed thoughts to the computer.