[userbinator]

I suspect much of the population either doesn't type much, or doesn't make much of an effort to type faster. My average is in the 140-160WPM range (to try to type at 40WPM consistently I would have to be deliberately slow, as even one-handed I'll easily go over 60), although I never learned touch-typing formally; I attribute it to spending extensive amounts of time in using IM, which basically forces you to type quickly you want to keep a reasonably natural pace of conversation and not lose your thoughts. Then again, I've interacted with much younger coworkers, many of whom were surprised at the speed at which I could return a reply (in full sentences with punctuation, without abbreviations and such) in a chat, so I'm not sure if the motivation is still there today --- especially with audio/video calls being more common.

[herval]

How do you manage to sustain 140-160 WPM? I consider myself a very fast typist, and I don’t think I ever broke 100 WPM (it’s the maximum I ever got in one of those typing tests)

[userbinator]

I use a keyboard with a very light and springy feel, and low travel. It also helps to not think of individual letters but rather entire words, so you can be pressing multiple keys nearly simultaneously and "buffer" multiple words ahead.

(You'll know that you're buffering when you take a typing test and by the time you see that you've mistyped something you've already typed several more correct words, so it pays to be accurate before you try to buffer ahead.)