[notpachet]

I think you should at least give it a go.

There's a fluency effect that happens when you're able to touch type without looking, similar to when you master a language enough to speak without thinking. You become more efficient because you dissolve the barrier between your thoughts and their expression.

I know there are lots of arguments intending to counter the importance of touch-typing in programming ("most of my time is spent thinking"), but I think those miss the point. Faster typing is just as valuable whether you're programming, or writing an email, or responding to a message.

[ctvo]

Where in their reply did it say they weren't a touch typist? They most likely touch type with 2-3 fingers. Not that shocking if you learned to use computers without typing classes.

[notpachet]

While I guess it's theoretically possible to memorize the positions of all the keys using only a few fingers (so that you're typing purely by touch, without looking), I haven't ever seen that in the field.

Usually when someone says "touch typing" they refer to the standard "home row" approach, using all fingers. I could have made that more explicit.

[darkwater]

Well I do know all the keys position and I can write without looking at the keyboard, typing with just 2 fingers. (I just switched keyboard last week from a 70% to a 100% so I'm getting used to it)

[cthalupa]

I type at roughly 150-160wpm depending on what I'm typing and for the length I'm typing (this range is for 30s and 60s tests).

I touch type.

I use 4 fingers on my left hand and 3 fingers on my right to type. (This is counting thumbs on both hands)

I've never really understood the home row because if my hands are on the keyboard I'm actively typing (or playing video games), in which case all my fingers are busy actually doing things, so I basically just put my hands down where I'm going to start typing anyway. When I'm actively typing I'm not wasting time moving my hands back to the home row, either.