[elefantastisch]

As someone who types quite fast, if you haven't watched someone who types 20-30 wpm, then you probably haven't seen what a hindrance it can be.

Yes, thinking is more important than typing, but after you've had a thought, you need to see it "in writing" and execute it to evaluate it and see if it was a good thought after all.

Fast typists can go through many more iterations of that process in the same amount of time.

It has often been remarked by writers that writing is thinking. That you don't even know what you think until you write it. There is something very fundamental to the thought process that comes from actually recording the thoughts and seeing them "in print".

A good typist (which I'll call 100 WPM, a point beyond which I diminishing returns make further improvement less important) can do the writing-is-thinking process 4x more in the same amount of clock time as a 25 WPM typist.

[andsoitis]

> but after you've had a thought, you need to see it "in writing" and execute it to evaluate it and see if it was a good thought after all.

I don't know that that is the only way. For instance, when I have thoughts, I often:

- repeat them in my head from various angles, while pacing around the room

- jot down some key words as anchors

- draw a diagram or two; sometimes to visualize relationships, sometimes to map out individual elements of the thought

- etc.

Then, when I start writing, even then I don't start with full sentences. I think about overall organization so might outline and iterate on that a few times so that I can refine. Only then do I start writing full sentences and edit, edit, etc.

[Joker_vD]

I've used to work with a guy who had... dyslexia, I think? Dysgraphia? Basically, he simply couldn't type without typos, although he seemed to do fine with reading. Well, he relied heavily on copy-pasting code snippets around, those sometimes being as small as a single keyword. Quite a sight to see, to be fair.

My point is, being able to type 100 WPM without typos is surely nice, and so is e.g. having good vision (or vision at all, for that matter), but it's not strictly necessary and can be worked around. Although, of course, if you can come into possession of those qualities reasonably cheaply then sure, go on and obtain them.

[elefantastisch]

Absolutely.

Josh W Comeau has a fabulous article about hands-free coding that I think every developer should read: https://www.joshwcomeau.com/blog/hands-free-coding/

Everyone has a different optimum for sure.

[oh_my_goodness]

"A good typist (which I'll call 100 WPM, a point beyond which I diminishing returns make further improvement less important) can do the writing-is-thinking process 4x more in the same amount of clock time as a 25 WPM typist."

...if they spend all that type typing.

[Joker_vD]

You see, if you type faster that you think that means that you're typing out things nobody's thought about — which is what it means to be a genius.

[jmnicolas]

I type with 2 or 3 fingers and I usually have to look at my keyboard... but it doesn't slow my code, it's Intellisense (Visual Studio auto complete) that does the typing for me.