Nearly 22,000 CSS-Tricks visitors voted in this one. A majority (72%) voted that they can type well. Only very few (6%) said they had limited typing ability. The rest in the “OK” range. The voting was broken up in a 1-10 scale. See the complete results in the sidebar of the site.
Here’s the full results:
See the Pen Results for “How much do you value your keyboard typing skills?” Poll by Chris Coyier (@chriscoyier) on CodePen.
This was an awkward poll (my fault) because I was interested both in how good you are at typing as well as how much you care about that. Do those things go hand in hand, or not? Probably would have been better as two separate questions.
The most voted-for single option, by far, was [8] Quite valuable. I can type well but I don’t really practice. That resonates with me. I feel like I’m just fine thank you very much at typing. I never set out to get better at it, but I sure do it a lot. And I kinda presume I get better at it the more I do it because that’s how everything else in the world works. Although I’m sure dedicated practice/training would surely level me up faster.
It seems to me, from what we have here, most people consider themselves good typists and don’t worry too much about it. Very few people can’t do it. And there is a surprisingly large contingent who value it enough to practice (or at least consider themselves very good at it).
Related article: We Are Typists First, Programmers Second in which Jeff Atwood values typing highly:
When you’re a fast, efficient typist, you spend less time between thinking that thought and expressing it in code. Which means, if you’re me at least, that you might actually get some of your ideas committed to screen before you completely lose your train of thought. Again.
Any final thoughts on this matter? Let’s talk it out in the comments.
New poll next week.
Does “skill” inherently include grammar, or are we talking about pure technical ability?
I agree with Jeff Atwood. I learnt to touch type at high school and I barely have to think about typing when I code. It definitely makes a difference because when I try to use a Windows keyboard, the layout confuses my hands and I make tonnes of mistakes and constantly break my train of thought.
I think I put 8 but I would definitely benefit from learning to touch type. I can usualy just look at the screen but I do constantly make mistakes from trying to go too fast. I’d say about half the time I type
git
in terminal in comes out asgti
!This poll is also varied because what is “good”? The average person who thinks they type well, types under 100WPM. Often closer to only 70-90wpm. If they try to type faster then 100WPM suddenly their accuracy drops significantly. I would consider these typists closer to 5 or 6, but they may vote themselves as an 8.
I voted 9, I practice occasionally and type at 140-150WPM.
Hey Tchael, the poll wasn’t really about speed, but ranking from how valuable we find typing (1 least valuable & 10 most important).
The only speed that matters is that you can use without making mistakes (somewhat optional) and without needing to think about it (where’s the keyboard, where to place the hands, fingers, where each key and character is, etc.).
Since it’s coding and not book writing, the actual typing speed doesn’t have to be high, maybe not even average.
Also, after a time, it’s not even so much as typing speed, but keyboard combo speed, indenting, opening/closing braces, search and replace, etc.
PS where did you get those stats? I found a website to test this, and got 52 WPM, and average was 36 WPM.
@Devin
Define what “well” is for typing that isn’t related to accuracy or speed? What other skills for typing is there? If you type well, you type quickly and accurately. If you practice typing, you are practicing typing more quickly or more accurately. If you value typing, you appreciate the fact you can type quickly and accurately.
Please explain the difference between finding value in speed and accuracy of our typing and valuing typing.
@Valentine
I clarified “people who think they type well”. The typing test website averages seem lower than general studies, which is 40-60wpm for the average typist.
The ideal typing speed for a programmer is where you are limited by your ability to think up a solution and not your ability to type it. Which varies for what you are programming/creating.
Even then, I would value quick and accurate typing because that means writing up Documentation takes less time – and a program is only as good as its docs.
As a programmer, I’ve never really thought of being a fast typer as particularly important. It often seems that much can be expressed in a few words and I never find myself typing code slower than I can think it up. For example, if I wanted to create code to evaluate information sent from a form, it would look something like this:
That took a few words of actual code. Just an “if”, “$_GET”, the actual text, and some punctuation. Plus, there are things like Emmet to help us out. On the other hand, when typing an essay, speed is really important because you’re much more likely to lose your place.
On a side note, I think it would be interesting for the next poll to be what “frontend framework do you use?” Bootstrap is probably still the dominant one but I think Foundation is really starting to pull a lot more weight. Plus there are other ones out there, like Yahoos Pure and Skeleton.
For some reason the code never shows up. Anyways, here is what was supposed to be in that code block above.
<?php
if($_GET) {
echo "You entered".$_GET;
}
else {
echo "You didn't enter anything!";
}
?>
I type very very fast with pretty good accuracy . But I don’t value my typing skills. This probably should have been a 2 part question as it assumes the higher skill level you are, the more you value the skill.
What’s a sidebar?
Signed,
iPhone
I agree with Jeff Atwood. I learnt to touch type at high school and I barely have to think about typing when I code. It definitely makes a difference because when I try to use a Windows keyboard, the layout confuses my hands and I make tonnes of mistakes and constantly break my train of thought.
I think this is a great skill to have. Specially if you’re someone who spends long time working on computer. Not having to look at the keyboard while typing is really a good asset. Whether you write normal texts or code.
Definitely. Probably even three questions, in fact: how well you type is not necessarily related to the value you place in it, nor the amount of practice you put forth.
I honestly don’t remember how I voted, but:
I type reasonably well (around 60-70wpm, few mistakes, don’t look at the keyboard);
I think typing is a very important skill for programmers;
I don’t practice typing (as a dedicated activity; I just type).
I know a guy who types so fast, it seems he just mashes the keyboard and finished scripts come out. Ahh, the productivity I might enjoy… but I’m not motivated quite enough.
: )
The Atwood-ism I believe is very true. (Who wouldn’t benefit from being able to type as fast as they can think)
As for me, I spend all day in an editor and i know I have some bad keyboard habits. Do I think investing an hour a week in Mavis Beacon will pay off? Maybe. But I wouldn’t spend my free time there!
IT specialist needs to have this skill. Especially if he wants to make his work more effective. You cannot think about the barrier between machine and yourself. You have to be homogeneous with your machine. If you love coding and you want to do your best it is mandatory.
Back in the late 80s I took a typing class during freshmen year in high school, on an electric typewriter (yes, I’m old). Most useful class I ever took because years later in the college computer lab, whether I was writing a 15 page paper or working on a comp sci project, I forced myself to remember to put my fingers on ASDF JKL; Now it’s just muscle memory. don’t even need to ever look at the keyboard. A few years ago I had to get an ergonomic keyboard because of wrist issues, took some getting used to but that discipline of learning to type properly helped me get over the initial weirdness.
A good programmer must have good typing speed without any mistake. i always make a lot mistake when i go through fast. so i always try to go through an average speed.
This graph is not working properly in IE9.
I think this is a great skill to have. Specially if you’re someone who spends long time working on computer. Not having to look at the keyboard while typing is really a good asset. Whether you write normal texts or code.
Hey Tchael, the poll wasn’t really about speed, but ranking from how valuable we find typing (1 least valuable & 10 most important).