How did I get here? Why is my keyboard split in half? Wait, what is up with all of my keys?!?! Why would I think that this mediocre typing score was even worth writing about? Let’s go back a bit. I had been intrigued for some time now by the idea of a better typing experience, which led me to explore many ideas, including split keyboards with minimal keys. “More ergonomic!” they say… “Staggeringly efficient!” they boast yet again… It was hard not to get enticed by the proposition as I watched videos of coders whizzing around their computers with ease, switching layers with special modifier keys, and all while barely moving their hands.
A few weeks ago, I took the plunge and ordered the most appealing candidate I had found, and waited…and waited some more. Full of anxiety over this surprisingly expensive purchase I had made, I questioned the sanity of my decision, almost canceling my order numerous times. Finally, the day arrived, and it was here! Buzzing with excitement and fear, I began my journey. Was this my final descent into madness? Hours in and I am struggling to break 20 WPM. The removal and relocation of many special keys, such as Enter, Backspace, Del, and Space Bar, along with the fact that my keys were no longer staggered horizontally, was proving to be quite a gauntlet for my unsuspecting and ill-equipped little fingers. Somewhat discouraged, yet ever determined, I marched onward…being able to surpass 60 WPM after a couple of days. Hooray! Another classic happy ending, right? Except there it was, this nagging feeling that I couldn’t shake. I had long been aware of rumblings from the far reaches of the internet about the atrocities the QWERTY keyboard layout had brought down onto humanity. An ancient idea, rife with inefficiencies and injury-inducing key placements, Oh, the Horrors! Come to find out there is a plethora of better options out there; I decided to go with one called Colemak since it is designed for comfort and still maintains some familiarity with QWERTY.
I release a drawn out sigh as I think to myself…just as I was coming up for air, I dive ever deeper. It’s present day, my brain feels fried, and my fingers fatigued as I peck away at such blazing speeds it would surely make ANY grandmother proud. So why would I do this to myself? Wasn’t it all going just fine before? And that is just it, it was, but who wants to be just fine?? I don’t want to just be as good as I was yesterday; I want to be better and better, yet again, tomorrow. When did it become okay to slump into the mediocrity of “satisfactory”? The old mantras like, “If it isn’t broke, don’t fix it.” and “that’s how it’s always been done” are a plague to my soul. Waking up each day, just as I did before, is such a tired old notion. Yes, You are right, it IS just a keyboard and will probably do very little in the way of pushing me to future successes. The underlying idea, however, I think there may be something to that. Complacency is, after all, the enemy of progress.
Admittedly, my meager 14 WPM is not anything to write home about, and I have a very long road ahead before I find out if any of this was even worth it. As I slowly grind through the end of this long-winded rant, I am noticing the effect the limitation of my typing has had on my thought processes, forcing me out of that autopilot state and truly into the moment. Something of a rarity for me. Furthermore, I am proud that today I am less bound by my fears and uncertainties, such as posting this article. I am also amazed at what our minds can do! Even if I am typing slower than a snail, I just wrote this entire piece without looking at the keyboard, on a completely different layout that I am just starting to learn. That’s so freaking cool!