I think the broader issue is that tech bros have co-opted the phrase "user friendly" to mean "immediately approachable". This is good for selling a product but it sucks when it comes to something where the initial investment of learning a language or metaphor for how a program "behaves" is far outweighed by the way it allows you use it many times more proficiently than you would be able to if it was just big shiny buttons as have been normalized as "modern design".
Example: It would have been easier for you to sit down at the computer for the first time and hunt-and-peck on the keyboard with one single finger, and maybe you can get kind of fast at that over time, but it will never be comparable to sitting down with the express intention of learning to touch type, and once you've learned to touch type a little bit all future typing is reinforcement of a better way, rather than wasted time on a dead end like hunt-and-peck would be.
Sort of off topic, but people have found that the touch-type method isn't really any faster, and that two-finger typing is not actually synonymous with "hunting" and "pecking". Referring to 10-finger typing as "touch" typing is also a misnomer.
As a kid I HATED touch typing for a few reasons including that it was a harder barrier to learn as I was still memorizing the positions of keys. But also because two-finger typing is significantly more flexible for when you're switching between one-handed and two-handed control of the keyboard, it's better for accuracy when you have to hit non-letters a lot, and it's better for holding Shift or Control for multiple letters. Basically home-row typing makes no sense for PC games.
Back when I got decent-ish at Starcraft Brood War, a game with no remappable hotkeys, I was able to consistently hit P, L, O, N, and 8,9,0 with my left index finger without looking at the keyboard at all, and then return my ring finger to A.
The standardized WPM is CPM divided by 5 including spaces. The best RTS players are exceeding 750 CPM/150 WPM even into 1000CPM/200WPM mostly with one hand, and that's mostly with the left index finger. That's apparently faster than 99% of typists.
Personally I don't practice speed typing really at all but I still hit like 80-90WPM with two fingers.
I think perhaps the benefit of 10-finger typing is that a lot of energy has been put into teaching it effectively. I can agree that my style of typing is not inherently better than my 2-finger typing friend, and my version of 10-finger is certainly in some ways heterodox from what I was "taught" to do, but that doesn't change that I was forced to learn 10-finger typing and it taught me to actually type well, and my friend can't type for shit, to a degree that it genuinely prevents him from thinking through a keyboard as effectively.
I think the broader issue is that tech bros have co-opted the phrase "user friendly" to mean "immediately approachable". This is good for selling a product but it sucks when it comes to something where the initial investment of learning a language or metaphor for how a program "behaves" is far outweighed by the way it allows you use it many times more proficiently than you would be able to if it was just big shiny buttons as have been normalized as "modern design".
Example: It would have been easier for you to sit down at the computer for the first time and hunt-and-peck on the keyboard with one single finger, and maybe you can get kind of fast at that over time, but it will never be comparable to sitting down with the express intention of learning to touch type, and once you've learned to touch type a little bit all future typing is reinforcement of a better way, rather than wasted time on a dead end like hunt-and-peck would be.
Sort of off topic, but people have found that the touch-type method isn't really any faster, and that two-finger typing is not actually synonymous with "hunting" and "pecking". Referring to 10-finger typing as "touch" typing is also a misnomer.
As a kid I HATED touch typing for a few reasons including that it was a harder barrier to learn as I was still memorizing the positions of keys. But also because two-finger typing is significantly more flexible for when you're switching between one-handed and two-handed control of the keyboard, it's better for accuracy when you have to hit non-letters a lot, and it's better for holding Shift or Control for multiple letters. Basically home-row typing makes no sense for PC games.
Back when I got decent-ish at Starcraft Brood War, a game with no remappable hotkeys, I was able to consistently hit P, L, O, N, and 8,9,0 with my left index finger without looking at the keyboard at all, and then return my ring finger to A.
The standardized WPM is CPM divided by 5 including spaces. The best RTS players are exceeding 750 CPM/150 WPM even into 1000CPM/200WPM mostly with one hand, and that's mostly with the left index finger. That's apparently faster than 99% of typists.
Personally I don't practice speed typing really at all but I still hit like 80-90WPM with two fingers.
I think perhaps the benefit of 10-finger typing is that a lot of energy has been put into teaching it effectively. I can agree that my style of typing is not inherently better than my 2-finger typing friend, and my version of 10-finger is certainly in some ways heterodox from what I was "taught" to do, but that doesn't change that I was forced to learn 10-finger typing and it taught me to actually type well, and my friend can't type for shit, to a degree that it genuinely prevents him from thinking through a keyboard as effectively.
If you peck enough you memorize were all the keys are. Edti: (Chiken sounds)
I'm largely a self taught typist and I hover around 90wpm. I used to always get a F in form when I took typing in school.