The Value of Typing

The single most important class I ever took in school was typing. The classes where we played computer games were fun and sometimes educational, the classes where we learned Microsoft Office might have been good at the time and taught a few computing principles, but typing is a skill I doubt I’ll ever quit using.

There are some overall concepts like critical thinking that are much more important, but those are learned over the course of many years, both in and out of school. Typing took 9 weeks.

Typing might not be as important to you as it is for me, but if you sit in front of a computer all day it’s something you should definitely learn. Don’t be afraid to take the time to learn more shortcuts as well. Switching back and forth between your keyboard and mouse/trackpad can eat up your time, even if it is only a second or two at a time.

New technologies aren’t going to kill the keyboard anytime soon. Voice assistants are pretty good these days, and I do love touch-based interfaces, but they all have a time and place they work best. When I just want to set a quick timer or need directions while driving, speaking to Siri is great. The convenience alone makes touch interfaces unbeatable when you’re out and about. Mice and trackpads are the best option for browsing things. But the keyboard has a level of precision that makes it indispensable when editing a body of text. It’s no big deal if you make a mistake while tapping out a text to your friends using your phone, but one mistake in a press release can embarrass your company. One missing character in your code can break everything and take hours to find.

All this to say: I know at least one thing my grandkids will hear me ramble on about someday.