The thing is, I don't actually know what the editing commands are on my editor. My fingers know them, though. Sometimes I watch my fingers to see what the command is.
I have this pretty much 100% of the time when I'm playing a piano piece, especially an older piece that I've somewhat forgotten. It's not so much that I'm re-learning the notes, it feels more like I'm coaxing the requisite movement back out of my hands. It's hard to explain, like... I can't really start a musical phrase halfway through because I don't know what notes I'm actually playing without the sheet music in front of me. But if I start at the beginning, my hands will do the right thing from muscle memory.
Every time I change my work password, I commit it to memory for about a day, until it's in my muscle memory. Shortly after that, I can bang it out on a keyboard in easily under a second, but I cannot write it on a piece of paper.
Random anecdote/fact; an ex GF in HS was Dvorak's niece... she didn't have very nice things to say about him, just said he was super full of himself. I was really interested in meeting him, but after all the things she had to say about him, I lost interest, and stopped thinking I would be "cool" to switch to dvorak.
Off topic: I didn’t do it for speed though, I did it for typing comfort, and as someone who has had RSI scares, I’m really happy with my decision (and with my decision to get a Kinesis Advantage ergonomic keyboard). My two main activities these days are hand-intensive: typing and sleight-of-hand card magic. I need my hands to be in good shape! Honestly, I’m a little baffled by how few programmers use ergonomic keyboards, since their hands are so important to what they do, but only a little, since it took me years before I finally bought one myself despite thinking about it for a long time (I regret not doing so sooner).
The cost of the alternative shape keyboards put me (and a lot of colleagues I've talked to) off for a long time. Glad I did finally save up to buy one! Pity I work on the road a lot and have to still use laptop keyboards a lot of the time.
The cost was definitely a big part of it, I delayed for a long time because it seemed too expensive to me. In hindsight, given how much time I spend typing, it really isn't expensive at all, its just a big up-front cost... I now even use a 3 button foot pedal and love it.
> Pity I work on the road a lot and have to still use laptop keyboards a lot of the time.
Yeah, I use laptops and an iPad too and its obviously not very comfortable in comparison. Luckily I've managed to avoid it a lot lately, but its not always possible. It really sucks when I have to use an ordinary keyboard though and I definitely feel the discomfort :/
The cost of a single PT appointment (much less a handful) should be enough for most people on dev salaries to consider the extra cost of a good ergonomic keyboard. Something something Sam Vimes and boots.
This was my exact experience in learning an alternate keyboard layout. Worked out great for RSI and I've never looked back (though it was painful to start).
It is possible to achieve high typing speed on both; I did just that for a few years by switching back and forth on a regular basis. In the end the inconvenience simply wasn’t worth it and I gave up.
Not the original commenter, but I had a similar experience, and gave up QWERTY. I point and peck the few times I have to use it (which isn't often, except on phones where it doesn't really matter for me) and that's worked well enough for me for many years.
