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Do you need to type fast to be a programmer
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The truth is, I wouldn't hire anybody who can't type 90 words per minute
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I'm just kidding. I can't even type 90 words per minute. In this video I'm going to talk about false typing perceptions, then I'm going to talk
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about why typing speed is important as a programmer and also why it's not important, and then
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I'm going to talk about how fast you need to type to be a successful programmer
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You might be thinking that you have to be an incredibly fast typer to be a programmer
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because of what you've seen on TV. Hollywood likes to make movies that move along fast
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They like to create intense moments and to do that, things need to be moving at an accelerated pace
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No one would want to watch if someone was typing super slowly in a movie and stuff
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And so you see these programmers and hackers that are just cranking away at their laptops
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and there's all these cool displays going on and there's all these visuals and things are moving fast and they're in this race against the machine or against the government
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or some entity to try and like break in before they get caught and it's a mad dash race and
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they have all these really cool tools to do it. Well the reality is as a programmer you are working in terminals and inglorious text editors
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most of the time. You don't have all that other visual crap
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A lot of that is just fancy to make it look cool and to make it look entertaining
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The real world does not operate like Iron Man. Just saying. And I like Iron Man
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Don't get me wrong. So here are some reasons that being able to type fast is really helpful
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The obvious one is that the faster you type, as long as it's accurate, you can get more
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things done. You can also respond to colleagues faster on emails and also when you're replying to
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their messages on Slack which lets you get back to doing what you want to be doing which
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is coding a lot quicker. That's great. But if you type really fast you also have the ability to really unnerve and unhinge
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your co-workers when you start cranking away on your mechanical keyboard and it's clickity
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clickity clickity click click click 90 miles an hour and everybody knows how fast you're typing and it's just like, I can't type that fast
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I can't type that fast. You know, I mean, yay for those who like mechanical keyboards
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I'm not a fan. But really fast typing only matters if you are accurate in what you're typing
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I've seen some people who are amazingly fast and incredibly accurate with their typing
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More power to them. I've also seen some people who type incredibly fast but then they also spend about half their
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time going back and fixing mistakes of what they typed and you know, making corrections
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So when you actually balance it out, it's probably about the same time as taking your
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time to actually type it out how you wanted it on the first pass and without going completely
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like nutso on the keyboard. And your keyboard will probably last longer
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And for me personally, what I've noticed is that, you know, typing super fast isn't actually
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that important for writing code. And the reason for that is that when I'm writing code, I tend to write it in bursts
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It's not like I'm going to be writing 100 lines of code just cranked out as fast as
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I can go because usually it's think about it. What am I trying to solve
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Okay, I'm going to do it this way. Oh, is there a better way to do it? Yeah, I actually like this other way seems a little bit better
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I should probably do it that way. So then I'm going to type and everything is like, huh? Yeah
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And here, this would be a great place to like incorporate this or maybe I could actually
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pull this out into something that's more reusable. So yeah, why don't I do that
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And so you're working through it and it's kind of like more bursts of typing
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It's not like you're writing a 20 page essay and for a final and you have one hour to do it
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You're working through it and you're like, okay, I'm going to do this. And then you're like, okay, I'm going to do this. And then you're like, okay, I'm going to do this
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And then you're like, okay, I'm going to do this. And then you're like, okay, I'm going to do this. And then you're like, okay, I'm going to do this
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And then you're like, okay, I'm going to do this. And then you're like, okay, I'm going to do this. And then you're like, okay, I'm going to do this
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And then you're like, okay, I'm going to do this. And then you're like, okay, I'm going to do this. And then you're like, okay, I'm going to do this
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And then you're like, okay, I'm going to do this. And then you're like, okay, I'm going to do this. And then you're like, okay, I'm going to do this
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And then you're like, okay, I'm going to do this. And then you're like, okay, I'm going to do this. And then you're like, okay, I'm going to do this
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And then you're like, okay, I'm going to do this. And then you're like, okay, I'm going to do this. And then you're like, okay, I'm going to do this
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And then you're like, okay, I'm going to do this. And then you're like, okay, I'm going to do this. And then you're like, okay, I'm going to do this
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And then you're like, okay, I'm going to do this. And then you're like, okay, I'm going to do this
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And then you're like, okay, I'm going to do this. And then you're like, okay, I'm going to do this. And then you're like, okay, I'm going to do this
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And then you're like, okay, I'm going to do this. And then you're like, okay, I'm going to do this. And then you're like, okay, I'm going to do this
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And then you're like, okay, I'm going to do this. And then you're like, okay, I'm going to do this. And then you're like, okay, I'm going to do this
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And then you're like, okay, I'm going to do this. And then you're like, okay, I'm going to do this. And then you're like, okay, I'm going to do this
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And then you're like, okay, I'm going to do this. And then you're like, okay, I'm going to do this. And then you're like, okay, I'm going to do this
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And then you're like, okay, I'm going to do this. And then you're like, okay, I'm going to do this. And then you're like, okay, I'm going to do this
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And then you're like, okay, I'm going to do this. And then you're like, okay, I'm going to do this. And then you're like, okay, I'm going to do this
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And then you're like, okay, I'm going to do this. And then you're like, okay, I'm going to do this. And then you're like, okay, I'm going to do this
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And then you're like, okay, I'm going to do this
