As someone who has 100% accuracy, how do you avoid the kind of typos that result from incorrect finger synchronization, like 'teh'?
These synchronization errors have been the main source of my typos, unlike the kind of typo caused by individual finger imprecision, like accidentally hitting 'p' when meaning to type 'o'.
It occurs to me that because we use both hands, the way we type is inherently 'asynchronous'. For example, when trying to type('the'), the individual 'function calls', typechar('t'), typechar('h'), typechar('e') may be initiated (i.e. fingers begin moving towards their target keys) in that order, but there's no guarantee they are terminated (i.e. fingers hitting their target keys) in that order, because typechar('h') is performed with the right hand whereas typechar('e') is performed with left, so typechar('h') cannot "block" on typechar('e').
But if we were to make each typechar action wait for the previous one, it would be unacceptably slow as well. So it seems the only solution is to invest time in developing just the right muscle memory where everything is timed perfectly.
I‘ve been playing the guitar for very long, and it occurred to me that physical health correlates with my ability to synchronize both hands. Having a steady hand helps tremendously with that IME. I noticed e.g. when I quit drinking (even occasionally) that I got way better at this. While typing, I also started stumbling way less over complicated words at that time.
Practice did help too, but tbh, I practiced a _lot_ and it was frustrating seeing other players be so much more accurate than me while I had likely practiced just as much. Being healthy is just a competitive advantage.
It is sort of like learning a piano. You learn cords. You break words into chunks and work out from there. Now after this whole thread I am conscious of it (grr). Also there are two little nubs on most keyboards on the f and j keys to get you into position quickly. Feel for the nubs and type away. Miss them and it is jumble city.
Yes! The app that I used for learning touch-typing even had a metronome built in, and it encouraged you in the instructions to enable it when practicing.
This is something that's bitten me as I've gotten older. I used to be extremely accurate, but keep making this mistake... most often with space actually. So I end up writing 'th ebird' instead of 'the bird', for example. Also interested to hear OPs secret here.
Maybe not putting pressure on this muscle memory to perform accurately, so a lack of intentional practice. We're not really punished for typos with spellcheck and IDEs picking up a lot of the heavy lifting, so there isn't a lot of mental pressure to perform well here. Or it's simply aging related decline. It may even be a waste of time to worry much about it.
Speaking only for myself, it helps to think of those keys as a unit: as 'the', not 't' (then) 'h' (then) 'e'. If they're a single sequence of movements that I can turn over to my unconscious brain to execute, then my accuracy goes way up. Typing speed then is about coding more and more words into that "reflex space".
I don't know, exactly, but I think I've got most of the common words and key-combinations up to about five characters into that state, and a few longer sequences as well. (I have one long and challenging password I type frequently which I cannot accurately type letter-by-letter, but do just fine when I stop thinking about letters at all.)
If I wanted to type faster (I do ~80wpm on online typing tests) I'd practice more sequences, but I can't seem to think any faster than that when I'm doing moderately complex work. Typing latency doesn't hold me back; brain latency does.
Anyway, that's how I've developed that muscle-memory that you mention.
It works well enough for German as well, the letter frequencies aren't that different. (You just have to make some arrangements for the Umlaute etc, but they are in awkward spots on the German QWERTZ layout as well.)
I think the NEO and NEO2 layouts were designed with a variety of languages in mind.
These synchronization errors have been the main source of my typos, unlike the kind of typo caused by individual finger imprecision, like accidentally hitting 'p' when meaning to type 'o'.
It occurs to me that because we use both hands, the way we type is inherently 'asynchronous'. For example, when trying to type('the'), the individual 'function calls', typechar('t'), typechar('h'), typechar('e') may be initiated (i.e. fingers begin moving towards their target keys) in that order, but there's no guarantee they are terminated (i.e. fingers hitting their target keys) in that order, because typechar('h') is performed with the right hand whereas typechar('e') is performed with left, so typechar('h') cannot "block" on typechar('e').
But if we were to make each typechar action wait for the previous one, it would be unacceptably slow as well. So it seems the only solution is to invest time in developing just the right muscle memory where everything is timed perfectly.