Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

hehe - just go ahead and say it... if you grew up on irc, this is your natural habitat.

many people who never irc'd have adapted just fine, but those who struggle with typing at 100wpm+ are obviously going to hate remote work.



that is an interesting connection, the habit of chat in general. I never considered my days in the chat rooms as prepping me for life in chat. I occasionally see various critiques and complaints at work with some folks getting disoriented and frustrated working in slack and I never quite get where they're struggling or coming from. Could it be just general inexperience in chats like AOL, IRC, yahoo, MSN, hangouts, or whatever the medium was. Keyboard chatting is definitely different from mobile chatting for sure with the keyboard and speed. Maybe individuals haven't spent earlier years in their youth in the chatrooms quite possibly.


Yeah this is so true. I casually type like 110-130wpm and didn't think anything of it... it wasn't until I got into the business world that I realized this isn't too common, even among other career programmers. Huh, didn't everyone stay up until 3am chatting on [IRC/etc.] and then fall asleep in class the next day? haha ;)


> Huh, didn't everyone stay up until 3am chatting on [IRC/etc.] and then fall asleep in class the next day? haha ;)

Chaotic many-users chatrooms (including, but not exclusively, IRC) and text chat in video games. You have to get fast at typing to use either—in the former, if you're too slow, you'll drop out of the flow of conversation, and in the latter, speed is key because being slow makes you vulnerable in the game, and if you're not pretty damn fast you can't really afford to use it at all.

I learned the basic mechanics of typing from Mavis Beacon, but I got fast because of those.


I'm somewhere around 30~50* wpm with maybe 80% accuracy and I max out around 700 words per hour (12 wpm) when writing fiction.

I've never had an issue participating online, including IRC.

*: Not for lack of trying. My brain has trouble doing language operations in real time. I'm just grateful I can touch type!




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: