How I Got to 60
TL; DR click to expand
Only after joining the department did I discover this requirement — truly painful, yet it’s a hard requirement; fail and your probation gets extended.
I started practicing from my first week on the job. Back then I was using a Xiaobawang 3494; my All key speed was around 30-something. At that point I decided to stop practicing All key for a while and start from the basic exercises. I arrived at the company a little after 8 every morning and practiced until nearly 9:30.
After about a month, I could occasionally touch 50 in All Key; most of the time I hovered around 40. But by then, thanks to proper key-position correction, writing code and chatting at work were basically no problem.
But from 50 to 60 felt exceptionally hard. I practiced for about 3 months, an hour each day. This picture is from my first time breaking 60 in All Key — truly commemorative.
By this time I was no longer using the 3994, because it’s a red-switch keyboard without much rhythmic feel. So I picked up a 99-yuan Rapoo blue-switch keyboard on JD — the most ordinary kind. My fingers get a bit more tired, but my typing speed became a bit steadier.
I remember announcing it to the world on all my social apps. Actually quite a few people probably didn’t understand, thinking this guy’s brain must be broken — still using a DOS program, haha.
tt reaching 74:
A Download Link
Some friends may want to practice with tt too, so I’ve packaged the files. On Windows just double-click 放大版TT.BAT;
the package includes Dosbox. For Linux/Mac users, install dosbox on your own system
and use dosbox -CONF dosbox3.conf.
When typing for the first time, many of you will be at 20~30. Don’t feel defeated — All Key is really too hard. The first step of practicing typing well is correcting key positions and fingering. You don’t have to pursue a high difficulty like 60; 50 is already fast. In my view, everyday life only requires around 40.
Typing Is a Small Craft
Many colleagues around me stopped practicing after reaching 60 — speed really does degrade that way. I hope everyone can persist for the long term: practice a few times a day and keep the muscle memory. Before AI writes code for us, your typing speed shouldn’t put you at a disadvantage.