Ask HN: How to reconcile “teach everyone to code” and “only hire the top 1%”?

Re:Ask HN: How to reconcile “teach everyone to code” and “on... by PhasmaFelis on Tuesday June 28, 2016 @02:30AM (#11991876)

> Touch-typing isn't widely taught anymore, is it?

If true, that is deeply bizarre. Touch-typing, much more so than programming, is actually useful in basically any non-menial job in the modern world. It ought to be as basic to the curriculum as math and reading.

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Re:Ask HN: How to reconcile “teach everyone to code” and “on... by crgk on Tuesday June 28, 2016 @09:14AM (#11993503)

I think they just call it "typing" now. I had to look up what "touch typing" means. There isn't really an alternative; a person has to know qwerty to type, even swiping on a smartphone.

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Re:Ask HN: How to reconcile “teach everyone to code” and “on... by PhasmaFelis on Tuesday June 28, 2016 @03:44PM (#11996900)

The alternative is hunt-and-peck, aka "look down at the keyboard, find the key you want, and poke it with your index finger." I started programming at age 7 and wasn't taught to touch-type until 11 or so; you definitely don't need formal QWERTY training to input text at a pretty rapid rate. It's still not as fast as touch-typing, though, and being able to type without looking at the keyboard is a huge advantage.

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