I decided around the fall of 2023 I was going to learn Colemak. I had been toying with the idea of an alternate keyboard layout for a while, but I told myself that it wasn’t worth the effort. I was happy enough with QWERTY, I typed decently fast in it, and I didn’t have any wrist or hand pain. My keyboard (a UHK) had a Colemak layer already programmed, however, so it was right there, the temptation.
The first couple of weeks were awful. I was typing fewer than 20 words a minute. The next couple weeks were manageable, and after that things felt more normal.
But it wasn’t those first weeks that were most impressing upon me. It was months later, when I would be on a work call, talking and typing at the same time, and I would think, “a year ago I couldn’t even hunt and peck fast enough to do this.”
And that’s why I am most happy I learned Colemak. Not because of any of the supposed benefits (I haven’t really noticed them), but that feeling of: hey, I learned this, and I can physically feel the success.
The nice thing about learning a new keyboard layout is that it’s something you use every day, so you have sufficient opportunities to experience that satisfaction. Also, it’s tactile, which I think gives it an extra layer of enjoyment.
There are other skills like this. I’m in the process of teaching my daughter to read. This misses the pure tactile experience of typing, but there’s still the thrill of her eyes scanning the page, reading quickly what used to be laborious. Most of us learn to read so long ago that we forget a time that we don’t, and so reading becomes just an accepted action, like breathing or walking.
Learning a language is probably the other skill that most closely gives me the same feeling of excitement when I take a moment to realize that my mouth is moving fluidly, expressing what I would have stumbled on before. The difference, of course, is that learning a language takes not weeks, but years.
I think there are probably other skills that are in this category of being quick to learn, enjoyable to master, used often, and with a physical component. Sewing and repairing clothes, I imagine. Tying knots is another one, at least depending on your environment.
For me, though, most of my days are spent at a keyboard. And, so, Colemak is that reminder that I can learn new things and benefit from them.