John Borwick’s blog

Learning Python and Dvorak at the same time is really disconcerting. The entire medium in which I work and think is being changed.

Already, my Dvorak is getting to the point where I can type without thinking about it. It’s like getting comfortable enough in a foreign language that you’re no longer translating–you’re just talking.

Python, not so much. I have a long way to go to learn how modules like “curses” work, and there’s not much help along the way. There are nowhere near the resources available for Perl: just check out the Google directory for Python to see what I mean.

Ever since Lauren and I tried to learn the Dvorak keyboard in 2003, I have been thinking about its layout in the back of my mind. When I read something, sometimes I will “type out” the sentences in my mind.

Recently I decided that enough was enough, and I should give the Dvorak another shot. I’m happy to say that, perhaps because of my strange semi-subconscious “mind exercises” over the years, I remembered a lot of the keyboard.

It’s been somewhat of an issue at work because it’s difficult to type passwords that you’ve muscle-memorized, I have a much lower WPM right now (perhaps 30-40 rather than 80-100) and I make a lot of errors.

But it’s fun: I have heard that doing stuff like this, where you are learning new things with both your hands, can help you in the event of a stroke. It’s going to be useful: Dvorak helps you with long-term ergonomic problems and can slightly increase your typing speed. It will also be eccentric, which perhaps is a plus.