Sometimes It’s As Bad As It Seems, Or As Senseless

It’s a good idea to get a read on things because it can give you a different perspective. It can show you something you almost-know. It can also point out what’s the proximate cause (what it appears to be) and the ultimate cause (what it really is).

Let me give you a metaphorical example. You’re probably sitting in front of a computer keyboard as you read this article. The QWERTY keyboard, it’s called, because those are the letters on the first line of letters. This keyboard was designed back in 1972 by a gentleman named C. L. Sholes. It’s also called the “Universal” keyboard, because, well it is. But why is it universal? It is because it’s the best keyboard arrangement we could have, for speed and accuracy in the year 2007?

You may never have given it a thought, because in reality we have no choice. Any keyboard you have ever seen had this arrangement of letters. Someone has written on their blog, “It makes no sense. It is awkward, inefficient and confusing. We’ve been saying that for 124 years.” Have you? I haven’t. I hadn’t really givne it any thought.

But let’s proceed.

It turns out that Sholes invented this keyboard there in his Milwaukee shop specifically to slow down typists who would be using his prototype typing machine. An alternative theory is that he did the arrangement so as not to slow down typists, but it’s the same argument pushed back a level. The reason he designed the keyboard the way he did was to keep the keys from jamming. Typing fast would make the keys jam and slow the typist down. So it’s the same argument.

If you’ve never used a manual typewriter and had the keys jam, or used the electric ball typewriter and had it spin out of control or start smoking, you may not be aware of this concept. If the person typed keys too fast, the machine wouldn’t work.

To get around this, smart Mr. Sholes studied the same data that could make typing faster, if we wanted to go that route. He used a study of letter-pair frequency prepared by educator Amos Densmore, brother of James Densmore, Sholes’ chief financial backer. For instance “TH” is a highly common letter pair in the English language, and he made sure those two letters were not next to each other.

You might be interested to know, BTW that the first prototype typed only CAPITAL LETTERS. It was first mass-produced by Remington, the arms manufacturer. The shift key was added next time around, and one could then type both capital and small letters.

Since that time, there have been other keyboards designed and proposed. One came in 1932, when August Dvorak, a professor, got funds from the Carnegie Foundation to make an alternative keyboard and developed the keyboard by that same name, Dvorak. With his keyboard, you can type about 400 of the English language’s most common words without leaving the home row (as opposed to only 100 on the QWERTY).

Reports vary on the results of the Dvorak. According to Jared Diamond, in “Guns, Germs and Steel,” “Trials in 1932 with an efficiently laid-out keyboard showed that it would let us double our typing speed and reduce our typing effort by 95 percent.”

Diamond, in his fascinating book, goes on to mention similar cases of things that are entrenched that aren’t necessarily the best, cheapest or most effective.

Just because something is entrenched with other people doesn’t mean it’s the best thing, or the best thing for you. It pays to ask questions, and sometimes it takes someone else to ask them.

Like is your partner acting up because he’s an Aries with a Scorpio rising, or because it’s Venus Retrograde, or because he’s approaching his Saturn Return? Or it because you’re a Leo and Saturn has been on your sign for two long hard lesson-teaching years? Or a combination of these?

More knowledge can show you options.

Back to our typewriter, many people are able to type up to 100 words a minute on the QWERTY, so there isn’t much impetus to change it, not to mention all the millions and billions of QWERTY keyboards out there. But if you can’t, it could be the design of the keyboard. On a Dvorak you might be able to type 105.

More knowledge can show you options. Some are feasible, some are not, but it’s always helpful to explore.

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