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Typing code vs typing prose — why am I 40% slower on code?
Asked 10 days agoViewed 870 timesAsked by Code Typist
2 Answers
- 32✓
Code has higher entropy per character. Prose has tons of common bigrams (th, he, in, er) that your fingers have memorized as chunks. Code has identifiers like `useEffect` and `__proto__` that don't fit any chunk pattern, plus shift-key dances for symbols. 40% slower is normal. The fix is volume — code through real codebases, not just one-line snippets.
Answered 10 days ago by Fast Fingers4,820 rep · best 142 WPM - 11
Indentation breaks your rhythm. Every newline + tab is a context switch. Practice code that wraps long lines instead of short multi-line snippets.
Answered 9 days ago by Qwerty Knight3,245 rep · best 118 WPM