Qwerty Questions

“Ayy Ess Dee Eff. Jay Kay Ell Sem.”

I repeated the teacher’s mantra in my own head as I sat down at my electronic keyboard. My left hand found its way to the ASDF configuration, with each finger finding the correct key, and my right hand joined in, making a neat line across the middle letter keys to connect the J with the semicolon.

I was all set to type. Now, all I had to do was remember where every single other key was. Piece of cake!

Tenth grade taught me a lot of things, but the one skill I probably use the most is typing. Here I am, once again showcasing this increasingly arcane skill, working on this piece for you to read.

Years after overcoming my initial struggles with memorizing the ASDF—JKL; configuration, I couldn't help but wonder about the origins of this seemingly arbitrary layout.

Over the ensuing decades, I realized that there must be a reason why the keys were in this particular order on the keyboard. If someone was designing it from scratch, I would imagine the first thing to try would be alphabetical order, since it would make it very, very easy for folks to learn how to type.

There must be a reason! What is it?

The Birth of QWERTY

The concept of a machine to assist in typing goes back a long way, but it wasn’t until the 19th century that innovation and precision manufacturing intersected in the right way to allow for the invention of the typewriter.

As innovators raced to perfect this groundbreaking invention, they encountered a significant challenge: the mechanical jamming of keys. When two neighboring keys were pressed in quick succession, the typewriters of the era would jam, slowing down the typing process and causing frustration.

Enter Christopher Latham Sholes, an American newspaper editor and printer. Alongside his colleagues Samuel Soule and Carlos Glidden, Sholes was determined to find a solution. Their approach was not to redesign the machine but to reconfigure the layout of the keys. By placing frequently used letters farther apart from each other, they minimized the risk of jamming. The result was the QWERTY layout, named after the first six letters on the top row of the keyboard.

They Made It Worse On Purpose

It makes sense that the design wasn't initially about optimizing typing speed, but rather about ensuring the machine's reliability.

In 1873, Sholes and his team struck a deal with E. Remington and Sons, a renowned firearms and sewing machine manufacturer, to produce the first commercially successful typewriter, the Sholes and Glidden typewriter, also known as the Remington No. 1. This partnership played a pivotal role in popularizing the QWERTY layout. As typists trained on these machines, the layout became ingrained in their muscle memory, further cementing its place in typing history.

Over time, as more manufacturers adopted the QWERTY design and typists became proficient in its use, any motivation to change to a more "logical" or "efficient" layout diminished. QWERTY had become the de facto standard, a testament to the power of early adoption and the inertia of learned behavior.

Why Not Other Layouts?

So, that explains why we began with the QWERTY layout, but why hasn’t this illogical structure been replaced? To begin to answer this question, I wanted to bring

Daniel Nest

, who writes

Why Try AI

in to the conversation here. Dan’s excellent newsletter is well worth reading if you’re interested in plain English AI news.

Daniel mentioned a keyboard configuration called the Dvorak that was superior to the qwerty (not like that would be all that hard to do), but of course the inertial impetus to keep using the existing layout continues to dominate. Here’s Daniel:

In my mind, the Dvorak keyboard has always been a prime example of an obviously better, more efficient technology failing to gain popularity because “something something Big QWERTY Lobby.”

It wasn’t until I read Andrew’s recent post To Hangul and Beyond that I learned the inconvenient truth: Dvorak is not all that.

Andrew’s post was about a deliberate attempt to create a simple, easy-to-learn writing system. TLDR: Hangul was a massive success and saw widespread adoption.

With my Dvorak counter-example, I was going to show off my elite knowledge, contribute to the conversation, and feel proud of myself for at least a fleeting moment after hitting “Enter” (or, on the Dvorak keyboard, “Enter”).

Then I actually Googled Dvorak.

Long story short, it turns out that Dvorak isn’t as clear-cut a winner as I’d been led to believe. Yes, it places commonly used letters in the home row within easy reach, theoretically making you more efficient. Yes, it reduces finger travel time and should help reduce repetitive strain injury.

Yet even veteran Dvorak users admit it’s not a slam dunk.

Any efficiency gains are marginal at best and come largely from getting accustomed to touch typing, which QWERTY users can also benefit from. The online consensus seems to be that it comes down to personal preference and that re-learning Dvorak isn’t worth the effort if you’re already a happy QWERTY user.

But that doesn’t make for nearly as dramatic a story, does it?

The story of the QWERTY keyboard reminds us that sometimes the most enduring innovations aren't necessarily the most efficient or logical, but rather those that find a way to ingrain themselves in our daily routines and collective memory.

This dance between invention and tradition is one we’re going to have to contend with more and more these days, especially as new technology becomes integrated into our lives faster and faster with each passing year. Daniel’s example of the Dvorak clearly reminds us that familiarity will often be more important to us than efficiency.

If you want to stay informed with the firehose of artificial intelligence products and services,

Why Try AI

can help a great deal. Daniel’s newsletter is easy enough for me to understand without a bunch of additional research, and so I can sort of poke my head into the space once a week and get a pretty good idea of the lay of the land.

Did you take a typing class when you were growing up? Do you use a tactile keyboard like a laptop or desktop more, or do you find yourself using voice-to-text or another method to share your thoughts more? Let me know!