The most ironic thing about this whole debate is that my original statement was that KEYBOARDS were the greatest input device for computers.
Never did I mention anything about QWERTY, nor did I suggest that there couldn't be more efficient keyboard layouts.
Let's rewind a bit...
KeenEmpire wrote:
Paramultart wrote:Keyboards truly are the best input device. Everything else is sub-par.
Hardly;
steno gets you 100 more wpm with more accuracy.
The fact you made such a loaded argument to begin with almost makes me question if you just searched for "Thoughts to text" and posted the first result, and grabbed a keyword from the description just to start a debate, so the attention shifted from "keyboards are superior" to "which keyboard system is the best". That steno keyboard is still technically a variation of a KEYBOARD, just like Dvorak or Colemak, so really this whole argument is dumb and was instigated for no reason.
Since you brought up QWERTY, you pretty much forced me into a corner to defend it. When I did so, it was implied that I was a hypocrite for criticizing others for not learning QWERTY while refusing to learn an even more complicated system.
"Tap tap", "Google Glass", "Yo Siri" and "Hi Xbox" are all f*cking retarded input methods and are designed for f*cking stupid people, okay? It's not hard to see that a bar is being drastically lowered here, and I don't think it's hypocritical of me to believe that the stenotype keyboard goes too far in the opposite direction. The important thing to realize is that there is such thing as a happy medium. We needn't swing from one extreme to the other, and I believe we already have that happy medium with keyboards and mice.
I don't like the stenotype keyboard, because it requires special software to interpret it, and the fact that it eliminates the option to "search and peck" for keys, as well as any other points I made against it.
Let me explain why "maximum efficiency" is not always a good idea.
Picture a bread factory. It's a great factory, has been around for 50 years, pays its employees a decent wage, makes quality bread and maintains good morale among those who work there.
Over this period of time, improvements are made here and there to maintain efficiency and make small improvements where needed. Nothing big, just making sure no one is slacking off and quotas are being met.
Well, one day, the owner of the factory passes away, and the company is inherited by a new heir.
Under this new management, the factory makes drastic changes to boost efficiency by up to 200% or 300%.
No new employees are hired, but instead, employees are demanded to learn new equipment and work at uncomfortable speeds. Anyone who cannot keep up with this new pace or learn the new machinery is terminated. This is unfortunate, as the bread factory has been keeping this small town's economy going for a century at this point. The bread factory continues to evolve, eventually replacing most of the workers with more machines. The more machines they had, the more bread they could make. The less workers they had, the more profit their corporate guys could keep. They could now pay less workers to do more work for a lower wage than the previous workers had earned when they were employed in a comfortable, low-stress working environment. The only employees they needed now were a few people to push buttons and pull levers, and some others to load it up and ship it around the country.
Silly, nonsensical and possibly irrelevant, I know, but the underlying principle here is that there is are cases where "efficiency" crosses a line and just becomes stupid or dehumanizing, whereas in the beginning of the story, everything was at a comfortable medium. If it's not broken, do not attempt to fix it.
Unless your job demands that your typing speed exceed QWERTY's limitations, there's really no need for another system.
To cut to the chase, yes, I'm in love with Qwerty, and the fact its design has been around so long just gives it even more charm. Plus, yeah... I'll admit that I hate change. I mean, look... it's already 2014. That's horrible and depressing to me, just like the bread story.
PS. Do not attempt to nitpick my bread story. I was well aware it was a flawed analogy when I wrote it, but I was also kind of hungry.
Your focus of this post should be on the fact that I never said QWERTY was the best or most efficient keyboard, but rather keyboards were the best input devices. My actual preference for QWERTY, as well as my fondness for starchy foods rich in carbohydrates and fiber, is hardly relevant to this discussion.