Nerds per Minute: A History of Competitive Typing

by Sean Wrona

Typing competitions are a forgotten but surprisingly influential aspect of industrial society. Originally introduced in the 1880s to test the durability of various brands of mechanical typewriters, they became a major institution during the first half of the 20th century. The top typists of that era competed at marquee venues like Madison Square Garden and Carnegie Hall, toured the nation like rock stars, made prominent appearances on radio and TV shows, were referenced in newspaper comic strips, gave performances in front of government officials and the United Nations, and even met royalty. The contests were especially noteworthy as they represented one of the first instances of men and women being allowed to compete together on a level playing field in American history - several women won international typing championships before they were even allowed to vote. In addition to playing an unheralded role in women's liberation, the typewriter also helped African-Americans to make inroads into commercial offices thanks to the efforts of Cortez Peters, the first great African-American typist, who successfully integrated typing contests over a decade before Jackie Robinson integrated major league baseball; Peters was also one of the very first African-Americans to establish a chain of business schools in the 1930s. However, because the classic international typewriting championships were never held after 1946, most of the great history of typing competitions has been forgotten by the society at large.In the 21st century, typing competitions made an unexpected comeback. Shortly after the Internet became mainstream in the late '90s, a wide variety of competitive typing sites were introduced in the 2000s and 2010s such as 10FastFingers, TypeRacer, and Nitro Type, which all attained mass popularity and broke into the gaming mainstream by the late 2010s. Competitive typing became more popular as a participatory pursuit than it had ever been before even as the career prospects for typists plummeted markedly. When Sean Wrona won the inaugural Ultimate Typing Championship in 2010 and much to his horror and chagrin the videos from that contest went semi-viral, he accidentally helped popularize typing competitions to a myriad of millennial and zoomer gamers in the 2010s. In Nerds per Minute, Wrona traces the history of typing from Christopher Latham Sholes's invention of the first mass-produced typewriter to the modern Internet scene. He discusses the history of Sholes's typewriter as well as many other typewriter models that were invented before and after him, how Sholes and his collaborator James Densmore decided upon the QWERTY keyboard layout, the life and history of each of the important typists from Frank McGurrin to Chak, August Dvorak's research and the history of his keyboard layout, the history of European and Japanese typing competitions, how typing competitions connected to historical social trends as a whole, the history of typing games from Typing Tutor, the first mass-produced typing instructional program, to the recent Monkeytype, his own personal memoirs and reflections on the growth of the typing scene, the connection of typing games to the gaming mainstream via gaming celebrities like the late Reckful, along with Wrona's own original research on the fastest and slowest keys, words, and regions of the QWERTY keyboard indicating why the conventional home row wisdom is wrong. He concludes with an in depth description of how he types each key of the keyboard as well as a recap of the second Ultimate Typing Championship in 2020.

Genres: Nonfiction

933 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 27, 2021

Reviews

[snowmelt · Rating 5 out of 5]

For even the biggest of us typing nerds this book will tell you more than you ever realized you wanted to know about the topic. Sean Wrona's unique perspective of the world and oddball personality shines through each chapter in this comprehensive history of competitive typing. He explains the invention and development of typing machines and keyboard layouts, chronicling the largely forgotten history of famous, nation-touring professional typists who competed in highly publicized typing competitions in the early 20th century. Sean follows each notable typist and the emergence of electronic typewriters and eventually computers during the later part of the century before transitioning into his own era - the Internet. The book shines a deserved spotlight on countless community members and top-tier typists who have pushed the activity to its various boundaries, be it as a profession, hobby, or anything else.

Nerds per Minute comes at a perfect time for Sean as his decade-long domination is finally eroding. A new cohort of teenage typists who've grown up on typing sites are now pushing the forefront of typing ability, a fact which he is evidently glad to accept. His time on top was always bittersweet and this book demonstrates Sean's gracious stepping down from the unasked-for throne. Though I have a rather large bias contributing to my adoration of this book, I do think there is a broad appeal for anyone with even a passing interest in typing.

- charlie💧 (charlieog)

[Nicolas · Rating 3 out of 5]

"A collector is anxious to acquire specimens to illustrate a period or a school, and forgets that a single masterpiece can teach us more than any number of mediocre products of a given period or school" - The Book of Tea

I'm sure that there is some other quote from the Book of Tea, that applies to the specific context of history... but the key issue with this book should be conveyed in this quote as well. After you have read this book, you will know everybody who has ever won any typing competition ever since the invention of the first typewriter - as well as how much this person can bench press and if they had a dog or not.

The book does contain a wealth of interesting information (assuming you are interested in the history of typing), but it is hidden in between an endless stream of unnecessary and boring information. By the end of the book you probably will have forgotten most of it - including the interesting parts.

My suggestion for Sean would be to write a second book "Nerds per Minute: A proper history of competitive typing in 100 pages" and my suggestion to the reader would be to buy the book - but only skim through it and read the sections which contain interesting topics.

Though I do disagree with his rating "Paul T" summarized it best with "World's fastest typist writes longest book ever..."

[Juno · Rating 4 out of 5]

True to its name, this is one of the nerdiest books out there. If you are interested in the history of competitive typing and keyboards or just hearing an autistic man ramble endlessly, you'll find about 10 skillion times more than you were expecting in this book. I'm not sure how he managed to get this much information on such a niche topic, but I applaud him for his effort and dedication to providing such a comprehensive history for anyone who might want to take a look.

[Paul T. · Rating 5 out of 5]

World's fastest typists writes longest book ever...

But what would any expect? This is a good read if you are interested in the typing scene and want to know the full history behind the people and machines that were at one time the center of the business world.

[Nainar · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very interesting book. My favourite parts were the descriptions of some fast typists of the typewriter era, qwerty vs Dvorak, and how Sean Wrona types (I find it more intuitive than the standard homerow method). Highly recommended!

[Mohd Ashfaq · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is really helpful to increase your typing speed at a rapid pace