From Typing to Flow: The Hidden Power of Touch Typing, then Losing the Mouse to “Edit at the Speed of Thought”

As a senior computer scientist, I often get asked: “How do I master CS including AI?” Our company does a lot of solutions and advisory work, around implementing ML/AI/DI in production, decision design, training, and more. So my first advice to individuals might surprise you: become a touch typist, and then go on to ditch the mouse in favor of a keyboard-centric editor.

I’ve come to believe that this combo is a game changer at any age. Whether you’re coding or prompting AI, typing is the gateway to seamless thought. But pair that with a tool like Vim, where editing happens without breaking your flow to grab a mouse, and you’ve unlocked a whole new level of productivity. Below, I’ll describe why typing – and keyboard-only editing – can transform your work, and even improve your brain outside of the world of typing.

This idea occurred to me first watching a friend from Europe who earns 7 figures (really) as a coder do his job. Not just text entry, but watching him edit in Sublime Text, I think he was 10x faster than anyone else I’ve seen (check out the video at the end of this post for an example). I was also trained in typing in high school, and it’s supercharged my work ever since, especially when I’m in a text-only editor.

Typing faster slows cognitive decline as you age

It’s easy to assume that touch typing is too late to learn if you’ve spent a lifetime typing with two fingers. But many people learn typing at an older age, with practical and also a cognitive motivation. Research on learning new motor skills later in life suggests this kind of practice can support coordination, executive function, and cognitive resilience. Touch typing is also a bilateral activity: both hands and multiple fingers have to work together in coordinated sequence. That kind of cross-body task appears to engage systems involved in attention, timing, and procedural learning. So the case for learning to type well may go beyond speed. It may also be a useful way to exercise cognitive and motor function at the same time, while decreasing the risk of cognitive decline.

If you’re ready to finally learn to touch type (or to improve your existing speed), try online tools like TypingClub or Keybr. They’ll guide you step-by-step, no matter your age. And once you do, you’ll feel the difference, in your typing and beyond.

Editing at the speed of thought

While you’re at it, there’s a next step. Think about the difference between driving a car for the first time and how you can drive without thinking now. That’s procedural memory at work. And cognitive scientists describe a “flow state” where productivity is substantially enhanced.

This same kind of transformation can happen in front of a computer, when you ditch the mouse and master your keyboard for editing. Without a mouse, editing becomes unconscious and your brain is free for other tasks. Sometimes called “editing at the speed of thought”, your fingers instinctively navigate code, text, or even AI prompts. “Keystroke-level modeling” (KLM), studies howeach switch – from keyboard to mouse or vice versa – adds cognitive and time cost. Researchers have quantified these interruptions, and they found that minimizing mode-switching – like staying on the keyboard – helps sustain flow. And while not all studies are Vim-specific, this principle supports why a keyboard-only workflow is less disruptive.

If you’re ready to explore, here are some tools to help you unlock that keyboard flow. For programmers, Visual Studio Code has a great Vim extension, letting you stay entirely in command mode inside a modern IDE. If you prefer a standalone editor, this vim editor runs on your desktop. And Sublime Text offers a vintage mode that mimics Vim key bindings. Now, if you’re more of an Emacs person – well, we Vim folks have always had a friendly rivalry – but Emacs, too, is powerful if you know the chords, and includes its own Vim mode if you want to go there.

All this might sound too basic – not as exciting as mastering a new LLM API – but it’s foundational work that will go a long way at any age.

Here’s an example of editing in Vim. See the keystroke stream below the video picture of the coder as he works.