Topping a Typing Speed Leaderboard with Puppeteer

In early September, a friend asked how I learned to type without looking at the keyboard.

I showed him keybr.com; it’s a solid web app that makes getting good at this a breeze.

I spent 45 minutes, on average, every day in February of 2016 using their tool.

I haven’t had to look at any alphabet while typing ever since.

After showing him around the site, we started checking out high scores.

We were wowed by scores as high as 149 words-per-minute before it hit me:

Imagine beating the fastest times with code?

Puppeteer immediately came to mind.

You know what happens next…

No hands 😎

The code lives here

Here’s a video that explains the whole thing:

By my estimates, I can run marathons around the fastest speeds.

If I limit my loops to execute in speeds my screen can display (60 keystrokes per second for a 60 Hz screen or 1 keystroke every 16ms), assuming an average of 6 characters per word, I can crank out a whopping 10 words per second and 600 words per minute (more than 2 times the world record). Remember I’m limiting myself to the refresh rate of my screen. Any moderately powered smartphone can go several times faster.

The trickiest part of the code was the async loop. I read an excellent medium article that made implementing this part trivial. The explanation is here.

All that being said, this exercise got me thinking…

Back in JS2 (8th grade), I was graded on my typing speed in one of my classes.

In my freshman year of college, I used Wolfram Alpha (a lot) to see the steps for solving complex Math problems.

Problems I had to learn to solve without this tool to do well in my Calculus class.

Problems with solutions I would need to learn again if they were to crop up as quickly as a year later.

Problems I’m yet to come across 6 years later.

Before computers, most tools boosted our physical output.

Computers boost our intellectual output.

My view is that modern school systems should demonstrate that current tools are factored into what it is they teach and how students are graded.

No one should let specs like their typing speed or Calculus test scores be the metric for gauging theirs or anyone else’s intellectual output.