Week 1 (March 02, 2026)

This isn’t exactly a fresh start for me. I actually began learning stenography about a year ago but had to stop due to hardware issues. Back then, I didn’t get very far — just the first three lessons on Typey Type.

To get back into it, I repurposed my old Corne keyboard and flashed it with QMK to act as a steno board, interfacing with Plover via the Gemini PR protocol. This is crucial; since practice sessions can get long, ergonomics are more important than ever.

This week’s progress

  • I haven’t tracked my exact hours, but I am practicing every day across multiple sessions. It is definitely a minimum of 30 minutes per day, though likely more.
  • Since I’ve already tackled learning new keyboard layouts in the past, my goal right now is pretty universal: accuracy over speed.
  • I mainly focused on the “Introduction”, “One-syllable words with simple keys”, and “One-syllable words with more consonants” lessons. For the Introduction, I’m following a metronome at 80 BPM, while the others are sitting at 40 BPM. I really just want to get that accuracy locked in.

Some other thoughts

  • Using a metronome while chording is an absolute must. I tried using one back when I switched to Colemak, but it felt awkward. I didn’t realize then that touch typing is about chaining together rapid, sequential bursts of uneven lengths. Steno, on the other hand, is about maintaining a steady stream of discrete, simultaneous chords. It feels much more like playing an instrument, making a metronome a natural fit — especially in the early stages.
  • Honestly, I usually get fatigued or “annoyed” if I have to type continuously for more than two minutes while maintaining a high speed. I haven’t run into that issue with steno yet. Maybe I’m just not fast enough yet, or maybe it’s because steno feels like an \(\mathcal{O}(N)\) to \(\mathcal{O}(1)\) optimization.
  • I’m already noticing some muscle memory confusion when switching back to a regular keyboard.

Week 2 (March 09, 2026)

  • I learned how to type individual letters (a-z). Since my chord vocabulary is still basically zero, this means I can now just painstakingly spell out the words I don’t know. The result? I can finally make it to the end of a typing test, clocking in at a blazing 6 WPM!
  • Aside from that, I’m mostly just drilling last week’s lessons to keep building that muscle memory.