!rant

Does typing speed (wpm) make a better developer?

Ofcourse it doesn't

Nope. Development is the process of creative problem solving. Your code is just a tool

Years ago we hired a developer who was an amazingly fast typist. Don't remember the wpm, but high enough for HR to ask "Why do you want to work here?".

After a few days she asks...
K: "Do you write much code? I mean, no offense, but I don't hear much typing behind me. I'm eager to get started, is there going to be enough work to do?"
Me: "Oh yes, I write a lot of code. I just spend most of my time thinking about the problem before I start typing."
K: "Wow...at the university, all the details were already worked out. All we did was type in the code exactly as it was given to us. The faster you could type, the better developer you were."
Me: "Not here. Users specifications are usually 'Build me a widget'. Then it's up to us to figure out what the widget is and why is it important. Most of the time user wanted an eggplant."
K: "Ohhh..this job is going to be very different."
She quit a few weeks later.
Critical thinking skills are more valuable than wpm.

Daily practice and you won't even notice your typing speed has increased

A faster one maybe. I'm a blind typer (can reach around 95 wpm when going fast) while my best mate will reach no more than 40 wpm i think. This just makes that I can write more code within the same than him, doesn't necessarily mean it's better code though.

@linuxxx I'm not talking about code quality here, but good point. The background of the question is when doing pair programming, some of my jr devs have to hunt for letters or symbols which makes the whole thing frustrating for me. Worse if they keep one hand on the mouse (for some reason) and peck with the other hand.

@bkwilliams Ahh ye, this just camee to my mind 😃

The only measurement that matters is wtfpm during code reviews.

@ItsNotMyFault indeedXD