Full Transcript for ReadMultiplex.com: Multiplex Rewind—The Real Reason You Use A QWERTY Keyboard Layout.

00:04:04.120 --> 00:04:06.500 touching each other on the top row of the keyboard. 00:04:06.759 --> 00:04:08.400 That immediately throws a wrench in the whole 00:04:08.400 --> 00:04:11.240 anti -jamming theory right there. It really does. 00:04:11.620 --> 00:04:13.400 But the myth falls apart even further when you 00:04:13.400 --> 00:04:16.800 look at the actual timeline of when this machine 00:04:16.800 --> 00:04:18.860 was invented, right? It completely collapses. 00:04:19.100 --> 00:04:21.480 When Scholz was designing and patenting this 00:04:21.480 --> 00:04:24.339 layout, which was in the late 1860s and early 00:04:24.339 --> 00:04:28.189 1870s, the concept of touch typing did not exist. 00:04:28.490 --> 00:04:30.170 Like using all your fingers without looking. 00:04:30.430 --> 00:04:33.569 Exactly. Nobody did that. Every single person 00:04:33.569 --> 00:04:36.110 who interacted with an early typewriter used 00:04:36.110 --> 00:04:39.709 a very slow, deliberate, hunt -and -peck visual 00:04:39.709 --> 00:04:42.009 method. You literally had to scan the board with 00:04:42.009 --> 00:04:43.970 your eyes, find the letter, and press it with 00:04:43.970 --> 00:04:47.089 one or two fingers. So nobody was fast enough 00:04:47.089 --> 00:04:50.170 to jam it anyway. Right. Rapid, multi -finger 00:04:50.170 --> 00:04:52.670 key jamming from blindingly fast typists wasn't 00:04:52.670 --> 00:04:55.449 a widespread problem because nobody had the physical 00:04:55.449 --> 00:04:58.019 speed to cause it yet. Okay, let's unpack this. 00:04:58.100 --> 00:05:00.379 Okay. Because I love this point so much. It just 00:05:00.379 --> 00:05:02.959 highlights the absurdity of the timeline. Yeah. 00:05:03.100 --> 00:05:05.959 It's like a mechanical engineer designing a complex 00:05:05.959 --> 00:05:09.399 anti -lock braking system for a car before anyone 00:05:09.399 --> 00:05:12.079 has even conceptualized a paved road. That's 00:05:12.079 --> 00:05:13.959 a great way to put it. Right. It just doesn't 00:05:13.959 --> 00:05:16.259 make any sense to solve a problem that your users 00:05:16.259 --> 00:05:19.300 aren't even capable of experiencing yet. So if 00:05:19.300 --> 00:05:22.000 the layout wasn't to prevent jams for fast typists, 00:05:22.139 --> 00:05:25.259 what was Scholz actually designing for? Well, 00:05:25.360 --> 00:05:27.740 Scholz was certainly mindful of keeping the machine 00:05:27.740 --> 00:05:29.939 functional, but he was actually looking for a 00:05:29.939 --> 00:05:32.220 completely different kind of edge as he finalized 00:05:32.220 --> 00:05:34.600 his design. The truth is, right up until the 00:05:34.600 --> 00:05:36.439 very last moments before he filed the patent, 00:05:36.600 --> 00:05:39.360 the keyboard was actually set to be the Q -W 00:05:39.360 --> 00:05:43.519 -E period T -Y layout. Wait, with a period? Yeah, 00:05:43.579 --> 00:05:45.899 it had a period right where the R is currently 00:05:45.899 --> 00:05:48.959 located. The

final historical shift to QWERTY 00:05:48.959 --> 00:05:51.379 wasn't driven by some grand mechanical epiphany 00:05:51.379 --> 00:05:56.300 about efficiency. unadulterated salesmanship. 00:05:56.639 --> 00:05:58.240 And here's where it gets really interesting, 00:05:58.360 --> 00:06:00.740 because Scholz is an inventor, which means he 00:06:00.740 --> 00:06:03.060 needed funding. Oh, desperate for it. Right. 00:06:03.139 --> 00:06:05.740 He needed to manufacture these strange new machines 00:06:05.740 --> 00:06:09.639 at scale. And to do that, he had to impress skeptical 00:06:09.639 --> 00:06:13.699 buyers. So at the absolute last minute, he swapped 00:06:13.699 --> 00:06:16.120 that period on the top row for the letter R. 00:06:16.930 --> 00:06:19.269 And why did he do that? It's almost funny in 00:06:19.269 --> 00:06:22.290 retrospect. It really is. So that his early sales 00:06:22.290 --> 00:06:24.629 representatives could type the word Typewriter, 00:06:24.790 --> 00:06:27.949 or type -writer with a hyphen, which was common 00:06:27.949 --> 00:06:31.149 back then. Incredibly fast, in a single fluid 00:06:31.149 --> 00:06:34.089 motion, using just one line of keys. You really 00:06:34.089 --> 00:06:36.790 have to picture the 1800s sales environment to 00:06:36.790 --> 00:06:39.449 appreciate this. A sales representative would 00:06:39.449 --> 00:06:42.029 walk into a bustling traditional office carrying 00:06:42.029 --> 00:06:45.490 this strange, heavy, incredibly loud new machine. 00:06:45.810 --> 00:06:48.850 Probably terrified the clerics. Exactly. The 00:06:48.850 --> 00:06:51.149 potential customer is naturally skeptical of 00:06:51.149 --> 00:06:53.980 this whole contraption. But because the letters 00:06:53.980 --> 00:06:56.500 for the word typewriter were now conveniently 00:06:56.500 --> 00:06:59.740 lined up on the top row, the salesman could pound 00:06:59.740 --> 00:07:02.040 out the name of the machine with blinding speed. 00:07:02.220 --> 00:07:04.319 Right. And they could do this parlor trick all 00:07:04.319 --> 00:07:06.980 while maintaining steady, confident eye contact 00:07:06.980 --> 00:07:09.540 with the customer. It is wild to think about. 00:07:09.920 --> 00:07:12.879 We use this global standard every single day 00:07:12.879 --> 00:07:15.579 of our lives. It dictates the hardware of billions 00:07:15.579 --> 00:07:18.040 of devices across the planet, from laptops to 00:07:18.040 --> 00:07:20.680 smartphones to industrial control panels. Everywhere. 00:07:21.259 --> 00:07:23.860 And it was fundamentally shaped by the 1800s 00:07:23.860 --> 00:07:26.500 equivalent of a flashy tech demo. Just a gimmick. 00:07:26.779 --> 00:07:28.860 Literally just a parlor trick to make the sales 00:07:28.860 --> 00:07:31.180 pitch look cooler. It was a highly effective 00:07:31.180 --> 00:07:33.920 parlor trick, though. That flashiness is largely 00:07:33.920 --> 00:07:36.259 what helped Scholz secure a serious manufacturing 00:07:36.259 --> 00:07:39.459 partner. He eventually found E. Remington & Sons, 00:07:39.579 --> 00:07:41.920 a massive company that originally made firearms 00:07:41.920 --> 00:07:44.220 and sewing machines. Right. Remington. Yeah. 00:07:44.300 --> 00:07:46.339 So they bought the patents. and their marketing 00:07:46.339 --> 00:07:48.939 team, specifically a group called Wyckoff, Siemens, 00:07:49.000 --> 00:07:51.240 and Benedict, they looked at the typewriter and 00:07:51.240 --> 00:07:53.839 realized something crucial. They didn't just 00:07:53.839 --> 00:07:56.259 see a piece of office equipment to sell. What 00:07:56.259 --> 00:07:58.839 did they see? They saw an educational empire 00:07:58.839 --> 00:08:01.839 waiting to be built. As we continue this multiplex 00:08:01.839 --> 00:08:04.399 rewind, we really have to look at how that educational 00:08:04.399 --> 00:08:07.839 empire completely shifted the landscape. Because 00:08:07.839 --> 00:08:09.939 it wasn't the metal bars or the mechanics that 00:08:09.939 --> 00:08:12.360 locked us into QWERTY. No, not at all. It was 00:08:12.360 --> 00:08:15.509 the human brain. How did a neat sales trick for 00:08:15.509 --> 00:08:18.689 a heavy machine become an inescapable global 00:08:18.689 --> 00:08:21.569 standard a century and a half later? It happened 00:08:21.569 --> 00:08:24.050 through one of the most brilliant and aggressive 00:08:24.050 --> 00:08:27.129 educational campaigns in business history. Remington 00:08:27.129 --> 00:08:29.290 knew that to sell typewriters at scale, they 00:08:29.290 --> 00:08:31.509 needed a vast workforce that actually knew how 00:08:31.509 --> 00:08:33.750 to use them efficiently. Because a machine is 00:08:33.750 --> 00:08:36.029 useless if nobody knows how to operate it. Exactly. 00:08:36.539 --> 00:08:38.240 So they started partnering with private business 00:08:38.240 --> 00:08:41.480 colleges, universities, and crucially, the YWCA, 00:08:41.700 --> 00:08:44.360 the Young Women's Christian Association. They 00:08:44.360 --> 00:08:46.700 offered free or heavily discounted typewriters 00:08:46.700 --> 00:08:49.000 to these institutions. But there was a catch, 00:08:49.080 --> 00:08:51.860 right? Yes. They bundled them with a proprietary, 00:08:52.320 --> 00:08:55.340 trademarked touch typing course. The societal 00:08:55.340 --> 00:08:58.360 impact of that specific move is just staggering. 00:08:58.679 --> 00:09:01.500 Prior to this, clerical work was a heavily male 00:09:01.500 --> 00:09:03.929 -dominated field. The source points out that 00:09:03.929 --> 00:09:07.470 in 1874, less than 4 % of clerical workers in 00:09:07.470 --> 00:09:10.470 the U .S. were women. Almost none. Right. But 00:09:10.470 --> 00:09:13.389 by 1900, largely because of these typing schools 00:09:13.389 --> 00:09:15.470 and the expanding secretarial job market they 00:09:15.470 --> 00:09:19.309 created, that number skyrocketed to roughly 75%. 00:09:19.309 --> 00:09:22.169 It

fundamentally altered the workforce demographics. 00:09:22.409 --> 00:09:25.149 But the true genius of Remington's strategy was 00:09:25.149 --> 00:09:27.009 the methodology of the typing course itself. 00:09:27.210 --> 00:09:30.120 They introduced the concept of... home keys, 00:09:30.279 --> 00:09:32.620 and force students to memorize the layout without 00:09:32.620 --> 00:09:35.240 ever looking down at their hands. Which takes 00:09:35.240 --> 00:09:37.720 a lot of time. A massive amount of time. The 00:09:37.720 --> 00:09:40.620 source notes that it takes about 400 hours of 00:09:40.620 --> 00:09:42.980 repetitive practice to achieve the basic neurological 00:09:42.980 --> 00:09:46.379 reflexes for this, and up to 600 hours to become 00:09:46.379 --> 00:09:49.779 a true expert. Wow. Yeah. So what Remington did 00:09:49.779 --> 00:09:52.600 was essentially program the QWERTY layout directly 00:09:52.600 --> 00:09:55.740 into the subconscious neurological software of 00:09:55.740 --> 00:09:58.350 the typist's brain. And once you install that 00:09:58.350 --> 00:10:01.149 specific software, it is nearly impossible to 00:10:01.149 --> 00:10:04.330 uninstall or overwrite it. And Remington actually 00:10:04.330 --> 00:10:06.750 weaponized that difficulty. They claimed at the 00:10:06.750 --> 00:10:09.289 time that if a trained QWERTY typist moved to 00:10:09.289 --> 00:10:12.029 any other layout on a competitor's machine, their 00:10:12.029 --> 00:10:15.250 words per minute would drop by about 80%. That's 00:10:15.250 --> 00:10:18.309 a huge hit to productivity. Huge. The physical 00:10:18.309 --> 00:10:20.490 and cognitive frustration of trying to unlearn 00:10:20.490 --> 00:10:23.230 that muscle memory was immense. The source even 00:10:23.230 --> 00:10:25.769 mentions a fascinating study from the late 1950s 00:10:25.769 --> 00:10:28.470 in Alaska, where schoolchildren were taught on 00:10:28.470 --> 00:10:31.309 a sequential alphabetical keyboard. Oh, interesting. 00:10:31.610 --> 00:10:33.970 Yeah, and they eventually matched the speed of 00:10:33.970 --> 00:10:36.690 standard QWERTY typists, but the entire experiment 00:10:36.690 --> 00:10:38.929 had to be shut down prematurely. Wait, why shut 00:10:38.929 --> 00:10:41.309 it down if it was actually working? Because parents 00:10:41.309 --> 00:10:43.830 were outraged. They felt their kids were being 00:10:43.830 --> 00:10:46.549 damaged for the real world, basically. These 00:10:46.549 --> 00:10:48.950 students couldn't use standard QWERTY typewriters 00:10:48.950 --> 00:10:51.690 anymore without extreme frustration. It took 00:10:51.690 --> 00:10:54.490 some of those kids a full year of intensive retraining 00:10:54.490 --> 00:10:57.289 just to deprogram their brains and learn QWERTY. 00:10:58.019 --> 00:11:00.440 If we connect this to the bigger picture, this 00:11:00.440 --> 00:11:03.259 completely destroys the way a lot of classic 00:11:03.259 --> 00:11:06.379 economic theories view technology adoption. You 00:11:06.379 --> 00:11:08.840 constantly hear QWERTY compared to the Betamax 00:11:08.840 --> 00:11:11.679 versus VHS format war. Oh yeah, people use that 00:11:11.679 --> 00:11:13.639 all the time. Right, as the ultimate example 00:11:13.639 --> 00:11:16.779 of how a technically inferior product wins just 00:11:16.779 --> 00:11:19.700 because of winner -takes -all capitalism. That 00:11:19.700 --> 00:11:23.399 analogy completely misses the mark here. It ignores 00:11:23.399 --> 00:11:25.799 the historical reality of how the market was 00:11:25.799 --> 00:11:28.740 actually formed. QWERTY didn't win simply because 00:11:28.740 --> 00:11:30.940 Remington was a big monopoly with more money. 00:11:31.240 --> 00:11:34.440 It won because Remington successfully programmed 00:11:34.440 --> 00:11:37.639 their specific arbitrary layout into the cognitive 00:11:37.639 --> 00:11:41.179 software of an entire generation of users. They 00:11:41.179 --> 00:11:43.580 created a workforce that was literally incapable 00:11:43.580 --> 00:11:46.700 of using a competitor's machine without immense 00:11:46.700 --> 00:11:49.980 psychological friction. Without that front -loaded 00:11:49.980 --> 00:11:52.740 educational lock -in, QWERTY would have just 00:11:52.740 --> 00:11:55.059 been one of a hundred competing patents lost 00:11:55.059 --> 00:11:57.740 to history. It's the ultimate proprietary software 00:11:57.740 --> 00:12:00.200 lock -in, installed right into the human nervous 00:12:00.200 --> 00:12:03.120 system. Exactly. But this is where the deep dive 00:12:03.120 --> 00:12:06.120 gets a little unnerving. We've established how 00:12:06.120 --> 00:12:08.179 QWERTY got locked into our muscle memory a century 00:12:08.179 --> 00:12:11.340 ago. But how is that antique lock -in dictating 00:12:11.340 --> 00:12:13.480 our modern behavior in ways we don't even realize? 00:12:14.210 --> 00:12:16.629 Because according to the article, it is actively 00:12:16.629 --> 00:12:19.289 influencing deeply personal choices we make every 00:12:19.289 --> 00:12:21.970 single day. Yeah. The source explores a fascinating 00:12:21.970 --> 00:12:24.750 psychological phenomenon called the Cordy effect, 00:12:24.990 --> 00:12:27.350 which is driven by something known as the right 00:12:27.350 --> 00:12:31.129 side ratio or RSR bias. OK, break that down for 00:12:31.129 --> 00:12:33.710 us. Well, think about how your hands naturally 00:12:33.710 --> 00:12:36.620 rest on a standard keyboard. Because of where 00:12:36.620 --> 00:12:38.799 Scholes randomly placed the letters, the QWERTY 00:12:38.799 --> 00:12:41.580 layout cramps a huge number of frequently used 00:12:41.580 --> 00:12:45.440 consonants like E, A, S, T, and R onto the left 00:12:45.440 --> 00:12:47.539 side of the board. Right. Or it places them in 00:12:47.539 --> 00:12:49.759 positions that require awkward finger stretches. 00:12:50.000 --> 00:12:52.379 For the majority of the population, which is

00:12:52.379 --> 00:12:54.980 right -handed, this means your non -dominant, 00:12:54.980 --> 00:12:57.620 weaker left hand is doing a disproportionate 00:12:57.620 --> 00:13:00.200 amount of the heavy lifting. So the left hand 00:13:00.200 --> 00:13:02.799 is constantly underdoing this, like, subtle subconscious 00:13:02.799 --> 00:13:05.809 mechanical strain. Just to type basic English 00:13:05.809 --> 00:13:08.429 words. Yes. And because the brain is always trying 00:13:08.429 --> 00:13:11.389 to optimize for energy conservation, it recognizes 00:13:11.389 --> 00:13:14.490 that subconscious strain. Over time, humans have 00:13:14.490 --> 00:13:16.909 developed a measurable psychological disfavor 00:13:16.909 --> 00:13:19.490 for words that rely heavily on those strenuous 00:13:19.490 --> 00:13:22.490 left -hand keystrokes. Wait, hold on. Are you 00:13:22.490 --> 00:13:24.690 telling me I might name my kid something different 00:13:24.690 --> 00:13:28.509 just because A or E is harder to reach with my 00:13:28.509 --> 00:13:31.250 left ring finger than an L is with my right? 00:13:31.570 --> 00:13:34.299 Basically, yes. That sounds like a massive stretch. 00:13:34.759 --> 00:13:36.720 I'm having a hard time buying that our brains 00:13:36.720 --> 00:13:39.220 are that petty. I know it sounds almost like 00:13:39.220 --> 00:13:42.379 science fiction, but the data is incredibly robust. 00:13:42.639 --> 00:13:46.259 The RSR bias actually does impact baby names. 00:13:46.620 --> 00:13:48.720 Researchers have tracked this over the decades 00:13:48.720 --> 00:13:51.419 since Cordy became the absolute global standard. 00:13:51.799 --> 00:13:54.539 And what do they find? Names that utilize more 00:13:54.539 --> 00:13:56.899 right -hand keystrokes. names that are physically 00:13:56.899 --> 00:13:59.700 easier and more fluid to type, have steadily 00:13:59.700 --> 00:14:02.139 increased in popularity across the population 00:14:02.139 --> 00:14:05.679 compared to left -hand dominant names. Your brain 00:14:05.679 --> 00:14:08.159 subtly rewards you for choosing words that don't 00:14:08.159 --> 00:14:11.320 cause micro -friction in your fingers. That is 00:14:11.320 --> 00:14:14.259 just, it's mind -blowing. The name you give your 00:14:14.259 --> 00:14:17.200 child, which is an incredibly emotional and personal 00:14:17.200 --> 00:14:19.899 decision, might be subconsciously influenced 00:14:19.899 --> 00:14:23.500 by a salesman's parlor trick from 1868. It really 00:14:23.500 --> 00:14:25.960 might be. And it doesn't stop at baby names, 00:14:26.019 --> 00:14:29.850 does it? This hidden bias affects how we interact 00:14:29.850 --> 00:14:32.409 with the entire digital economy. It bleeds into 00:14:32.409 --> 00:14:34.830 almost every text -based interaction we have. 00:14:35.070 --> 00:14:37.950 Studies analyzing massive data sets of reviews 00:14:37.950 --> 00:14:41.669 on platforms like Amazon, Netflix, and Yelp show 00:14:41.669 --> 00:14:45.070 a clear and consistent RSR bias. Really? Yeah, 00:14:45.070 --> 00:14:47.450 when reviewers use words that lean heavily toward 00:14:47.450 --> 00:14:50.309 right -hand keystrokes, they systematically tend 00:14:50.309 --> 00:15:00.809 to leave... So what does this all mean? Like, 00:15:00.809 --> 00:15:03.029 imagine if you go to a restaurant, you have a 00:15:03.029 --> 00:15:05.429 nice meal, and you decide to leave a glowing 00:15:05.429 --> 00:15:08.169 five -star review. You think you're being totally 00:15:08.169 --> 00:15:11.029 objective about the food, but that rating might 00:15:11.029 --> 00:15:12.929 secretly be inflated because your left pinky 00:15:12.929 --> 00:15:15.009 finger didn't have to stretch as much while you 00:15:15.009 --> 00:15:16.730 were typing it out in the parking lot. That's 00:15:16.730 --> 00:15:19.830 exactly what the data suggests. We think we are 00:15:19.830 --> 00:15:22.450 in complete control. but we are constantly being 00:15:22.450 --> 00:15:25.250 manipulated by the ergonomics of a 150 -year 00:15:25.250 --> 00:15:27.990 -old machine. But, you know, the keyboard isn't 00:15:27.990 --> 00:15:30.570 just steering our preferences. It's acting as 00:15:30.570 --> 00:15:33.509 a massive bottleneck for human bandwidth. It's 00:15:33.509 --> 00:15:35.450 completely altering the structure of our thought 00:15:35.450 --> 00:15:37.730 processes. This is where we hit the absolute 00:15:37.730 --> 00:15:40.610 physical limits of human cognition, and it is 00:15:40.610 --> 00:15:44.110 a severe bottleneck. The human brain is a processing 00:15:44.110 --> 00:15:47.240 engine of unimaginable scale. Unconsciously, 00:15:47.240 --> 00:15:49.100 your brain is taking in and processing about 00:15:49.100 --> 00:15:52.779 11 million bits of raw data per second from all 00:15:52.779 --> 00:15:55.799 of your senses. Wait, 11 million? 11 million 00:15:55.799 --> 00:16:00.179 bits per second. Sight, sound, temperature, balance, 00:16:00.379 --> 00:16:03.940 all of it. But your conscious mind, the part 00:16:03.940 --> 00:16:06.820 of you that is aware and thinking, it maxes out 00:16:06.820 --> 00:16:10.559 at processing about 41 bits per second. That 00:16:10.559 --> 00:16:13.950 is a massive drop. And most of the time in a 00:16:13.950 --> 00:16:15.549 relaxed state, you're only dealing with about 00:16:15.549 --> 00:16:19.230 16 bits per second. Let's break that down because 00:16:19.230 --> 00:16:21.730 going from 11 million bits per second in the 00:16:21.730 --> 00:16:25.429 background down to 16 bits of like active thought 00:16:25.429 --> 00:16:29.269 is that's a catastrophic drop off. It is massive. 00:16:29.490 --> 00:16:32.909 Yeah. To manage that tiny, fragile, conscious 00:16:32.909 --> 00:16:35.309 bandwidth, our brains rely on a technique called 00:16:35.309 --> 00:16:37.850 chunking. The article references the landmark 00:16:37.850 --> 00:16:40.769 work of Professor George A. Miller from Harvard 00:16:40.769 -->

00:16:43.590 in the 1950s. Oh, right, specifically his famous 00:16:43.590 --> 00:16:46.669 paper on the magical number seven plus or minus 00:16:46.669 --> 00:16:49.370 two? Exactly. Yeah. The concept that the human 00:16:49.370 --> 00:16:51.549 brain can only hold about seven items in its 00:16:51.549 --> 00:16:53.549 short -term working memory at any given time. 00:16:54.129 --> 00:16:56.490 And to deal with that tiny 16 -bit bandwidth 00:16:56.490 --> 00:16:58.730 limitation, the brain takes complex information 00:16:58.730 --> 00:17:01.350 and groups it into smaller, manageable chunks. 00:17:01.629 --> 00:17:03.730 Like grouping things together so they take up 00:17:03.730 --> 00:17:06.190 less space in the buffer. Right. And the source 00:17:06.190 --> 00:17:08.509 uses a brilliant historical example to illustrate 00:17:08.509 --> 00:17:11.490 this, the early days of Bell Labs. When they 00:17:11.490 --> 00:17:13.490 were figuring out how to format phone numbers 00:17:13.490 --> 00:17:16.549 as they moved away from the old word -based mnemonics, 00:17:16.670 --> 00:17:18.670 they actually brought Professor Miller in to 00:17:18.670 --> 00:17:21.170 consult. Oh, that makes so much sense. Yeah. 00:17:21.210 --> 00:17:23.450 And through extensive research, they confirmed 00:17:23.450 --> 00:17:25.710 that if you just give someone a string of 10 00:17:25.710 --> 00:17:28.390 random numbers, their buffer overflows and they 00:17:28.390 --> 00:17:30.509 forget it. So they artificially created chunks 00:17:30.509 --> 00:17:32.809 to help the brain out. That's why our phone numbers 00:17:32.809 --> 00:17:35.490 are formatted the way they are today? Yes. They 00:17:35.490 --> 00:17:38.450 became formatted as a three -digit chunk, a dash, 00:17:38.589 --> 00:17:41.150 and a four -digit chunk. The dash isn't just 00:17:41.150 --> 00:17:44.390 punctuation. It acts as a vital visual aid to 00:17:44.390 --> 00:17:47.269 break the data into digestible pieces. Even the 00:17:47.269 --> 00:17:50.150 parentheses around an area code act as a cognitive 00:17:50.150 --> 00:17:52.589 prompt, telling the brain to pull that specific 00:17:52.589 --> 00:17:55.069 chunk from a different area of long -term memory. 00:17:55.450 --> 00:17:57.730 The source even mentions that if you think about 00:17:57.730 --> 00:17:59.970 a phone number you know really well, it almost 00:17:59.970 --> 00:18:02.569 plays like a melodic rhythm in your head. It 00:18:02.569 --> 00:18:05.769 does. And Bell Labs found that the physical spatial 00:18:05.769 --> 00:18:07.990 pattern your finger makes on a touch -tone keypad 00:18:07.990 --> 00:18:11.289 actually reinforces that memorization. Your brain 00:18:11.289 --> 00:18:13.450 is just leaning on every little trick you can 00:18:13.450 --> 00:18:15.769 find to handle data within that tiny bandwidth. 00:18:16.029 --> 00:18:18.890 Now take that severe biological limitation and 00:18:18.890 --> 00:18:21.349 apply it to the act of typing on

a QWERTY keyboard. 00:18:21.930 --> 00:18:24.089 When you speak to someone, you communicate in 00:18:24.089 --> 00:18:26.930 full concepts. Right. It just flows. A whole 00:18:26.930 --> 00:18:29.809 thought complete with emotion and nuance is formulated 00:18:29.809 --> 00:18:32.559 and vocalized almost instantly. But when you 00:18:32.559 --> 00:18:35.099 are forced to type, you have to serialize your 00:18:35.099 --> 00:18:37.099 thoughts. You have to take a beautiful, holistic 00:18:37.099 --> 00:18:40.079 concept, break it down into a sequence of individual 00:18:40.079 --> 00:18:43.000 words, and then agonizingly break those words 00:18:43.000 --> 00:18:46.839 down letter by letter by letter. You are mechanically 00:18:46.839 --> 00:18:49.619 transcribing your inner voice. And the problem 00:18:49.619 --> 00:18:52.640 is, while your fingers are pecking away at the 00:18:52.640 --> 00:18:55.559 first part of the sentence, your brain is desperately 00:18:55.559 --> 00:18:57.640 trying to hold the rest of the concept in that 00:18:57.640 --> 00:19:01.089 tiny, seven -item temporary buffer. And that 00:19:01.089 --> 00:19:04.230 buffer overflows constantly. Your right hemisphere 00:19:04.230 --> 00:19:07.410 is producing rich conceptual output far faster 00:19:07.410 --> 00:19:09.869 than your mechanical left hemisphere can handle 00:19:09.869 --> 00:19:12.230 the physical typing process. So you just lose 00:19:12.230 --> 00:19:15.789 it. The buffer fills up, the brain gets overwhelmed, 00:19:15.970 --> 00:19:18.990 and the remaining thoughts just vanish. We have 00:19:18.990 --> 00:19:21.450 all experienced this maddening phenomenon. You 00:19:21.450 --> 00:19:24.009 have a brilliant... perfectly articulated paragraph 00:19:24.009 --> 00:19:26.609 in your head, you start typing furiously, and 00:19:26.609 --> 00:19:29.210 halfway through, you completely lose the end 00:19:29.210 --> 00:19:31.170 of the thought. It's the worst feeling. That 00:19:31.170 --> 00:19:34.309 idea is gone, perhaps forever, simply because 00:19:34.309 --> 00:19:36.109 your fingers could not keep up with the speed 00:19:36.109 --> 00:19:38.529 of your brain. It's tragic when you really sit 00:19:38.529 --> 00:19:40.890 and think about it. And it's not just making 00:19:40.890 --> 00:19:43.970 us lose great ideas. The article points out that 00:19:43.970 --> 00:19:46.130 this mechanical slowdown causes deep psychological 00:19:46.130 --> 00:19:49.029 friction. Oh, immense friction. Think about the 00:19:49.029 --> 00:19:51.450 absolute meltdowns you see in social media arguments. 00:19:52.089 --> 00:19:54.210 People assume it's just the anonymity of the 00:19:54.210 --> 00:19:56.549 Internet, but the source argues that a lot of 00:19:56.549 --> 00:19:59.150 that rage is amplified by the physical bottleneck 00:19:59.150 --> 00:20:01.990 of the keyboard. It absolutely is. They are angry. 00:20:02.250 --> 00:20:04.769 They have a flood of emotion and complex thought, 00:20:04.869 --> 00:20:08.029 and they literally feel trapped. The dissonance 00:20:08.029 --> 00:20:11.250 between how fast they feel and how slow they 00:20:11.250 --> 00:20:14.349 can output creates a literal rage because they 00:20:14.349 --> 00:20:16.769 cannot mechanically express themselves fast enough. 00:20:17.089 --> 00:20:20.130 This raises an important question. Why do we 00:20:20.130 --> 00:20:23.049 continue to accept this limitation? The common 00:20:23.049 --> 00:20:24.849 defense of the keyboard is the bicycle metaphor. 00:20:25.009 --> 00:20:28.049 People say typing is like riding a bicycle. It's 00:20:28.049 --> 00:20:30.309 a machine that amplifies our natural abilities 00:20:30.309 --> 00:20:32.750 and gives us more power. Right, which makes sense 00:20:32.750 --> 00:20:34.809 historically. And historically, that's undeniably 00:20:34.809 --> 00:20:37.089 true. I mean, the keyboard ushered in the entire 00:20:37.089 --> 00:20:40.210 information age. But if we expand that metaphor, 00:20:40.490 --> 00:20:42.710 the bicycle eventually gave way to the automobile. 00:20:43.190 --> 00:20:45.789 Yes, a bicycle amplifies your leg muscles, making 00:20:45.789 --> 00:20:49.539 you faster than walking. But an engine... bypasses 00:20:49.539 --> 00:20:52.339 the need for leg muscles entirely. Oh wow. The 00:20:52.339 --> 00:20:55.059 keyboard is just a bicycle. It is a stopover 00:20:55.059 --> 00:20:57.940 point in our technological evolution. Because 00:20:57.940 --> 00:21:02.039 at its core it is fundamentally unnatural. Speech 00:21:02.039 --> 00:21:04.079 is the natural byproduct of millions of years 00:21:04.079 --> 00:21:07.509 of evolution. Typing requires us to route our 00:21:07.509 --> 00:21:10.049 thoughts through an artificial sequential pathway 00:21:10.049 --> 00:21:13.430 that forces us to focus on micro mechanics rather 00:21:13.430 --> 00:21:16.170 than macro concepts. Right. The author argues 00:21:16.170 --> 00:21:18.829 that this immense friction is exactly why the 00:21:18.829 --> 00:21:22.210 future is the voice first revolution. As technology 00:21:22.210 --> 00:21:24.829 finally catches up, as machines become capable 00:21:24.829 --> 00:21:27.849 of truly understanding natural language, nuance 00:21:27.849 --> 00:21:31.329 and context, speech will completely bypass all 00:21:31.329 --> 00:21:33.470 of that mechanical load. We won't need the keyboard 00:21:33.470 --> 00:21:36.319 at all. We will return to the way we were biologically 00:21:36.319 --> 00:21:39.400 designed to communicate, removing the QWERTY 00:21:39.400 --> 00:21:42.119 bottleneck entirely and freeing up all of that 00:21:42.119 --> 00:21:44.859 lost cognitive bandwidth. It is a profound shift 00:21:44.859 --> 00:21:47.319 in perspective to realize that we are currently 00:21:47.319 --> 00:21:50.380 living through a massive, century -long open 00:21:50.380 --> 00:21:53.400 experiment and how a piece of 1860s hardware 00:21:53.400 --> 00:21:56.220

fundamentally alters human cognition. It really 00:21:56.220 --> 00:21:58.930 is wild. If you want to dive deeper into this 00:21:58.930 --> 00:22:00.650 and really understand the intricate mechanics 00:22:00.650 --> 00:22:03.450 of how our tools shape our minds, you absolutely 00:22:03.450 --> 00:22:06.410 need to read the full original free article at 00:22:06.410 --> 00:22:09.230 readmultiplex .com. The depth of historical and 00:22:09.230 --> 00:22:11.029 psychological research there is just incredible. 00:22:11.289 --> 00:22:14.109 It really is a masterful synthesis of history, 00:22:14.349 --> 00:22:17.250 psychology, and technology. It connects dots 00:22:17.250 --> 00:22:19.430 that most people never even think to look at. 00:22:19.809 --> 00:22:22.049 And for those of you who want to push the boundaries 00:22:22.049 --> 00:22:24.789 even further, I highly recommend checking out 00:22:24.789 --> 00:22:26.930 another piece on the site if you are a member. 00:22:27.289 --> 00:22:29.970 You can read the article titled The New Intersection 00:22:29.970 --> 00:22:33.089 of Arts and Sciences in Technology. It's another 00:22:33.089 --> 00:22:35.690 fantastic one. It is exactly the kind of forward 00:22:35.690 --> 00:22:37.789 -thinking analysis that challenges how you see 00:22:37.789 --> 00:22:40.210 the world and where we are heading next. The 00:22:40.210 --> 00:22:42.349 connections made in these pieces are vital for 00:22:42.349 --> 00:22:44.529 understanding not just where technology has been, 00:22:44.650 --> 00:22:47.869 but where it is inevitably going. So I want to 00:22:47.869 --> 00:22:50.089 leave you with this final thought to chew on 00:22:50.089 --> 00:22:52.950 as you go about your day. We just learned that 00:22:52.950 --> 00:22:56.109 our conscious bandwidth is incredibly tiny. And 00:22:56.109 --> 00:22:58.170 our current primary method of digital communication, 00:22:58.470 --> 00:23:01.630 the QWERTY keyboard, was basically cobbled together 00:23:01.630 --> 00:23:04.809 for a quick sales pitch in the 1860s. Yep. It 00:23:04.809 --> 00:23:07.470 forces us to artificially serialize our thoughts, 00:23:07.609 --> 00:23:09.950 constantly overflowing our mental buffer and 00:23:09.950 --> 00:23:12.809 causing endless frustration. So if our minds 00:23:12.809 --> 00:23:15.349 are currently bottlenecked by an antique typewriter 00:23:15.349 --> 00:23:18.589 layout, what world -changing ideas are you losing 00:23:18.589 --> 00:23:21.309 every single day just because your fingers can't 00:23:21.309 --> 00:23:23.390 keep up with your imagination? That's the real 00:23:23.390 --> 00:23:25.549 question. If you want to support this kind of 00:23:25.549 --> 00:23:28.470 independent paradigm shifting research, we invite 00:23:28.470 --> 00:23:30.789 you to become a member at readmultiplex .com. 00:23:30.829 --> 00:23:34.250 Just click join us. Or you can support Read Multiplex 00:23:34.250 --> 00:23:36.930 with a donation. Thanks for listening to Multiplex 00:23:36.930 --> 00:23:39.230 Rewind. Yeah, thanks everyone. This has been 00:23:39.230 --> 00:23:40.450 Multiplex Rewind.