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Comment by fsckboy

2 days ago

i have several passwords i type all the time. sometimes i get them confused and type the wrong one to the wrong prompt. i type them by muscle memory, but i also think about them while typing and i think thoughts like "time to reach up and to the left on the keyboard for this password". I couldn't tell you the letter i'm trying to type, i just know to do that.

not all my passwords are up and to the left, some are down and to the right, but when i type the wrong one into the wrong place, i type it accurately, i'm just not supposed to be typing it.

"time to do that thing i've practiced, reach to the left". shuts two engines off by muscle memory.

My editor is MicroEmacs, which I've been using since the 1980s. I no longer remember what the commands are, but my fingers do.

I remember once writing a cheat sheet for the commands by looking at what my fingers were doing.

> "time to do that thing i've practiced, reach to the left". shuts two engines off by muscle memory.

If that were true, pilots would perform arbitrary motions all the time. Same with car drivers.

Typing something on a keyboard, especially when it's always in the same context, is always essentially the same physical action. The context of a password prompt is the same, the letters on the keyboard feel the same and are right next to each other.

Not comparable to pressing two very different buttons placed far apart, in a context when you'd never ever reach for them.