12-05-2005

The Economics of Qwerty Versus Dvorak Keyboards

In the vein of Freakonomics, Reason Magazine has a great myth busting article on the debate over Qwerty vs. Dvorak keyboards.

The QWERTY keyboard cannot be said to constitute evidence of any systematic tendency for markets to err. Very simply, no competing keyboard has offered enough advantage to warrant a change. The story of Dvorak’s superiority is a myth or, perhaps more properly, a hoax.

What made the article interesting to me is how much related information it ties in—science, economics, academics, and more.

While on the subject of articles I enjoyed reading, the Freakonomics website has a copy of the “What the Bagel Man Saw” article, which is also included as part of the book. If you haven’t already read the book, the article will give you a taste of its thought provoking writing.

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Posted by Matt in business, general, reading, tech | RSS 2.0

2 Responses to “The Economics of Qwerty Versus Dvorak Keyboards”
  1. David Says:

    The 1996 article by Liebowitz and Margolis is certainly fascinating. However, it’s not the end of the story.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Dvorak_Simplified_Keyboard
    has some heated discussion over that article.

    “The Fable of the Fable”, written in response to “The Fable of the Keys”, seems to make some reasonable points.
    http://www.mwbrooks.com/dvorak/dissent.html

  2. site admin Says:

    David,

    Thanks for the comments. I’ll check those out.

    - Matt

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