Look at the top left of your keyboard.

Look at the top left of your keyboard.

Q W E R T Y.

Not alphabetical. Not the most used letters either. So why?

It goes back to typewriters in the 1870s. Christopher Sholes, one of the inventors, kept moving the keys around, and one popular explanation is that he split up letters that often come together, so the metal arms would not jam.

Remington bought the design in 1873 and the layout stuck.

People have tried better ones since. The Dvorak layout from the 1930s puts all the vowels under your left hand. Almost nobody uses it.

We don't type on metal arms anymore. Phones don't even have real keys.

And still, QWERTY everywhere 🤷

Funny how the first version of something can stay forever, just because everyone already learned it.