I'd be happy with a dictation machine and a foot pedal.

I used to have a client who did at home dictation on her computer. Apparently there are no good food pedals. The ones out there are expensive and poorly made.

If I had to type live on a regular basis, I think I'd learn how to use a court reporting machine. Mind you, that only works if I get to transcribe later.

I was initially taught letter by letter, but typing words was a natural evolution as proficiency increased. I think it was even discussed at some point when I first learned (it's been decades so my memory is understandably fuzzy).

Even now, typing on my phone with my thumbs, I'm typing words and not letters.

Several years ago, I was able to retrain this out of me. I'm not sad.

Most modern word processors will automatically adjust kerning to what's appropriate after punctuation. It really became unnecessary.

This is basically the method I used.

I took two years of typing between the 8th and 10th grades. I got up to about 45 wpm.

After moving out on my own, I started calling BBSs (bulletin board systems). These were much more common in the 80s and 90s before the internet took off.

I would spend way too much of my leisure time typing messages on them.

My current typing speed is over 70 wpm. What I find odd is I don't consider my speed all that fast, but I'm way ahead of most people I know. I have one coworker who is faster. Most job descriptions I've seen require 40+. I wouldn't think that a stretch, but too many people can't type. (Side note, the keyboard I had at worked sucked so I bought my own, replaced the key switches with something stiffer, and replaced most of the caps with blanks because I'm a touch typist and a jerk.)

I find Reddit very familiar compared to the BBSs I used to call. I'll probably stay here until it or I am gone.