Not to gloat or show off or anything - but I can type at approx. 120wpm with good accuracy. It helps immensely with all aspects of my life - not just code. I can put ideas to paper (or screen, as it were) very, very quickly. This drives a lot of iterations and allows me to hone and fine-tune my work even further.
I'm also able to write up large amounts of text - blog posts, forum posts, etc etc, and all have over the years helped me become a better communicator. I enjoy discussing things with people and writing about my work, and I can't imagine doing the volume that I do as a slower typist at, say, 30wpm.
Like others here have mentioned, being a fast and accurate typist is like having a direct mind connection to the computer - your words come out almost as quickly as you can think of them.
I hear you. My goal is to get up to 80+ wpm and I'll be throwing cycles at this goal everyday until then, so maybe then I'll be a convert.
I guess I just think the importance to programming is a little exaggerated is all. No doubt it is a great benefit all around, but I'll reserve final judgment about it's impact on my coding until I can experience the difference myself, and then report back to this thread.
For code I agree it's not so much help - after all the amount of mental work it takes to even think of all that code far outweighs the speed at which you can type it.
That being said, I do feel like it's improved my code in other ways - it's allowed me to discuss in a more in-depth way, with more detail, without a real time cost, my code with other people. I can write large blog posts and get feedback from very smart people about what I'm doing right and wrong, etc.
I've tried typing on the iPhone, and my speed is so slow that I find myself compromising the message I'm trying to get across just so I'd be done with typing.
I'm also able to write up large amounts of text - blog posts, forum posts, etc etc, and all have over the years helped me become a better communicator. I enjoy discussing things with people and writing about my work, and I can't imagine doing the volume that I do as a slower typist at, say, 30wpm.
Like others here have mentioned, being a fast and accurate typist is like having a direct mind connection to the computer - your words come out almost as quickly as you can think of them.