Interesting fact of the day:

A random assignment of letters would be faster than our current qwerty keyboard design.

The keyboard we all use today was designed to force us to type slower. Back in the 1800s, the inefficient keyboard layout prevented typists from jamming their typewriters.

The businessman’s explanation: The qwerty keyboard benefited greatly from a first-mover advantage. The network effect of a standardized keyboard means that the switching costs outweigh the future stream of benefits of a more efficient layout.