Why QWERTY: the typewriter layout we never replaced

A 5-beat faceless video outline for “Why QWERTY: the typewriter layout we never replaced” in the Tech history stories niche, derived from caption timing of 2 reference videos.

Angles

• Cold-open on the top letter row everyone has and nobody chose
• Show the 1873 Sholes prototype quirks (period where R sits, A and Z flipped) — QWERTY evolved, it was not designed once
• Make the business plot the real cause: Remington and the typewriter trust standardized the layout, not proven typing speed
• Close on lock-in: optimized layouts (Dvorak, computer-searched layouts) can be better yet hard to switch to — the 100-day retraining test shows the cost

Beat-by-beat structure

1. Hook (0:00–0:30): "Why does every keyboard look like this?"
2. Prototype trail (0:30–2:00): Sholes' iterations on screen; rival layouts that typists liked as much.
3. Standard by business (2:00–3:30): Remington, the trust, typing schools — distribution beats design.
4. Better layouts (3:30–5:00): Dvorak and computed layouts; what "better" is measured by.
5. Lock-in card (5:00–6:00): switching cost in words-per-minute; why the standard stays. Original narration only.

Reference videos

• How QWERTY conquered keyboards c8f6us-Sjlo
• You're wrong about QWERTY 188fipF-i5I

Method

yt-dlp VTT captions (manual/uploader only) → timed beat heuristics → editorial topic synthesis (no ASR). Structure only; write original narration.