kevin is right about dictation
APR 27, 2026
inkhaven
The other day, I read Start Dictating Yesterday by Kevin Wu, in which Kevin tells you that dictation software is actually good now, and that you should use it. I didn't really believe him, but I was like, "Kevin is a pretty smart guy. I should probably listen to what he has to say." So I tried out Wispr Flow, and guys, Kevin is totally right.
I've used dictation software in the past to cope with repetitive strain injuries, but I wasn't looking too closely at recent advancements in automated speech recognition. Mostly this was a consequence of the fact that the speech recognition wasn't very good in the past, which meant that I hated having to use it. To be fair, I wasn't using any crazy specialized models, just the inbuilt Google or Apple keyboard speech recognition. Still, my main impression of dictation software was that I was happy to leave it behind the moment I could.
But even with all the annoyances, there were moments of clarity when I would just blurt out what was in my head and have it spawn into existence. I could tell that my brain was wired to express ideas through speech in a different way than handwriting or typing, and I remember thinking that it would be cool if the voice recognition software was actually good. So imagine my surprise when I turned on Wispr Flow and it just…worked?
The experience of dictating is much more like being directly connected to a computer than one would think, especially when you don't have to warp your words to avoid dictation errors. It feels much more like communicating intent than any other form of computer interaction, and like Kevin says, it feels like you're going at the speed of thought.
And dictating really is faster. I am a pretty fast typer (~120 WPM on short monkeytypes), but I am a much faster talker (a cursory "read something aloud and time yourself" test puts the upper bound at 300 WPM). When I'm dictating, I basically never run into the situation where I am coming up with ideas faster than I can express them. I hadn't realized how much I'd been running into this problem while typing.
Also, I've noticed that dictating puts me in a different mind space when it comes to writing. I tend to agonize over the structure of whatever I'm writing as I'm writing it, which can be detrimental to getting anything out to begin with. But when I'm dictating, I can't see or edit the words as I'm saying them, so I just express what I'm trying to say and then fix it later. It helps me get out of my head.
I'm very satisfied with the current state of dictation software for my use case (writing first drafts), and I'm considering dictating more to LLMs following Kevin's suggestion. I'm also convinced that Kevin is smart and cool and you should read more of his stuff. Thanks for telling me that this exists!