I have been using plover for about three years now for the majority of my time spent on the computer. I don't think I type more than 50 words a month using a regular keyboard. I still use (half) a keyboard for games, and there are some programs on Windows plover does not work with. There is an embedded steno engine (javelin-steno) so you don't have to use plover, but I have not set it up yet and just stick to using plover.

I write all my code using plover, but I am not a professional programmer. I use emacs most of the time. I use this dictionary for my symbols https://sammdot.ca/steno/emily-symbols.png, this one for typing almost any shortcut combination with my left-hand https://github.com/Abkwreu/plover-left-hand-modifiers/blob/m..., as well as this http://www.openstenoproject.org/stenodict/dictionaries/cross... for moving the cursor around and selecting text. The emily-symbol dictionary is fairly popular, and most users will have some set of dictionaries for shortcuts and movement.

Its worth noting you can type single letters, so if you don't know a word or don't care to learn it, you can still type the word out. You don't have to memorize every single word.