Kudos to this guy’s bravery; he is living my worst nightmare. My biggest fear is losing eyesight or ability to use hands, and articles like this confirm my beliefs that our current technology is no way near mature enough where disability isn’t a concern anymore. And these doctors, what can I say about them. It looks like they are getting worse, or just lazy, with every passing day. If you are a doctor and you don’t want to do anything that requires more effort than prescribing painkillers, do this world a favor and get retired because you are actually damaging the medical industry.
What Does a Coder Do If They Can't Type?
21–30 of 398 posts
Re: What Does a Coder Do If They Can't Type?
#22My career in Software would be over if it wasn't for voicecode.io and now Talon.
I go through periods where typing does not bother me at all and long periods of intense random pain in forearms, wrists, palms and top of my hands.
Certain aspects of controlling your computer by voice are way more efficient than using a keyboard, others not so much. Lucky for me using a mouse does not bother me that much so I continue to use that for scrolling and mousing and alternate clicking by voice or mouse. I probably work by voice about a 1/3 of the time right now, ideally it would be more like 2/3 of the time.
There is definitely a big learning curve to using voice control and like they said in the article you have to be careful about voice strain.
- http://voicecode.io/ (now defunct)
- light years ahead of where voicecode.io was with speed and accuracy
- free
- can be used without Dragon (although accuracy with Dragon is much better)
- currently only works on Mac OSX, but has plans for Linux and Windows supportRe: What Does a Coder Do If They Can't Type?
#23That story of how the doctors just dismissed her pain as delusion is terrifying. Doctors are supposed to be people of science, but one of the very fundamentals of science is to acknowledge that you don't know everything, that your current knowledge is just a theory that can be improved upon. I find there's a tendency among doctors to think they know every possible disease, and if someone comes along with one that doe…
Yes, this has happened to several family members in the US, though thankfully mine was diagnosed properly because I could point to family history. Initially they wanted to write it off to migraines (I can't blame them since it's more common and can have similar symptoms at first) and now nine years later it's painful to use my hands and I've mostly given up martial arts. It would almost certainly be worse if I hadn't…
What diagnosis did you end up receiving exactly?
Re: What Does a Coder Do If They Can't Type?
#24A friend of mine has a different solution to this problem which I think is really great. Programmer salaries are more than enough to pay someone to type for you. But he doesn't just hire typists. He trains apprentices. https://blog.iangilman.com/2018/06/wrists-apprentices.html
Re: What Does a Coder Do If They Can't Type?
#25This story resonates. A few years back I was dealing with mild pain while coding. I stupidly ignored it for months as it got significantly worse, to the point where it became impossible to type for extended periods.
I tried lots of things. My doctor did a nerve conduction study, which apparently ruled out carpal tunnel syndrome, but he wasn't much help beyond that. He gave me some straps that I slept in and wore around to keep my wrists immobilized. I did some physical therapy. I got a split keyboard and ergonomic mouse. I even took a month off from typing, then returned, but the pain was worse than ever.
The double whammy of severe pain combined with the fear that you'll never code again is rough to say the least.
I resolved to just code with my voice. I never found Talon but found VoiceCode instead. It also relied on Dragon's NaturallySpeaking software, which I was dismayed to learn was still the best desktop software out there. My hopes and ambition for what VoiceCode could do always outpaced reality, but it was workable. I remember impressing some friends who witnessed me quickly and accurately writing code by speaking what seemed like gibberish.
As the author notes, the biggest problem quickly becomes that your voice tires out. You're not built to talk nonstop for hours on end every day. I was forced to become a much more efficient developer for a bit.
Eventually the pain began to subside. I remember when I first noticed it happening, because it was one of the happiest moments of my life. After a little experimentation and observation, it was clear that my recovery was positively correlated with consistency in going to the gym for heavy weightlifting sessions. Even today, pain in my hands and wrists is a reliable signal that I haven't been lifting in recent weeks, and when I start back, the pain goes away.
Re: What Does a Coder Do If They Can't Type?
#26That story of how the doctors just dismissed her pain as delusion is terrifying. Doctors are supposed to be people of science, but one of the very fundamentals of science is to acknowledge that you don't know everything, that your current knowledge is just a theory that can be improved upon. I find there's a tendency among doctors to think they know every possible disease, and if someone comes along with one that doe…
Psychosomatic diseases are a real thing though. You can have real physical symptoms. Last year my muscles started to « shake », with lots of skipped heartbeats (extrasystoles). After all the checks the doctors said the classic « it’s stress ». Well then I took a real break and embarked on multi month road trip on another continent. The symptoms disappeared nearly overnight. I think I experienced a burnout but it manifested through physical symptoms.
Edit: needless to say the medical response was very frustrating and hard to believe. In the end they were right that it was not a physical cause, but apart from that it really felt like they had no idea. Also it could be a multi-level cause like gut flora causing anxiety causing be physical symptoms but it’s beyond what a doctor can diagnose I think.
Re: What Does a Coder Do If They Can't Type?
#27This story resonates. A few years back I was dealing with mild pain while coding. I stupidly ignored it for months as it got significantly worse, to the point where it became impossible to type for extended periods. I tried lots of things. My doctor did a nerve conduction study, which apparently ruled out carpal tunnel syndrome, but he wasn't much help beyond that. He gave me some straps that I slept in and wore arou…
I had literally the exact same experience as your first two paragraphs. Where my experience diverged is when I met a doctor of some kind who explained that it's the same kind of pain that truckers often get for resting their arms on the armrests. Turns out it was because I was resting my arms on the keyboard or the desk between me and the keyboard. Stopped doing that, the pain went away completely within a few days, and hasn't come back since. That was like 4 years ago. Just don't rest your arms on anything, that's the trick.
Re: What Does a Coder Do If They Can't Type?
#28This story resonates. A few years back I was dealing with mild pain while coding. I stupidly ignored it for months as it got significantly worse, to the point where it became impossible to type for extended periods. I tried lots of things. My doctor did a nerve conduction study, which apparently ruled out carpal tunnel syndrome, but he wasn't much help beyond that. He gave me some straps that I slept in and wore arou…
Try doing some rock climbing either outdoors or at the rock gym. Fixed my hand pain real quick.
Re: What Does a Coder Do If They Can't Type?
#29Teach ;)
Re: What Does a Coder Do If They Can't Type?
#30This story resonates. A few years back I was dealing with mild pain while coding. I stupidly ignored it for months as it got significantly worse, to the point where it became impossible to type for extended periods. I tried lots of things. My doctor did a nerve conduction study, which apparently ruled out carpal tunnel syndrome, but he wasn't much help beyond that. He gave me some straps that I slept in and wore arou…
I had literally the exact same experience as your first two paragraphs. Where my experience diverged is when I met a doctor of some kind who explained that it's the same kind of pain that truckers often get for resting their arms on the armrests. Turns out it was because I was resting my arms on the keyboard or the desk between me and the keyboard. Stopped doing that, the pain went away completely within a few days,…
Very helpful information, going to try this out, thanks!