Resolutions for programmers • Hacker News Board

Re: Resolutions for programmers

#41

Post by mhartl » Tue, Jan 03, 2012, 6:07 PM UTC

I have a couple of contrary suggestions with respect to health.

    1. Don't follow the conventional wisdom on RSI

I struggled with RSI for years, and did all the usual things (warmups, exercises, braces, a Kinesis with modified key layout, etc.) Then, in early 2010, I read (at Aaron Iba's suggestion) The Mindbody Prescription by John Sarno. Within a couple of days, I saw remarkable improvement; within a month, I was symptom-free. YMMV, of course.

    2. Don't wear a brace of any kind.

I question the advice to wear a back brace. Over time, this leads to muscle atrophy and causes or exacerbates the very problem you're trying to solve.

I don't warm up, don't wear braces, and have switched back to a Qwerty layout. I stay strong and healthy other ways, but I now ignore all RSI-related advice that doesn't acknowledge the "mindbody" nature of the problem. I've been symptom-free for more than a year. (This is an anecdote, so take it for what it's worth. The book's like $12, though, so you don't have much to lose.)

Re: Resolutions for programmers

#42

Post by AlexandrB » Tue, Jan 03, 2012, 6:15 PM UTC

tomjen3 wrote: post #7

maeon3 wrote: post #3

Programmers stuck inside who need fitness ideas get out and meet people. Go to meetup.com, type in your area and type in running, health and fitness. Find a running club where you meet up somewhere and run around a loop, trail, or city area. I found that extremely rewarding. It is a filter to screen out the fraggles from the doozers.

What is it that makes people assuming exercise -> running? It has all the unpleasant effects of exercise + it destroys your knees and you still don't have a sixpack.

> ... and you still don't have a sixpack.

Most forms of exercise will not give you a visible sixpack. The biggest thing that matters for a sixpack is body fat %, which requires a healthy diet more than anything else.

Re: Resolutions for programmers

#43

Post by tjoff » Tue, Jan 03, 2012, 6:15 PM UTC

parfe wrote: post #2

Learn Dvorak - I'd warn against bothering with Dvorak. Huge time sink with dubious claims of speed improvements. While a mythical programmer may exist who feels his raw typing speed limits his productivity, I never met that unicorn. While learning you have an increased error rate, run into incompatibility with other programmers and programs (emacs or vim... good luck) and end up needing to defend something no one act…

I've always felt that the biggest gain in learning a new layout is getting rid of old bad habits. Learning something new from scratch allows you to do it right from the start.

The reason for why I've not tried this is probably mainly because it would scramble all keyboard shortcuts. Shortcuts are designed for qwerty (a shortcut that you can't perform with your left hand anymore is a huge loss) and many combinations are a huge part of the workflow of many applications. I found this to be a complete showstopper.

I think there are ways to automatically switch to qwerty when ctrl/shift/alt was pressed and maybe I didn't research it enough but it felt like a cludge and I wan't something that is platform independent and easy to enable on any machine.

Re: Resolutions for programmers

#44

Post by ryaf » Tue, Jan 03, 2012, 6:25 PM UTC

jra101 wrote: post #27

maeon3 wrote: post #3

Programmers stuck inside who need fitness ideas get out and meet people. Go to meetup.com, type in your area and type in running, health and fitness. Find a running club where you meet up somewhere and run around a loop, trail, or city area. I found that extremely rewarding. It is a filter to screen out the fraggles from the doozers.

Another sport I would highly recommend is rock climbing. Most cities have an indoor climbing gym and on the whole I've found other climbers to be very friendly and helpful to people just getting started. There is also this whole puzzle solving aspect to rock climbing that I was unaware of before I started climbing. You can mostly brute force your way through a route if you are strong enough but there is always a more…

Agreed. I boulder daily. It is one of the most rewarding forms of exercise on many levels. And if you get involved with it on a serious level you will see fast results.

Re: Resolutions for programmers

#45

Post by hmottestad » Tue, Jan 03, 2012, 6:29 PM UTC

Groxx wrote: post #40

mattmight wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I learned Dvorak to help with RSI. It worked. I'm fast at Dvorak after 4 years (90 wpm), but not as fast as I was with Qwerty (120 wpm). Dvorak has a pleasant "rolling" finger feel and my wrists never ache, so I've kept it. What fascinated me about learning Dvorak was that I felt like a stroke patient. Suddenly, I could not do something I had been able to do for years. It made me consider the cost of a keystroke. Gre…

I used to have wrist pain after particularly-long coding bouts. Then I decided to type like you play piano - hands up, wrists straight, move arms rather than wrists to punch keys in other locations. No pain again. Ever. Only later did I find out that it's the recommended wrist posture. I still cringe a bit when I see people buying keyboards with wrist-rests (and using them), especially "ergonomic" ones - why improve…

hmm..I just tried this and I felt that my wrist were nice and relaxed, but my shoulders were not.

Maybe it's just because I'm using a laptop.

Re: Resolutions for programmers

#46

Post by feralchimp » Tue, Jan 03, 2012, 6:30 PM UTC

Most "list" posts suck; this one was awesome.

My only quibble: "Argue against something you believe" is not a special, part-time exercise. It should be a tightly-integrated element of your ongoing mindset, even in 'damn the torpedoes' dev mode.

Re: Resolutions for programmers

#47

Post by ibisum » Tue, Jan 03, 2012, 6:38 PM UTC

mattmight wrote: post #4

parfe wrote: post #2

Learn Dvorak - I'd warn against bothering with Dvorak. Huge time sink with dubious claims of speed improvements. While a mythical programmer may exist who feels his raw typing speed limits his productivity, I never met that unicorn. While learning you have an increased error rate, run into incompatibility with other programmers and programs (emacs or vim... good luck) and end up needing to defend something no one act…

I learned Dvorak to help with RSI. It worked. I'm fast at Dvorak after 4 years (90 wpm), but not as fast as I was with Qwerty (120 wpm). Dvorak has a pleasant "rolling" finger feel and my wrists never ache, so I've kept it. What fascinated me about learning Dvorak was that I felt like a stroke patient. Suddenly, I could not do something I had been able to do for years. It made me consider the cost of a keystroke. Gre…

A better way to deal with RSI is much simpler: just change your keyboard every 6 months. It doesn't have to be Dvorak, just use a different keyboard than you normally do.

Re: Resolutions for programmers

#48

Post by jebberjeb » Tue, Jan 03, 2012, 6:38 PM UTC

+Go to sleep by 10pm, wake up at 6am (third year attempt)

Re: Resolutions for programmers

#49

Post by mahyarm » Tue, Jan 03, 2012, 6:41 PM UTC

Groxx wrote: post #40

mattmight wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I learned Dvorak to help with RSI. It worked. I'm fast at Dvorak after 4 years (90 wpm), but not as fast as I was with Qwerty (120 wpm). Dvorak has a pleasant "rolling" finger feel and my wrists never ache, so I've kept it. What fascinated me about learning Dvorak was that I felt like a stroke patient. Suddenly, I could not do something I had been able to do for years. It made me consider the cost of a keystroke. Gre…

I used to have wrist pain after particularly-long coding bouts. Then I decided to type like you play piano - hands up, wrists straight, move arms rather than wrists to punch keys in other locations. No pain again. Ever. Only later did I find out that it's the recommended wrist posture. I still cringe a bit when I see people buying keyboards with wrist-rests (and using them), especially "ergonomic" ones - why improve…

Whenever I try that position, I quickly feel muscle fatigue in my arms from having them suspended in the air for an extended period of time. I think that is why most people don't type in that position mostly.

I might be doing it wrong somehow, but how do you deal with arm fatigue?

Re: Resolutions for programmers

#50

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Jan 03, 2012, 6:41 PM UTC

Groxx wrote: post #40

mattmight wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I learned Dvorak to help with RSI. It worked. I'm fast at Dvorak after 4 years (90 wpm), but not as fast as I was with Qwerty (120 wpm). Dvorak has a pleasant "rolling" finger feel and my wrists never ache, so I've kept it. What fascinated me about learning Dvorak was that I felt like a stroke patient. Suddenly, I could not do something I had been able to do for years. It made me consider the cost of a keystroke. Gre…

I used to have wrist pain after particularly-long coding bouts. Then I decided to type like you play piano - hands up, wrists straight, move arms rather than wrists to punch keys in other locations. No pain again. Ever. Only later did I find out that it's the recommended wrist posture. I still cringe a bit when I see people buying keyboards with wrist-rests (and using them), especially "ergonomic" ones - why improve…

[deleted]