>I learned Dvorak to help with RSI. That makes sense. >What fascinated me about learning Dvorak was that I felt like a stroke patient. That's a perfect explanation of the learning process. I just don't think people should be playing the stroke patient with their livelihoods.
Woah, that's some massive hyperbole there; learning Dvorak does not risk your ability to earn a living in this industry.
I think he was just referring to the productivity hit during the learning curve.
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 know what you mean about the stroke patient thing. I had (still have, actually) RSI-ish problems in my right wrist but not my left, so I started mousing with my left hand and it felt exactly the same. Years later, my day-to-day productivity has fully recovered, but I still can't play mouse-intensive games like Minesweeper without getting confused and clicking the air with my right hand when I meant to use my left.
Tips for completing resolutions, such as these 12: a. Have a plan with dates, milestones and accountability mechanisms b. Start small (Instead of one month using a different OS, how about day and go from there) c. Make it meaningful, Know why you're making a Committment, Be Selective (Have an intrinsic motivation to make a change in your everyday life) d. Stay the course (If you get off track, get back on) edit: form…
I feel dirty trying to hawk my blog post, but I wrote one a few days ago about setting yourself up for success with New Year's Resolutions: http://derwiki.tumblr.com/post/15086471518/setting-yourself-... tl;dr is "pick measurable resolutions, try a bunch in a staggered manner starting with the most achievable first to gain momentum, don't be afraid to cut and run if some resolutions aren't making sense as you try to…
A nitpick: the amount of sit-ups you can do does not correlate well with the six-packness. At 20ish% body fat it's possible to train yourself for a huge amount of sit-ups, but your abs still would not be too visible.
If you have an ability to track your body fat with a decent precision, that would be a better metric.
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 in my teens, and can touch-type fluently in it. But I've found it doesn't provide a lot of speed improvement, and for programming (with all its punctuation) I still use QWERTY. Since programming isn't primarily normal English language text, Dvorak really doesn't help, plus you have to touch-type. What I use Dvorak for is for proper, sit-down, full-screen writing. I'm not sure it's much faster, but it…
"Since programming isn't primarily normal English language text, Dvorak really doesn't help"
I was going to say this. Emacs + Dvorak is very comfortable to use. Vi(m) isn't bad either, but the directions (hjkl) are spread out which used to (and still does as it's not my everyday editor) cause me some difficulty. A particularly nice thing (for me) with Dvorak and Vim is that the `:` is in the lower left, right next to the shift key. I find many sequences easier to type.
About ":", agreed. The new positions for hjkl actually feel more natural to me (jk are adjacent, on Qwerty's "cv" keys, and hl fit a pointer/pinky right hand rocking motion), but that's a matter of taste I guess. Either way: not a big deal. In 5-6 years of typing Dvorak, the only thing I've never adjusted to is the non-keypad diagonal movement keys for nethack. I used the numeric keypad with Qwerty too, though.
> The new positions for hjkl actually feel _more_ natural to me
I completely agree with this sentiment. Everyone I know who uses dvorak+vim has a lot of remaps (so it matches the qwerty stuff) but to be honest, I don't find it necessary, and I really like jk being just there as those are the directional ones I use most (for moving left/right I use stuff like w, b, etc.)
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…
And if you still want to learn an alternative keyboard layout, I recommend colemak. It's more modern, and has some additional upsides [over dvorak]: -keeps ctrl-zxcaw at the same place -claims to be easier to learn if you're already fluent in qwerty perhaps more, here's their site: http://colemak.com/
The thing about Colemak is that if you ever have to use somebody else's computer for a moment, you can be absolutely certain they don't have it installed. Dvorak, I think, strikes the most acceptable balance between efficiency and widespread availability. Sure, as a hacker, you should set up your own unique keyboard layout/.emacs file/guitar-pedal-to-USB modifier keys/saccadic eye motion detector/whatever to absolutely maximize your efficiency for how you spend most of your working hours, but if the day ever comes when I'm the only person who can override the Doomsday Machine, I could do without the hassle.
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.
Rock Climbing is probably a better plan then. It is fun in the way that you're not supposed to be having fun anymore at your age, to the point where you find yourself rearranging your schedule so that you can do more of it. And it absolutely will give you a sixpack by the time you're any good at it. The only downside is that it won't actually get you fit in the traditional sense. I can pull into a front lever using t…
Rock climbing is fantastic, but as your claim that it doesn't make you 'fit' are a bit misleading. As with anything there are correct techniques and if overall 'fit'ness and being able to run a mile are related then you're doing it wrong in respect to your goal and you've probably chosen the wrong form of exercise.
Continuous bouldering again is a great way to work your cardiovascular while also stimulating your core. Slow top roping on the other hand won't be the same.
As seems to be the grandparents goal, you will definitely get a sixpack from rock climbing.
I was really hoping this would be about screen resolutions. 1920 x 1200 all the way, baby (or failing that 1600 x 1200, which is increasingly expensive to get nowadays).