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The mystery of why left-handers are so much rarer (2016)

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Re: The mystery of why left-handers are so much rarer (2016)

#201

Post by ensocode »

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #186
pram wrote: post #139

Just throwing in my left handed anecdote here: the bottom of my hand was always covered in pencil graphite when I was in school because your hand drags over what you've been writing from left -> right. Also ring binders were a pain in the ass (your hand is blocked at the left margin lol)

If I had to do it again, I would have learned to write with my right hand due to occlusion. It gets worse if you try to learn how to write in Chinese (at least in modern orientations). I think the reason I became a programmer is just because keyboards were so liberating for me.

Same here. Totally agree with this!

Re: The mystery of why left-handers are so much rarer (2016)

#202

Post by Tor3 »

michaelteter wrote: post #160

I'm sure like many left-handers here, my right hand is nearly as dexterous as my left. Writing is the only thing I can do with left which I cannot do with right; other tasks are either equally natural or just a little awkward but still effective. But some right-handers who have been forced to (by breaking an arm for example) can learn to write with the left hand. I have to assume they could learn to be more ambidexte…

I'm the same, just mirrored.. I'm technically right-handed, but my left hand works as well as the right one for stuff that I haven't exclusively trained my right hand to do (or the left one, for that matter, as far as the right hand is concerned). So I can't write with my left hand (except that I can mirror-write, especially if I write with my right hand at the same time. Apparently Leonardo Da Vinci used his left hand when he mirror-wrote, and his right hand when he didn't. Read that somewhere).

Re: The mystery of why left-handers are so much rarer (2016)

#203

Post by setopt »

pram wrote: post #139

Just throwing in my left handed anecdote here: the bottom of my hand was always covered in pencil graphite when I was in school because your hand drags over what you've been writing from left -> right. Also ring binders were a pain in the ass (your hand is blocked at the left margin lol)

You should learn Arabic, then you can write in the other direction and watch the right-handed normies struggle with this :)

Re: The mystery of why left-handers are so much rarer (2016)

#204

Post by Tor3 »

portaouflop wrote: post #200
zdragnar wrote: post #51

I write left handed, and use a fork in my left and knife in my right. Left hand for holding a phone or a drinking glass, and for shaving. I'm right eye dominant, though, so I throw, swing, shoot, use scissors, play instruments and use a mouse right handed. I'm not at all ambidextrous, I can't do most of those things with my other hand.

I do basically everything with my left — but I do use the mouse with my right. Not sure what that means…

As a (mostly) rightie, I use the mouse with my right, except if I feel shoulder pain. Then I take a week on the left hand. And my shoulder avoids developing a chronic issue.

Re: The mystery of why left-handers are so much rarer (2016)

#205

Post by Tor3 »

zdragnar wrote: post #109
_whiteCaps_ wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I thought that scissors were made to be right handed, and you need a 'reversed' pair for left handed people. Or is that a scam?

There's a slight pressure you put on the hinge when closing them. The handedness aligns the pressure to a closing motion laterally (keeping the blades together) as opposed to opening (pushing the cutting edges apart). They do in fact make a difference. Trimming my beard with beard scissors requires a bit of a strange grip in my left hand to actually cut well when I switch sides.

A problem these days is that the scissors are sculpted.. they fit a right hand. But there are supposedly-left-handed scissors.. except that 99.9% of them are still crossing the blades the same way! My father bought one like that, as he was left handed. The scissors are mostly useless, at least for anything where you need that slight pressure to get a good cut.

Re: The mystery of why left-handers are so much rarer (2016)

#206

Post by ensocode »

pclmulqdq wrote: post #25
theoreticalmal wrote: post #15

“ when you look at rare conditions, like Down Syndrome, epilepsy and cerebral palsy, the ratio of left- to right-handers is more like 50:50 rather than 1:10.” Is this a typo? Or are left-handed people way, way more likely to suffer from these rare diseases?

There are a lot of myths and anecdata about lefties having shorter life expectancy. That might indicate health consequences in some way.

Could also be due to right-handed tools. Chainsaws...

Re: The mystery of why left-handers are so much rarer (2016)

#208

Post by nottorp »

Curious: any people around who trained themselves to do fine control activities (writing but not only) with their non dominant hand? How did that go?

Being forced in school or because of an accident doesn't count; curious if anyone did it on their own, voluntarily.

Re: The mystery of why left-handers are so much rarer (2016)

#209

Post by Dalewyn »

nottorp wrote: post #208

Curious: any people around who trained themselves to do fine control activities (writing but not only) with their non dominant hand? How did that go? Being forced in school or because of an accident doesn't count; curious if anyone did it on their own, voluntarily.

I mean, I'm here typing with my left hand.

Re: The mystery of why left-handers are so much rarer (2016)

#210

Post by arictial »

pram wrote: post #139

Just throwing in my left handed anecdote here: the bottom of my hand was always covered in pencil graphite when I was in school because your hand drags over what you've been writing from left -> right. Also ring binders were a pain in the ass (your hand is blocked at the left margin lol)

That's the reason I write my signature from right to left, starting from the last letter.

It's weirdly left slanted but actually better than my normal handwriting.

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