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Using two keyboards at once for pain relief

symboliclogic.io

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Re: Using two keyboards at once for pain relief

#41

Post by pkamb »

These split and ortholinear keyboards all seem to be compensating for the fact that we are taught to type keys on the left hand bottom row with the wrong finger.

The "Q-A-Z" slope goes completely against the natural angle of your left finger curl. Same for every finger on your left hand.

The right hand gets things right with "U-J-M" etc. Nice finger curl with your hand in a natural position.

On normal keyboards we should be teaching and typing the "W-S-Z" (or even "E-S-Z") column with your left ring finger, not the completely perpendicular "W-S-X".

Re: Using two keyboards at once for pain relief

#42

Post by qudat »

slightwinder wrote: post #16

Or just use a split keyboard, there are some dozen available nowadays: https://github.com/diimdeep/awesome-split-keyboards Personally, I'm using a Dygma Raise, after testing the Ergodox for a while. And the Dygma is really mostly perfect IMHO. I would prefer it to have an ortholinear layout, and an additional row with F-Keys (layers can be cumbersome when hands are not at homerow-position). But the build-quality and…

Without reading the article I thought that's what they meant.

For me the biggest QoL improvement has been switching to a split ortho keeb (https://github.com/foostan/crkbd). They are super cheap to build (corne is 42 switches which are the most expensive component of a keeb) and once you get the hang of it they are superior to any other typing experience.

Learning how to use a 40% had a steep learning curve, but after a few weeks I was very productive and now I don't even think about the layers.

Since corne is so easy to build it's a great introduction into building your own keyboards. I just recently purchased the components from keyhive and I think I only spent $110 -- if that? That might sound expensive for a keyboard you have to build yourself but the prices for custom built keyboards can get insane (in the thousands)

Re: Using two keyboards at once for pain relief

#43

Post by superjan »

darthvoldemort wrote: post #34

There are probably multiple different causes for RSI in programmers, but for me, a regular keyboard is fine. Even my slouch is fine. I type with my elbows on the table and it's fine. It's the mouse that killed me. A handful of years after graduating from college, I thought my programming career was over because the pain in my neck and shoulders was so bad I couldn't type. I went to a bunch of doctors, neurologists, p…

The mouse was also the issue for me but I switched to a trackball. All the work is done by my thumb, no need to move your arm around.

Re: Using two keyboards at once for pain relief

#45

Post by a9h74j »

rektide wrote: post #9

I made the jump from dual keyboards to a Kinesis Freestyle (2) almost a decade ago. Honestly sometimes I think about going back. I had dual MS Sculpt keyboards for a while, & loved the curve. It's easier to spread the keyboards out far wider than with the pretty short cable Kinesis keyboards usually come with (some keyboards have an XL option). Also Kinesis seems allergic to build a regular-plain-old function-key row…

With two Logitech multi-bluetooth keyboards (1-2-3 selector) talking to two or three computers, multiple use-cases would be covered.

Re: Using two keyboards at once for pain relief

#47

Post by ruffrey »

pkamb wrote: post #41

These split and ortholinear keyboards all seem to be compensating for the fact that we are taught to type keys on the left hand bottom row with the wrong finger. The "Q-A-Z" slope goes completely against the natural angle of your left finger curl. Same for every finger on your left hand. The right hand gets things right with "U-J-M" etc. Nice finger curl with your hand in a natural position. On normal keyboards we sh…

Op here, I totally agree we need to re-think keyboard ergonomics! Millions of people have pain from the design of these things. I am so happy the article sparked a little conversation.

Re: Using two keyboards at once for pain relief

#48

Post by hyperpape »

The author dismisses clicky keyboards as "too loud for screen shares", but I'm not sure that's a problem with a good mic. You get truly impressive noise reduction. https://www.benkuhn.net/vc/. My own experience is that with even a decent mic, I never used mute, and could do things like calls while my son watched TV in the next room (not separated by a door, but by a wide open entryway). My coworkers testimony made me clear that while it was distracting for me, they weren't hearing the noise.

Re: Using two keyboards at once for pain relief

#49

Post by sbahr001 »

roganartu wrote: post #11

> I tried a few of those Kinesis split keyboards. Too squishy for me. Not far enough apart. The CherryMX Kinesis split keyboard was is too clickey for calls and screenshares. Muscle memory made it difficult to switch. This is a really cool hack, and I’m happy that the author found a solution for their pain that works for them, but this bit confused me. Kinesis are keyboards with separated key clusters, but not split…

I had the kinesis advantage 3 for a little over a week. I have to say by far the most comfortable keyboard I have every used. I returned it because I didn't have the spare time to "adjust" to the layout. Its funny its been months and I still miss the feeling lol.

Re: Using two keyboards at once for pain relief

#50

Post by qudat »

gorbachev wrote: post #12

Any one of the keyboards listed on https://github.com/diimdeep/awesome-split-keyboards would be better than that.

I would recommend the corne. It's cheap to build and once you get used to 40% split ortho you won't look back. As a software engineer it has been my daily driver for years.
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