Forty years of programming

I did this too! Not on a notepad, but on a Royal typewriter, age 10. My dad had a telecommunications consulting business, based on a remote Univac mainframe he rented time on. He'd bring his Texas Instruments Silent 700 printer-terminal home from work, and I'd sometimes get to play Adventure and what-not if he wasn't using it. I vividly remember typing my first BASIC program on the typewriter, one afternoon after school, and then waiting excitedly for him to get home so I could actually type the program into the terminal. (Pretty sure the program was: 10 PRINT "HELLO" / 20 GOTO 10.)

EDIT: This would have been ~1976.

I took the opportunity to learn an alternate KB layout (Workman) and I think that has been beneficial for my hands, which are average to slightly smaller than average, so QWERTY movements like T are a slight stretch. Have also got the split KB (Kinesis Freestyle Edge, which is OK. Would like something that can run QMK or similar). Also paying attention to the little nags and working them out is definitely valuable. For, e.g. I run 'g sta' (git status) often, as well as 'g lscm' (git log -20 --pretty etc); now I use Bash bindings to run both with Ctrl+j, and 'cls' with Ctrl+l. I've even started using the KB's 'action keys' (I.e. those ones that aren't part of the standard ANSI/layout) for Winkey+1..n to spare my left hand the awkward chord from winkey to the number row. I also run a trackball for dev and a mouse for gaming so that I split my use over different muscles. Hoping it all keeps any kind of injury at bay.

A WARNING for anyone who thinks this article doesn't apply to them:

If you are reading this post and thinking, "oh I don't have these problems, I'm going to read something else", I encourage you to pause.

Having been in this industry for a while, I have seen RSI-type injuries happen to HUGE portions of my colleagues. I've met many people who have changed careers over this.

The reality is that spending 8-10+ hours a day in front of a keyboard is grueling on the hands, wrist, and arms (not to mention it can be for your back and neck as well).

It isn't a matter of "if", but "when". For some the result is more impactful on their daily life than others, but it does affect nearly everyone to some extent.

So I encourage anyone who is still young, thinking this is a post for "old people", to consider applying some of these principals today in hopes of pushing these problems further down the road or maybe even to put you in the minority of people who never have to deal with them in their career. The apple mighty-mouse thing (whatever they call it now) is horrible for your wrists and hands, throw it in the trash. Consider investing in some of these tools now, so you don't suffer later.

In a similar vein, take care of your posture which can save you from back problems and neck or spine injuries later. Sit/stand desks are great options and readily available now (and relatively affordable). Consider an ergonomic chair as well, and don't be afraid to spend good money on it. You spend 8-10+ hours a day in it. It's worth spending $1,000 on a desk and $1,000 on a chair that will save you thousands in medical bills and a priceless amount of avoided pain down the road. It's funny to me how many engineers making $150k or more a year and won't spend $2,000 on a good desk setup (which lasts for many many years). If you have a work-from-home budget, spend it on ergonomic tools, not a fancy monitor with a higher refresh rate.

Good advice. When I was young I used to just "plug in" for one constant (more or less) session all day long. I don't know how I did it to be honest.

But yeah now, I NEED breaks. Walk around, get a snack, go for a quick walk outside. Really anything to break it up. The impact is better on you mentally as well as physically.

I've been using computers since I was a pre-teen, it wrecked both my forearms (and later, my neck) in my early 30's. There was NO WARNING, the issues just happened out of nowhere. I always thought RSI, if it happened to me, would happen gradually and I'd know to stop/rest. The neck stuff has taken a decade to heal and it's still not back to normal.