Comment by akdor1154
16 hours ago
I have the same crank theory. I have shithouse typing technique - hands fly everywhere, whichever finger is closest, wrists move a fair bit, what's a home row? I stuck rubber o-rings under all my keys so bottoming out wasn't painful. My keyboard has the heaviest sprung switches i could find, and I'm still on the lookout for a heavier mechanism (e.g. literally a typewriter or piano type mechanism).
I also started learning piano at 4 and played daily until 25 or so. I still play other instruments but with different movements.
I am 35 and still have no hint of RSI or carpal tunnel (touch wood). I had a scare for a bit but turned out my mouse was just in a dumb position.
YMMV but the above informs my crank belief of 'move heaps, varied as much as possible, get strong fingers and forearms' being a viable approach.
N.B. A note on the bottoming out stuff: this was again inspired by my piano teacher who taught a technique of imagining pressing the piano keys 'through' the base, further than they move in reality. This was combined with the weight coming from your entire arm, fore, bicep, and shoulder, not from your fingers.
N.B.B. If anyone knows input methods that take this to extremes I'd love to know. I.E. something that involves moving your entire arm around. I've occasionally looked at jumbo-sized keyboard for those with learning and dexterity difficulties for example.
Do you do weight training in gym? I wonder if that has an impact
No, I'm pretty scrawny (for a westerner), stronger forearms from the childhood of piano though.
It’s interesting how you are probably saying you are scrawny for a westerner, but if you were the oppisite - an ’easterner’ - you wouldn’t be considered scrawny.
I bet there are people who would consider ’westerners’, however they define them, weak and scrawny. Pacific Islanders? Eastern Europeans?
Either way, our piano teachers must have come from the same school of thought and no RSIs here either. For fifteen years now I’ve typed on a macbook keyboard (tethered to a big display 90% of the time) which I’ve never bothered to upgrade from. No vim. A constant mix of the trackpad, Apple magic mouse (!) and Wacom tablet for input. Haven’t experienced any ergonomics issues whatsoever.