6 ms·

This style of writing feels a lot like the sections of Gödel Escher Bach that had the tortoise and Achilles dialogues. Anyway, I’m 52 and have been typing dail

This style of writing feels a lot like the sections of Gödel Escher Bach that had the tortoise and Achilles dialogues. Anyway, I’m 52 and have been typing daily at tech jobs since 1995. I had a run-in with RSI around 2000, and tried ergonomic aids like a squishy pad in front of my keyboard to rest my wrists on, this sliding thing that I rested my elbows on. None of it made a lick of difference. I changed the way I typed. I made sure to keep my hands and wrists relaxed, and swapped out stretching my fingers for keys with sliding my arms around… and it worked. I still type a lot every day, and I’ve been pain free for 20 years. YMMV, obviously, but changing how you use your arms and hands might be a huge boon.

dbtc 3y ago
Also the rest of your body: especially head and shoulders, but core, hips, even feet are well worth attending to.
chubot 3y ago
Same here, I got a bout of severe RSI almost 15 years ago, for a few months I changed many habits and it's been gone since then ... It's obviously different for everyone but I found that using a trackball helped a lot. For awhile I had a mouse on the left and trackball on the right, switching back and forth. But I don't need that anymore. Taking breaks and minding posture is important. Wrist posture in particular -- I don't rest my wrists or arms on anything -- only my fingers make contact with the keyboard. Much later, I started weight training with kettle bells, and I noticed a pretty nice improvement in strength / circulation.
hiAndrewQuinn 3y ago
> I changed the way I typed. I made sure to keep my hands and wrists relaxed, and swapped out stretching my fingers for keys with sliding my arms around… and it worked. That's one of the biggest takeaways I had from playing bass guitar in high school, actually. If you can delegate the movement to a bigger muscle group, it's generally a good idea do so. Shoulder/back instead of arm, arm instead of hand, hand instead of finger...
- tetha 3y ago
  Similar things in martial arts. A strong punch comes from the hips and the shoulder. The elbow and wrist just come along for the ride and need to stabilize to survive.
asynchronous 3y ago
The author intentionally does that, if you go to the character page you can see they’re supposed to reflect a Socrates and student dialogue. Pretty clever imo.
Uptrenda 3y ago
[flagged]
- Handprint4469 3y ago
  modern problems require modern solutions
- xena 3y ago
  Just keep in mind, complaining about the fursonae only makes me add more. I already have plans for a little avian one. Stay tuned.
  - Uptrenda 3y ago
    Thanks, I wasn't expecting this comment. You made me lol and I was feeling down.
    - xena 3y ago
      See my DM on Keybase.
reportgunner 3y ago
> I changed the way I typed. This. I had problems with back pain, neck pain and RSI about 10 years ago. I learned to sit up straight, corrected my desk height and rearranged stuff on my desk so I'm not typing like a shrimp. I also realized I really don't need to type as much as I did. No pain ever since.
NotYourLawyer 3y ago
[flagged]
- dang 3y ago
  Can you please stop breaking the site guidelines like this? We've already had to warn you about this exact thing: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37358816 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37358816, and we end up having to ban accounts that won't fix such issues. If you'd please review https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and stick to the rules when posting here, we'd appreciate it. Note this one: "Eschew flamebait. Avoid generic tangents." and also this one: "Please don't pick the most provocative thing in an article or post to complain about in the thread. Find something interesting to respond to instead."
  - NotYourLawyer 3y ago
    [flagged]
  - sirmike_ 3y ago
    You must have the most points for hacker news hall monitor. Make sure you qoute the guidelines at me. Tattletales have to just have to people please. Lol.
    - dang 3y ago
      I'm afraid it's my job, and it's necessary for the site to function (to the extent that it does function), so there isn't much choice. In case it helps at all, I promise you that these comments are even more tedious to write than they are to read. https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&sort=byDate&type=comment&query=tedious%20write%20read%20by:dang https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&so...
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]

dbtc 3y ago

Also the rest of your body: especially head and shoulders, but core, hips, even feet are well worth attending to.

chubot 3y ago

Same here, I got a bout of severe RSI almost 15 years ago, for a few months I changed many habits and it's been gone since then ... It's obviously different for everyone but I found that using a trackball helped a lot. For awhile I had a mouse on the left and trackball on the right, switching back and forth. But I don't need that anymore. Taking breaks and minding posture is important. Wrist posture in particular -- I don't rest my wrists or arms on anything -- only my fingers make contact with the keyboard. Much later, I started weight training with kettle bells, and I noticed a pretty nice improvement in strength / circulation.

hiAndrewQuinn 3y ago

> I changed the way I typed. I made sure to keep my hands and wrists relaxed, and swapped out stretching my fingers for keys with sliding my arms around… and it worked. That's one of the biggest takeaways I had from playing bass guitar in high school, actually. If you can delegate the movement to a bigger muscle group, it's generally a good idea do so. Shoulder/back instead of arm, arm instead of hand, hand instead of finger...

tetha 3y ago
Similar things in martial arts. A strong punch comes from the hips and the shoulder. The elbow and wrist just come along for the ride and need to stabilize to survive.

asynchronous 3y ago

The author intentionally does that, if you go to the character page you can see they’re supposed to reflect a Socrates and student dialogue. Pretty clever imo.

Uptrenda 3y ago

[flagged]

Handprint4469 3y ago
modern problems require modern solutions
xena 3y ago
Just keep in mind, complaining about the fursonae only makes me add more. I already have plans for a little avian one. Stay tuned.
- Uptrenda 3y ago
  Thanks, I wasn't expecting this comment. You made me lol and I was feeling down.
  - xena 3y ago
    See my DM on Keybase.

reportgunner 3y ago

> I changed the way I typed. This. I had problems with back pain, neck pain and RSI about 10 years ago. I learned to sit up straight, corrected my desk height and rearranged stuff on my desk so I'm not typing like a shrimp. I also realized I really don't need to type as much as I did. No pain ever since.

NotYourLawyer 3y ago

[flagged]

dang 3y ago
Can you please stop breaking the site guidelines like this? We've already had to warn you about this exact thing: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37358816 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37358816, and we end up having to ban accounts that won't fix such issues. If you'd please review https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and stick to the rules when posting here, we'd appreciate it. Note this one: "Eschew flamebait. Avoid generic tangents." and also this one: "Please don't pick the most provocative thing in an article or post to complain about in the thread. Find something interesting to respond to instead."
- NotYourLawyer 3y ago
  [flagged]
- sirmike_ 3y ago
  You must have the most points for hacker news hall monitor. Make sure you qoute the guidelines at me. Tattletales have to just have to people please. Lol.
  - dang 3y ago
    I'm afraid it's my job, and it's necessary for the site to function (to the extent that it does function), so there isn't much choice. In case it helps at all, I promise you that these comments are even more tedious to write than they are to read. https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&sort=byDate&type=comment&query=tedious%20write%20read%20by:dang https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&so...

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]