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FiftyTwo comments on Spend Money on Ergonomics - Less Wrong
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While we're trading good ergonomics secrets, I'll point out that Mac BreakZ is pretty exceptional as these things go. If you're banging away on a MacBook every day like me, you should start using this before you get a repetitive stress injury (RSI).
Also if you already have wrist-strain issues, try typing in Dvorak. Seriously. Due to my past computer usage, I used to have to wear uncomfortable wrist braces every night to prevent my fingers from constantly going numb. After several years of suffering with this and assuming I would one day need carpal tunnel surgery, I switched to Dvorak. A month later, all my symptoms disappeared. I was able to stop wearing the wrist guards. 7 years later and still no problems.
As far as "the world is mad" and "people don't even try to optimize stuff", the fact that anyone still uses Qwerty keyboards when, free, strictly superior layouts have existed since before computers were invented is definitely a canary in the coal mine of rationality.
My big problem with learning Dvorak is that once I was accustomed to it I suspect I would find it very difficult to use qwerty keyboards, and given that they are standard and hence I have to use them fairly frequently on machines other than my own it would impose excessive costs. (Though if theres a way round this, other than carrying a keyboard everywhere, I'd be interested to hear.)
As for the general lack of optimisation, I suspect every individual user/manufacturer has no particular attachment to qwerty but there is a general benefit from having a standardised keyboard however good its design is.
[Dvorak user anecdote:] If I need to touch-type on others’ computers, it’s annoying. I personally touch-type only when I write prose longer than a few sentences. For everyday stuff it doesn’t bother me at all, I just need to look at the keys often enough, otherwise my brain resets to Dvorak; if I see the keys, I can almost touch-type normally on QWERTY.
(If I need to write more than a couple of sentences, I usually switch the layout and remove it before leaving the computer.)