Like I said - there is weak evidence for the former.
However - if you don't have RSI, then it may not be because the layout is not optimal... it might be because you are less prone to RSI, or because you're young and able to bounce back from RSI easily, or because you just haven't been typing long enough to develop RSI yet.
Whereas somebody that already has RSI... already has it, so if you change layout and the RSI goes away - that's pretty good evidence that the layout-change has had a direct effect on the RSI.
that's pretty good evidence that the layout-change has had a direct effect on the RSI
Correct. What it's NOT good evidence for is the claim that the new layout is better. It's sufficient for it to be only different.
What can I purchase with $100 that will be the best thing I can buy to make my life better?
I've decided to budget some regular money to improving my life each month. I'd like to start with low hanging fruit for obvious reasons - but when I sat down to think of improvements, I found myself thinking of the same old things I'd already been planning to do anyway... and I'd like out of that rut.
Constraints/more info:
Background:
This is a question I recently posed to my local Less Wrong group and we came up with a few good ideas, so I thought I'd share the discussion with the wider community and see what we can come up with. I'll add the list we came up with later on in the comments...
It'd be great to have a repository of low-hanging fruit for things that can be solved with (relatively affordable) amounts of money. I'd personally like to go through the list - look at candidates that sound like they'd be really useful to me and then make a prioritised list of what to work on first.