OP author here. My source at the now defunct Datahand company had told me that at the end of the company's life they produced very low-quality units. 50% of the

OP author here. My source at the now defunct Datahand company had told me that at the end of the company's life they produced very low-quality units. 50% of the units did not function properly, so it's possible that was a factor in your trouble learning. More likely though is that you gave up too soon. I know it's hard at first but like most things worth doing it takes practice. Maybe I'm biased by my special situation though. When buying my Datahand I was very lucky. Someone was selling a pair in Sunnyvale for $30. It was in Dvorak (still is) and I had just decided to switch from SublimeText to vim. So for the next three weeks I plowed through using the Datahand (which was easy) on top of learning a new keyboard layout (which was hard) and all the vim movement/editing commands (which was annoying). It was a big chunk of effort. The hardest part by far was __not cheating and switching back to my normal habits when the going got tough__. If you already know how to accomplish a task and you're trying to learn a new method - it's very, very hard not to fall back to your proven method under the pressure of frustration. I fought that pressure many times over those three weeks but it's been one of the easiest and most rewarding investments. There's always time to save time, and their's always time for your health.