5 ms·

Cannot second this enough. I typed through the pain and couldn't use a computer for 10 months. That was very stupid of me; please be smarter. It's worth invest

Cannot second this enough. I typed through the pain and couldn't use a computer for 10 months. That was very stupid of me; please be smarter. It's worth investing time & money in a good, ergonomic typing setup. If you don't do it up front, you'll be investing a lot more time in money - in physical therapy, and buying top-of-the-line stuff because the mid tier equipment isn't good enough for you to avoid reinjury anymore. Some things that work for me: - Vertical mouse (Logitech MX Vertical - there are knockoffs, I haven't tried them) - Mechanical keyboard with a good amount of travel (laptop keyboards with hardly any travel are no good for me anymore) - Gaming mouse pad (it's like a mousepad that covers a large area) - Pads that go over the armrests of my chair (if my arms are resting on hard plastic, it limits my circulation, which exacerbates my tendonitis) I strongly encourage you to learn proper typing habits. I don't want to speak too authoritatively (if I'm saying anything incorrect, please correct me, and please do research this yourself - it's really important for your health & career), I'm not an expert I just know what works for me, but you shouldn't rotate your wrists, and you shouldn't have them at any sort of angle relative to your firearms; it should be straight and they should just glide over the keyboard. It's a good idea to learn how to stretch your wrists as well.

gymbeaux 4y ago
There are a litany of reasons why one’s hand may hurt. As far as non-traumatic injuries go (meaning pain that develops over a period of time as opposed to, say, a skateboarding accident), it’s usually going to be caused by inflammation of tendons (tendonitis), wearing away of bone cartilage (arthritis), or nerve impingement. Diagnosis of the first two is typically straightforward, while diagnosis and treatment of nerve impingement is more complex, reason being the nerve or nerves could be impinged in one (or more!) of several locations between the spine and hand. I have seen many armchair orthopedic experts on Reddit, Quora and elsewhere talk about “RSI” like it’s a single disorder with a single treatment. In reality, RSI is an umbrella term for many conditions, and not just of the arms and hands. Googling “RSI” is useless. You MUST determine which RSI (if any) you have. The treatment for tendinitis is very different from the treatment for cubital or carpal tunnel syndromes. This is probably why so many people who identify as having “RSI” have been unsuccessful in finding an effective treatment. Heck, if you truly have Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, surgery is THE treatment. Anything else is a band-aid. Fortunately, the surgery is quick, the recovery is quick (typically within a week for light activity), and it is usually permanent.
- robomartin 4y ago
  > Googling “RSI” is useless. A few times a month my wife has what she calls a "Google patient". Her canned response is: "Your google search isn't equivalent to my medical degree." Some get it.
  - gymbeaux 4y ago
    Yeah, but at the same time I saw 3 orthopedic surgeons and 1 neurologist and 2 of them said "carpal tunnel syndrome", one of them said "arthritis" (after saying my X-Rays didn't show any signs of arthritis), and none of them got the diagnosis right (thoracic outlet syndrome). The kicker is the one who settled on "arthritis" is a shoulder guy, the one you'd expect to at least test for TOS.
    - robomartin 4y ago
      Just like there are bad engineers, the medical community has bad doctors. Perhaps "bad" is too strong a term. It might be more accurate to refer to them as "low information" or "not up to date" or "low skill" professionals. On the engineering front, it takes work to stay up to date on the latest technologies. I have been in the field for 40 years, I know lots of people with the same time in the domain who can barely deal with a modern computer, much less design with modern FPGA's, processors and write software in a range of modern languages. People do stagnate. That's just reality. The same is the case with doctors, or almost any profession. One plumber might be up to date with the latest advances and have great diagnostics skills while the other hits everything with a hammer. Which hints at the other reality. I have worked with dozens of young engineers just out of school. It is interesting to see just how wide a range of skills and capabilities you get. Those who went into engineering with passion stand out because they are engaged in the field and have a real tangible sense of how things work. For lack of a better term, they were getting their hands dirty before they started university, and it shows. Others came to my desk with such low skills it was hard to conceive how they might succeed. Doctors have to be in the same reality. We've all heard of doctors who misdiagnose people who, months or years later, through great personal effort, finally discover what was wrong and got it handled. What I have never seen is a root-cause analysis of this (well, there was a TV show years back that did some of this). That's what matters. Medicine (or engineering) will never improve if we don't have a mechanism through which we can go back and ensure some of these things happen with less frequency. This is where I believe AI-based diagnosis will eventually become a useful tool. Not to replace doctors, but rather to present them with a range of opinions to explore. As with anything in computing, these systems will require accurate data, both medical and from the patient. And that's how we come full circle to the problems in medicine, one of which is having to work with patients who are uninformed or ill-informed from whom it is difficult to obtain accurate data for diagnostics. Not an easy problem.
davidy123 4y ago
This is funny and why Thinkpad people are so … religious. - Vertical mouse (Logitech MX Vertical - there are knockoffs, I haven't tried them) Or a trackpoint. - Mechanical keyboard with a good amount of travel (laptop keyboards with hardly any travel are no good for me anymore) Or a Thinkpad keyboard (though they have been getting shallower). I've been addicted to Trackpoints since forever. Trackpads seem so backward to me. A trackpoint is like mind control in comparison. I'm lucky Thinkpads are generally good and I don't care for MacOS, because otherwise I'd be really stuck.
- maxbond 4y ago
  I loved the Trackpoint. Personally I can't use the Thinkpad keyboard anymore (that being the keyboard I was using when I injured myself). Once you commit to an external keyboard, you can't really use the Trackpoint anymore. But I don't presume to proscribe.
  - nequo 4y ago
    People have mentioned the ThinkPad TrackPoint Keyboard II[1] and the TEX Shinobi[2] as external keyboards that have trackpoints. [1] https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/p/accessories-and-software/keyboards-and-mice/keyboards/4y40x49493 https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/p/accessories-and-software/keyb... [2] https://tex.com.tw/products/shinobi?variant=16969883648090 https://tex.com.tw/products/shinobi?variant=16969883648090
    - davidy123 4y ago
      I have the ThinkPad TrackPoint Keyboard II. It's pretty good, feels … plasticky but good travel and has a Trackpoint. However, for me I use the Thinkpad as a "controller" for a desktop, so I get two (well, three, the desktop has two) independant screens and kvm functionality via Barrier (derived from Synergy). Maybe I'd never want to go back if I tried a mechanical (I got my partner one, but haven't touched it), but I could not go back (way back) to a mouse.
      - 4y ago

gymbeaux 4y ago

There are a litany of reasons why one’s hand may hurt. As far as non-traumatic injuries go (meaning pain that develops over a period of time as opposed to, say, a skateboarding accident), it’s usually going to be caused by inflammation of tendons (tendonitis), wearing away of bone cartilage (arthritis), or nerve impingement. Diagnosis of the first two is typically straightforward, while diagnosis and treatment of nerve impingement is more complex, reason being the nerve or nerves could be impinged in one (or more!) of several locations between the spine and hand. I have seen many armchair orthopedic experts on Reddit, Quora and elsewhere talk about “RSI” like it’s a single disorder with a single treatment. In reality, RSI is an umbrella term for many conditions, and not just of the arms and hands. Googling “RSI” is useless. You MUST determine which RSI (if any) you have. The treatment for tendinitis is very different from the treatment for cubital or carpal tunnel syndromes. This is probably why so many people who identify as having “RSI” have been unsuccessful in finding an effective treatment. Heck, if you truly have Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, surgery is THE treatment. Anything else is a band-aid. Fortunately, the surgery is quick, the recovery is quick (typically within a week for light activity), and it is usually permanent.

robomartin 4y ago
> Googling “RSI” is useless. A few times a month my wife has what she calls a "Google patient". Her canned response is: "Your google search isn't equivalent to my medical degree." Some get it.
- gymbeaux 4y ago
  Yeah, but at the same time I saw 3 orthopedic surgeons and 1 neurologist and 2 of them said "carpal tunnel syndrome", one of them said "arthritis" (after saying my X-Rays didn't show any signs of arthritis), and none of them got the diagnosis right (thoracic outlet syndrome). The kicker is the one who settled on "arthritis" is a shoulder guy, the one you'd expect to at least test for TOS.
  - robomartin 4y ago
    Just like there are bad engineers, the medical community has bad doctors. Perhaps "bad" is too strong a term. It might be more accurate to refer to them as "low information" or "not up to date" or "low skill" professionals. On the engineering front, it takes work to stay up to date on the latest technologies. I have been in the field for 40 years, I know lots of people with the same time in the domain who can barely deal with a modern computer, much less design with modern FPGA's, processors and write software in a range of modern languages. People do stagnate. That's just reality. The same is the case with doctors, or almost any profession. One plumber might be up to date with the latest advances and have great diagnostics skills while the other hits everything with a hammer. Which hints at the other reality. I have worked with dozens of young engineers just out of school. It is interesting to see just how wide a range of skills and capabilities you get. Those who went into engineering with passion stand out because they are engaged in the field and have a real tangible sense of how things work. For lack of a better term, they were getting their hands dirty before they started university, and it shows. Others came to my desk with such low skills it was hard to conceive how they might succeed. Doctors have to be in the same reality. We've all heard of doctors who misdiagnose people who, months or years later, through great personal effort, finally discover what was wrong and got it handled. What I have never seen is a root-cause analysis of this (well, there was a TV show years back that did some of this). That's what matters. Medicine (or engineering) will never improve if we don't have a mechanism through which we can go back and ensure some of these things happen with less frequency. This is where I believe AI-based diagnosis will eventually become a useful tool. Not to replace doctors, but rather to present them with a range of opinions to explore. As with anything in computing, these systems will require accurate data, both medical and from the patient. And that's how we come full circle to the problems in medicine, one of which is having to work with patients who are uninformed or ill-informed from whom it is difficult to obtain accurate data for diagnostics. Not an easy problem.

davidy123 4y ago

This is funny and why Thinkpad people are so … religious. - Vertical mouse (Logitech MX Vertical - there are knockoffs, I haven't tried them) Or a trackpoint. - Mechanical keyboard with a good amount of travel (laptop keyboards with hardly any travel are no good for me anymore) Or a Thinkpad keyboard (though they have been getting shallower). I've been addicted to Trackpoints since forever. Trackpads seem so backward to me. A trackpoint is like mind control in comparison. I'm lucky Thinkpads are generally good and I don't care for MacOS, because otherwise I'd be really stuck.

maxbond 4y ago
I loved the Trackpoint. Personally I can't use the Thinkpad keyboard anymore (that being the keyboard I was using when I injured myself). Once you commit to an external keyboard, you can't really use the Trackpoint anymore. But I don't presume to proscribe.
- nequo 4y ago
  People have mentioned the ThinkPad TrackPoint Keyboard II[1] and the TEX Shinobi[2] as external keyboards that have trackpoints. [1] https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/p/accessories-and-software/keyboards-and-mice/keyboards/4y40x49493 https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/p/accessories-and-software/keyb... [2] https://tex.com.tw/products/shinobi?variant=16969883648090 https://tex.com.tw/products/shinobi?variant=16969883648090
  - davidy123 4y ago
    I have the ThinkPad TrackPoint Keyboard II. It's pretty good, feels … plasticky but good travel and has a Trackpoint. However, for me I use the Thinkpad as a "controller" for a desktop, so I get two (well, three, the desktop has two) independant screens and kvm functionality via Barrier (derived from Synergy). Maybe I'd never want to go back if I tried a mechanical (I got my partner one, but haven't touched it), but I could not go back (way back) to a mouse.
    - 4y ago