3 ms·
There's an elephant in this room. Are you all ignoring it deliberately? Reading all these comments from people about what they do/don't do. Nobody seems to add
by lproven 3y ago
There's an elephant in this room. Are you all ignoring it deliberately?
Reading all these comments from people about what they do/don't do. Nobody seems to address the giant stinking pachyderm: are you right or left handed?
Left handers have to exercise their right hands, because of all the kit made for the right-handed majority. Almost all these fancy vertical mice are right-hand only. In fact most mice are RH only. I sometimes use a cheap 2nd hand gamer mouse I bought for when my main one's batteries die: it's RH-only.
Digital cameras? All RH only. Most mobile phones? Mainly for RHers.
We sinister types must use our right. Most right handers barely use their left.
20Y ago, in my mid-30s, I switched to mousing right-handed at home. I'm a leftie, but I worked in support for 15-20 years and I had to use customers' machines the way they were configured. Usually that means mouse on the right. I could but didn't on my own because they're mine.
An ex suggested switching and it really balanced my hand usage. Gave my tired sore left a rest, made my under-utilised right pick up the slack.
I also trained myself to clean my teeth with my right, to practice my coordination.
Never mind rock climbing or whatever. Nobody needs to climb a wall to get to work. But pretty much everyone needs to clean their teeth.
Learn to use your left hand for more. Learn to mouse with it, or use your touchpad or whatever. Learn to clean your teeth with it.
Spread that load out. Even the workload on your hands and wrists, and they'll thank you for it over the decades.
- packetlost 3y agoI'm left handed, but I very early on (ie. like around age 5-6) I switched to using my right hand with a mouse. Since getting wrist pain in my right hand, I've purchased a magic trackpad which I keep to the left of my keyboard and I alternate between left w/ touchpad and right w/ mouse. It's worked very well for me!
- lproven 3y agoGood plan! I didn't have that option as I was born shortly before Douglas Engelbart did the "mother of all demos". Mice hadn't really been invented yet. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mother_of_All_Demos https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mother_of_All_Demos Sadly for me I crippled my right arm in a bicycle crash in April and now it's quite painful to use it for a mouse, so I use it in my left hand mainly now... but I am working on it.
- packetlost 3y agoIMO it's easier to get the gestures with your off hand on a trackpad down than the more particular movements of a mouse. It's less constraining and you're likely already used to using it in a similar with a phone
- ryandvm 3y agoSame. I'm right-handed, but switch to left-handed mousing when my wrist started hurting. Now I switch back and forth several times per week. Nipped my nascent carpal tunnel in the bud I think. What's interesting is that it's not as hard as it sounds. You basically just reverse your left/right click settings and your brain picks it up very quickly.
- packetlost 3y agoI still find using a mouse with my left hand a bit awkward, but using a touchpad is just fine
- lproven 3y agoHmmm. I never switch the buttons and TBH I never understood why that option was there. It's no harder to move between 2 (or 3) buttons with my index finger on either hand. Do some people use different fingers on the different buttons?