Not to minimize the very real pain from RSI, but I don't think "most" programmers develop RSI. I have over 40 years at the keyboard, and then using a mouse, tra

Not to minimize the very real pain from RSI, but I don't think "most" programmers develop RSI. I have over 40 years at the keyboard, and then using a mouse, trackball, and now trackpad. I have worked at quite a few places with programmers younger and older. In my experience most groups that I worked with had one or two people -- often the younger people -- who had symptoms of RSI, sometimes severe. But not most of the people I worked with, many of whom had the same number of years, or more, typing and dragging a mouse around as I do. The only time I ever experienced pain in my wrists came from gaming. When I had young kids they liked to play console games with me. A few hours of that and I'd notice pain in my wrist, probably from gripping the controller too hard (Mortal Kombat and Mario Kart can get intense with a teenage opponent). I suspect heavy gaming does more damage than typing and mousing, unless you have terrible posture, can't touch-type, or grip the mouse/trackball too hard. That might explain why many of the work colleagues who had RSI got it fairly young -- gaming seems more a thing with younger people, and they start gaming as kids whereas I didn't see a video game controller until I got well into my 20s. My oldest daughter works on a computer all day (mainly Excel) and she developed RSI. Her therapist gave her gloves that keep her wrists straight and told her to pay attention to stress and excessive force in her hands. I guess a light touch helps. I don't have any actual medical evidence or expertise regarding RSI, just my anecdotal experience.