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I agree completely with you regarding not treating our bodies as if we're robots. About a year ago I began lifting weights again, something I hadn't done in mor

by fipar 2y ago

I agree completely with you regarding not treating our bodies as if we're robots. About a year ago I began lifting weights again, something I hadn't done in more than 20 years, and the difference is amazing. I used to have very frequent pain episodes that would severely affect my ability to type on a keyboard, and now they are almost completely gone (and when I do get them, it's nowhere near as severe as it used to be). That said, I still have a Model 100 (as the one depicted in the older pictures in the post) and the ergonomics are IMHO worth it, at least compared to some of the keyboards available, but in particular to builtin laptop keyboards (as you mention, everything is bad about laptops and I treat mine like a very portable desktop: if I need to be on the move, I take my keyboard and trackpad and use the laptop as a small display). On top of that, the fact that it's programmable turned out to be much better than I had thought. My workflow is heavily customized now and I'm objectively a lot faster than I used to be before. The layers system on this keyboard takes a bit of getting used to (as does the layout itself) but, at least for me, once I got through the learning curve, it's so good I'm going to buy another one to have as a spare.

robomartin 2y ago
I go all the way back to the introduction of the original Microsoft ergonomic keyboard and variants of the time. Watching a few hundred graphic artists grapple with this problem over a few years was a real education on the topic. They tried everything, from wrist braces to every type of keyboard and variant available. I remember one guy even resorted to taping the pen for his digitizing tablet to his hand in order to avoid having to grasp it for 12+ hours per day. Another guy taught himself to use two pens with the tablet to be able to alternate and relax one hand while continuing to work. All of it, I concluded, at the end of the day, was just nuts. What they had to do was to both exercise and take meaningful breaks every couple of hours or thereabouts. I need to go back and document my custom desk design. The approach I took worked very well.
- polishdude20 2y ago
  Or maybe deadlines should have become more lax for them? I'm assuming they worked like that without breaks because of the impossible deadlines given to them?

by fipar 2y ago

robomartin 2y ago

I go all the way back to the introduction of the original Microsoft ergonomic keyboard and variants of the time. Watching a few hundred graphic artists grapple with this problem over a few years was a real education on the topic. They tried everything, from wrist braces to every type of keyboard and variant available. I remember one guy even resorted to taping the pen for his digitizing tablet to his hand in order to avoid having to grasp it for 12+ hours per day. Another guy taught himself to use two pens with the tablet to be able to alternate and relax one hand while continuing to work. All of it, I concluded, at the end of the day, was just nuts. What they had to do was to both exercise and take meaningful breaks every couple of hours or thereabouts. I need to go back and document my custom desk design. The approach I took worked very well.

polishdude20 2y ago
Or maybe deadlines should have become more lax for them? I'm assuming they worked like that without breaks because of the impossible deadlines given to them?