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Comment by heavenlyblue | Hacker News Reader

I had been programming since I was 11 years old (now 30 years old professional programmer). I’ve spent innumearable hours at computer keyboard. I can type QWERTY and Russian layout blindly both and I constantly use both.

Never had any issues with my wrists or finger pain.

What am I doing wrong?

Just to be clear I am not trying to say that people who use DVORAK are wrong. It’s just that you tend to forget there’s a huge population of people who due to their regional issues can’t even use DVORAK and most of them don’t have that problem with the wrists.

Maybe the only reason you had those issues is because the only time you actually learnt how to properly type on the keyboard is because you properly spent time learning how to blind type comfortably in DVORAK?

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"Been smoking 20 years, still no lung cancer!"

You're only 30. Give it 10 years. Not being snarky, the damage is being done, you're just not at that point yet. 38, been programming since the same age and I'm starting to feel it. Change your habits now and start focusing on ergonomics.

I'm 49, typing for 39 years, nothing yet. Anecdotes don't really help though.

I'm 59. Been programming most days/week since 1980 or so. And I play the piano 2+ hours/day. No RSI.

Maybe there's more to RSI than, you know, typing per se.

Exactly the point I was making in the first place.

Mid 40s, gaming and programming since I was 6, including FPS and RTS (clickclickclickclick), always QWERTY, no RSI. Biological luck of the draw.

Point taken, but 30 is very young to be having issues with ergonomic injuries unless you're genetically predisposed to carpel tunnel or tendonitis or something.

As another commenter posted, it's not the typing that gets you, it's other stuff.

Like for example: you switch office space for a day, at the same time you got anew phone and you keep resting it on your pinky. You have a bad setup that day and think that it's no problem. Those in combination could easily cause a doctors visit because you can't use that pinky.

Do what you can to keep your hands in good shape and avoid weird static positions. Avoid weird movements. Try to use your back when lifting/pushing things, even small things like you coffee cup, lift close to the body not far away. Getting RSI is such a sucky thing have to deal with.

You are not doing anything wrong, you've just dodged bullets properly. So keep that going for you and make sure you keep on doing it!

I think there are stress/psychological factors. I developed RSI while being in a very bad living & working situation.

I've switched to COLEMAK and I still have pain. Does that mean COLEMAK doesn't work? Maybe. Or, since my pain level has stayed manageable it could mean I'd be worse off without it. I've been doing other things too. It's hard to reason on a sample of 1.

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