Show HN: Tangent – learn the Glove80 ergonomic keyboard by typing HN headlines

When I was 14 I saw the Apple Adjustable Keyboard and thought it looked like the future. I've wanted a next-gen keyboard ever since. Over the years I came close to ordering one several times, but never did.

I've found that a vacation feels better if I spend part of it learning something real — an instrument, the science of space, that kind of thing. This summer I wasn't sure typing on an ergonomic keyboard was worth the slot. Nothing else on my learning backlog excited me though. Learning itself is probably good for you, the way an instrument or a language is — not scientifically backed, but hopefully true. I'm not working right now, so this is the one time I can afford to type slowly. And I wanted an excuse to buy some electronics. So I bought a second-hand Glove80.

A week in I realized I'd been using the wrong fingers. That was a low point: unlearning something I'd just worked hard to learn. Mine has only white keys, so looking down didn't help. So I built myself a trainer — an on-screen Glove80 with the keyboard's real geometry, showing which key and which finger comes next. It uses the factory layout by default, but you can upload your own — a Layout Editor export from the configuration tool.

Since I read HN anyway, I figured I could game myself: to read the news, I have to type the headlines first. That's what the demo shows. If a headline looks interesting, you press enter and it lands in a reading list for after the session. I also added some stoic quotes for a bit of self-improvement on the side. Better to practice typing about focusing on what you can change than about the lazy fox who jumps.

It's a single HTML file. Your stats stay in localStorage and never leave your browser. Code is MIT: https://github.com/mkirsten/glove80-typing-trainer Page views are counted with Cloudflare's cookieless analytics; if you'd rather not even have that, download the single HTML file and open it locally.

It's also partly a small thank-you to MoErgo. I bought the keyboard second-hand, and their support still answered me faster than I answered them.

I'm typing this slowly on my Glove80. It's a really cool keyboard. I still need to order the Go60 to try that too.

If you've switched to a split/columnar keyboard: what actually made it stick? I'm two weeks in, still slower than before, and genuinely unsure whether the answer is more drilling or just patience. The stoic quotes suggest the latter