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  vaughands
  I thought I would share. I don't see this discussed much and thought it was interesting (it's my own post) when doing some introspection today. Is it from moving up in my career and I just type a little less? Has the movement from typing in a code editor all day to writing more prose helped? It's hard to say for sure, but a fun observation. :) I am curious if anyone else has experienced the same.
• littlexsparkee
  For folks experiencing RSI, I recommend Talon voice and Cursorless extension. I experienced thumb pain that I kind of ignored for a while - look into prehab exercises before it becomes a concern since any aggravating motion could make it worse quickly.I haven't read it yet but folks might benefit from this recent book, Body Electric: The Hidden Health Costs of the Digital Age and New Science to Reclaim Your Well-Being.https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250411211/bodyelectric/
• notnullorvoid
  What helped my RSI:- Using mouse less- Ergonomic keyboard- Learning to type better (I still suck, but speed is fast enough, and I don't get a soar neck or fingers from my previous glance at KB then back to monitor and smash keys)- Positioning top of monitor to eye level- Gradually transitioning from programming through rapid trial and error, to building and exploring logical models of programs in my head, then type out some code that usually works.All my experiments and usage of AI if anything lead to more typing rather than less.
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  godshatter
  What helped my RSI was learning a new computer layout (dvorak in my case). It went away and has stayed gone for 25-ish years. Keeping bikeyboardal between qwerty and dvorak probably helps.
• jakzurr
  Guess I've just been lucky. 40 years ago used to take 800 ibu before going to work each day. Over time, less typing lead to less problems. But yeah, people I've known have had surgery that sometimes helped, sometimes not.
• miladyincontrol
  Biggest thing that helped with mine was moving to a more ergonomic keyboard. Usually split between using my datahand and my planck. Honestly even just switching to a 40% ortholinear was a huge change, it eliminated way too many awkward movements.
• BubbleRings
  Two things helped me. First is easiest to explain: cutting back or eliminating caffeine. Seriously. And my carpal was fairly bad, so I know what a troubling (literal) pain it can be. I found it was made much worse by my 4 cups a day habit back then.Number two is more complicated to explain, but it is a mighty powerful keyboard skill that can sometimes go a long way to reducing the "awkward reach" keystrokes. Specifically, copy and paste! Read on:(TLDR: learn Ctrl-Ins, Shift-Ins, and Shift-Del, maybe. Instead of Ctrl-C, Ctrl-V, and Ctrl-X):In the past I often found myself doing long sessions of paging up and down documents and source files, and doing complex copy and paste actions, for reasons. Ctrl-C and Ctrl-V were not so awkward on the original IBM-PC keyboard, because Control was right where it should have stayed, ha (where your CapsLock key is now.) When they moved it to the lower left and lower right spots, it made it a tough reach with just your left hand. You could learn to do RightControl + LeftC for copy, but I never did. Instead, when I need to do a lot of copy and paste with paging up and down also, I get my right hand at the home position on the (full sized) numeric keypad (in arrow mode not number mode), and I get my left thumb and forefinger on left shift and control. Then PgUp, PgDn, Home, End, Ctrl-Home, Ctrl-End are all lightning fast. But most importantly, and the point of this rant, LeftCtrl + NumericKeypad-Ins is COPY, LeftShift + NumericKeypad-Ins is INSERT, and LeftShift + NumericKeypad-Del is CUT. I have never met anybody that could do cut, copy, and paste faster than I, in a long career, if I must say so. Try it for a moment, your fingers barely move when you learn the technique. But I never could talk more than one or two people into learning the skill, much to my disappointment. And now I'll probably never do any long sessions like that again (because AI mostly like you said), oh well.
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  bowsamic
  The thing that helped stop my RSI was going to the gym. As soon as I was really doing a heavy back routine it went away entirely
• applicative
  I recursively self-improve my shoe-tying powers every morning.
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  pshc
  I could believe it. Honest to goodness, they might save my eyesight. No more marathon sessions staring at the screen for hours editing text.
• aussieguy1234
  If you set up speech to text like voxtype, you won't even have to type the prompt into the AI and can do your programming almost entirely by voice.I don't have RSI, but I do this whenever my arms get tired to make sure I don't end up with it.
• nineteen999
  Definitely helped my RSI as well. Another anecdotal point.
• keybored
  I set up a custom keyboard in software years ago and it’s much better than the terrible European layout family for coding. So I can type all code comfortably. I can also type all the special characters that I want comfortably. All those “typographic” characters that make technical people go “that must be LLM, 95% confidence”.I have considered dedicating time to stenography but it likely won’t happen (95% confidence).I have tried to set up foot pedals but the crap that I bought wasn’t really that helpful.I have had some success with an auxiliary little keyboard for special functions. I really like having auxiliaries. Because then I don’t need crazy key combos. I can even have visuals for those auxiliaries.Going beyond that. I have not RSI issues with my hands which can make typing annoying. So I would definitely be interested in other things to make me type less. Like voice dictation. But truly bless the obiquity of the Open Office, the facilitator of so much collaboration and I don’t know what.> This was even more common when I was a junior. This would normally involve trying to type special characters all over the keyboard. Hitting angled brackets, hitting various FN keys, striking home, end, tons of modifier keys, contorting my wrist in all sorts of ways that I really should not be. This was part of the motivation to learn to type “the right way”: to reduce these types of problems. Probably something that made it worse is that my hands are much smaller than average as a male. My finger span could barely reach an octave if I tried and much more than this is tough:Setting up this keyboard software and having learned touch typing 20 years ago[1], avoiding wrist contortion was essential. For example: for single-modifier keys I never strain, I just press the key. And then the other hand presses whatever key is to be modified. I do have multiple-modifier setups. But for those I never have to strain. For example: the equivalent of “Shift AltGr” might be two keys right next to each other that can be pressed by the index and the middle finger. It doesn’t get more comfortable than that for me.Linux Xkb has the accessibility feature “sticky keys”. Of course, like any “accessibility” there’s nothing that says that people who do not strictly need it cannot have use for it too. I use it all the time. Being able to Shift and then hit A-Z keys is very nice.[1] A separate topic. But touch typing might not be good ergonomically. Maybe some people who do not touch type have less issues. Ergonomics is really about adjusting a primate body from Africa to fit into an office space. So who knows what the correct objective answer is.> I have my own set of complicated feelings of LLMs (gone are the bouts of satisfaction I would get hammering out code in an afternoon and watching it work at the end of the day). However, it seems increasingly more likely that from a health perspective perhaps they have been a boon to me. Or perhaps I am just senior enough now that it’s no longer a problem. At any rate, if the machines ultimately let me live a healthier life, then so be it. Without your health, you are nothing after all.Really? You’re going to use the health truism to wave away any concerns? The “complicated feelings”? There are in fact ways to type more comfortably, and less.This is all fine if the LLM use is incidental to the typing. We all have to either appease investors as businesses or increase shareholer value as laborers. But as an end in itself, using LLMs to type less is the most banal use case.
• senderista
  LLMs have indeed done wonders for recursive self-improvement. /s