[mnm1]

Don't fuck around with your RSI. Get a proper adjustable desk / chair / ergo everything (I like the Rollermouse Red / Kinesis Advantage 2 but you need to find what works for you). See the doc. Go to massage/chiropractor/PT/acupuncture/whatever works for you. Do not work through pain. That should be your number one priority. If you fuck around it's a good possibility you won't be working or having as a hobby anything to do with computers. That's no exaggeration. For a long time I had to stop all non-work computing and cut down severely on work computing. I have optimized the hell out of my workflow. If you're a native English speaker, you may be able to use voice to code, but I wouldn't count on it (I have an accent, so voice recognition is useless). As far as whether you can do both work and hobby coding without losing passion for your coding hobby, that really depends on you. I can't really. Nothing to do with RSI. That's just the nature of work. For me. Others happily do it. That's a question only you can answer and likely only after trying. Good luck. And don't fuck around w/ your RSI if you care about future computing.