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by ig-88ms 1088 days ago
The entire article is moot, because the story of qwerty keyboards being layed out that way is a myth. Nothing more. People can type in an astonishing speed on normal layouts.

https://wiredpen.com/2022/05/12/origin-myths-qwerty-and-dvor....

1 comments

The health and usabilty issues of the QWERTY layout do not disappear like a debunked historical myth.

But yes, people can adapt to a lot of poorly designed interfaces!

I'm skeptical that QWERTY causes RSI (or at least, causes more RSI than any other layout). I struggled with RSI for over a year and tried all sorts of things. Today I'm typing this comment on a QWERTY laptop keyboard in a position that would cause an ergonomics expert to faint, with no pain at all. Evidently the layout was not the problem.
What's the position? I use a steeply tented split keyboard for neutral wrist position.
Oh, I didn't mean to imply that it was a better position -- it is objectively atrocious. My hands are flopped over the keyboard with my wrists resting on the edge, and my right hand is skewed diagonally, with the wrist near the corner and the fingers on the home row.

It is not uncomfortable at all, and I can seemingly type as long as I want in this position without causing injury. The problem was in my head.