Ask HN: How to work effectively at a typing-based job after breaking my wrist?
19 comments
Serious answer. Short term disability if you have it now is the time to use it. Anything else you will be better before it matters. Get some of those hand exercisers of various stiffness for whem the hand is better you will ot regret that.
You can always do some work while you are out but at least you wont be under pressure.
You can always do some work while you are out but at least you wont be under pressure.
There is an RSI dictation app called Serenade that looks promising. I’ve never used it but it’s been my backup plan for if this ever happens to me.
https://serenade.ai/
https://serenade.ai/
I've been using it more and more lately, and I'm pretty happy with it. Some tasks are even faster to do by voice. The only downside is that it will be difficult to use it in noisy environments. Luckily I work from home, so it's not a problem for me.
Tab9 might be good too
https://www.tabnine.com/
https://www.tabnine.com/
Talon voice is another one. Friend used it for a long while when he had bad RSI
Sorry to hear about your wrist! Back in January I took a hard fall and fractured both my elbows at the same time, so I had a somewhat hard time with work too (though not nearly as bad as you're having).
The first thing I'd recommend if you can swing it is short term disability insurance. If you have that available to you, it might be worth considering.
If not, you may find voice dictation programs useful in some cases, like writing documentation, slack messages, and so on, but that may be more trouble than just typing one-handed depending on various factors. That said, while I can't remember the guy's name or conference talk off hand, there was a video I saw once about a (I think Python) developer in a similar situation who built a voice dictation system for programming and demo'd it live, and he was very effective with it. Seemed like it had a hell of a learning curve, but depending on how long you'll be unable to use that hand, it might be worth your while to do some research in that area.
My last bit of advice is probably the most practical but least desirable: get good at typing one-handed. Back in high school I dated a girl who unfortunately had to have one of her arms amputated when she was a kid. I always wondered how the hell she was able to use AOL instant messenger (showing my age here, haha!) so well, until I saw her type at home in her room one day. Despite having only one hand, she could type just as fast as I did, maybe even faster! (And I've been considered by most people one of the fastest typists they've ever seen; this girl put me to shame!) She'd been doing life one-handed for years, so of course she got good at it. Moral of the story is: yeah it sucks and it's gonna be a rough transition, but you CAN get better at the one-handed thing eventually, just like she did.
No matter what you end up doing, I wish you luck and a speedy recovery!
The first thing I'd recommend if you can swing it is short term disability insurance. If you have that available to you, it might be worth considering.
If not, you may find voice dictation programs useful in some cases, like writing documentation, slack messages, and so on, but that may be more trouble than just typing one-handed depending on various factors. That said, while I can't remember the guy's name or conference talk off hand, there was a video I saw once about a (I think Python) developer in a similar situation who built a voice dictation system for programming and demo'd it live, and he was very effective with it. Seemed like it had a hell of a learning curve, but depending on how long you'll be unable to use that hand, it might be worth your while to do some research in that area.
My last bit of advice is probably the most practical but least desirable: get good at typing one-handed. Back in high school I dated a girl who unfortunately had to have one of her arms amputated when she was a kid. I always wondered how the hell she was able to use AOL instant messenger (showing my age here, haha!) so well, until I saw her type at home in her room one day. Despite having only one hand, she could type just as fast as I did, maybe even faster! (And I've been considered by most people one of the fastest typists they've ever seen; this girl put me to shame!) She'd been doing life one-handed for years, so of course she got good at it. Moral of the story is: yeah it sucks and it's gonna be a rough transition, but you CAN get better at the one-handed thing eventually, just like she did.
No matter what you end up doing, I wish you luck and a speedy recovery!
This barely adds anything to your comment, but: all I could think reading this thread was "I probably get 30-65WPM one-handed..."
I was in a very similar predicament about 10-15 years ago. It forced me to very carefully design my code with pen and paper before even approaching the keyboard. It is a very good habit to develop if you don't already do it.
Oh, and be very careful not to overwork your other wrist. It sneaks up on you.
I hope your wrist heals soon!
Oh, and be very careful not to overwork your other wrist. It sneaks up on you.
I hope your wrist heals soon!
If you feel safely and permanently employed (or maybe even if not), talk to your employer about this. They may make an accommodation for your temporary disability. If there's no reasonable accommodation, do you have short-term disability insurance, perhaps as an employee benefit?
Maybe you deliver at a quarter of normal velocity for weeks, or maybe you're assigned to tasks which involve more reading. If you're usually productive and never deliver late, you are out of practice at failing well, so I'd concentrate on the communications around that. Surprises are bad, earlier communication is better.
Done well, "how does my team cope with me being unable to type" will probably be a healthier journey than "I stand alone, how do I push myself to achieve as though I'm uninjured?"
Maybe you deliver at a quarter of normal velocity for weeks, or maybe you're assigned to tasks which involve more reading. If you're usually productive and never deliver late, you are out of practice at failing well, so I'd concentrate on the communications around that. Surprises are bad, earlier communication is better.
Done well, "how does my team cope with me being unable to type" will probably be a healthier journey than "I stand alone, how do I push myself to achieve as though I'm uninjured?"
I've been toying around with alternative keyboards. Normally, I type at 90 to 100 WPM
* Twiddler 3 - 15 to 25 WPM - one handed, "chording" keyboard. "Geekhand" layout allows you to do everything you can on a full keyboard with a single hand.
* Phone keyboard - 20 to 30 wpm. Kind of annoying but it works.
* One Hand Keyboard - Tipy (backordered), Beeraider, Maltron
If you're doing prose writing, voice dictation is surprisingly good.
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It will be frustrating for 2 to 3 weeks, but you'll get use to it. I switched from Qwerty to Colemark about 7 years ago. It was two weeks of utter frustration. After about a month I was at 80% of qwerty speeds.
* Twiddler 3 - 15 to 25 WPM - one handed, "chording" keyboard. "Geekhand" layout allows you to do everything you can on a full keyboard with a single hand.
* Phone keyboard - 20 to 30 wpm. Kind of annoying but it works.
* One Hand Keyboard - Tipy (backordered), Beeraider, Maltron
If you're doing prose writing, voice dictation is surprisingly good.
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It will be frustrating for 2 to 3 weeks, but you'll get use to it. I switched from Qwerty to Colemark about 7 years ago. It was two weeks of utter frustration. After about a month I was at 80% of qwerty speeds.
I suffered from RSI in one hand for a whole year, which forced me to mostly use a single hand to type.
I found out that as a developer, the time I spent typing was not that extensive, and I spent much more time navigating through code and reading stuff. Though my typing speed was more than halved, all in all I believe my productivity was not really reduced. The most annoying things were typing emails and chat, and I often called my coworkers instead of starting long chat sessions.
It ended up going away by itself, and I've been pain free for almost two years now.
I injured one of my fingers for a few months a few years back.
I know I tried several things.
I recall that there were apps that would let you type with one hand; for example, you use the index finger on your left hand to type an 'f' and on your right hand to type a 'j'. With the software, you'd use the correct finger (say, always typing 'f's whenever you wanted an 'f' or a 'j') and it would look up what you typed and figure out the word you meant. I think this falls into that class: http://www.onehandkeyboard.org
I looked into various hardware assistive devices, and was amazed that they were extremely expensive. I believe this one-handed keyboard falls into that category: https://tipykeyboard.com/en/home/
I looked into typing by voice. On my Mac, you could type a letter at a time -- so painful! Someone came up with an incredibly way to code -- see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8SkdfdXWYaI -- but as I recall, on a Mac, it required having a Windows box to do the voice recognition (the Mac's built-in recognition is decent, but didn't have good enough APIs, IIRC), buy Dragon Naturally Speaking (for something like $500!) and use a little glue to make it all work together.
I wondered if any phone keyboard could be commandeered to become useful -- something like using Swype on your phone and having it routed to your computer. Alternatively, the Mac has assistive technologies built-in (and I imagine other OSes do too) where you can control the entire machine using one button -- including doing mouse drags and such -- but it looks so incredibly tedious that it would only be something to pursue if you had no alternative.
As I recall, needing to type as a programmer, and not wanting to spend tons of money -- I would've if I'd had a permanent injury, mind you -- that I found I could type with one-and-a-half hands, slowly, and use the intellisense/code completion like crazy, and that worked poorly but was workable.
I know I tried several things.
I recall that there were apps that would let you type with one hand; for example, you use the index finger on your left hand to type an 'f' and on your right hand to type a 'j'. With the software, you'd use the correct finger (say, always typing 'f's whenever you wanted an 'f' or a 'j') and it would look up what you typed and figure out the word you meant. I think this falls into that class: http://www.onehandkeyboard.org
I looked into various hardware assistive devices, and was amazed that they were extremely expensive. I believe this one-handed keyboard falls into that category: https://tipykeyboard.com/en/home/
I looked into typing by voice. On my Mac, you could type a letter at a time -- so painful! Someone came up with an incredibly way to code -- see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8SkdfdXWYaI -- but as I recall, on a Mac, it required having a Windows box to do the voice recognition (the Mac's built-in recognition is decent, but didn't have good enough APIs, IIRC), buy Dragon Naturally Speaking (for something like $500!) and use a little glue to make it all work together.
I wondered if any phone keyboard could be commandeered to become useful -- something like using Swype on your phone and having it routed to your computer. Alternatively, the Mac has assistive technologies built-in (and I imagine other OSes do too) where you can control the entire machine using one button -- including doing mouse drags and such -- but it looks so incredibly tedious that it would only be something to pursue if you had no alternative.
As I recall, needing to type as a programmer, and not wanting to spend tons of money -- I would've if I'd had a permanent injury, mind you -- that I found I could type with one-and-a-half hands, slowly, and use the intellisense/code completion like crazy, and that worked poorly but was workable.
I will struggle to reply to everyone here individually, but I’m really grateful to everyone who commented with advice. The HN community never ceases to amaze me. Thank you all
I used the built-in dictation button on the iPad to dictate half of my doctoral thesis. I used various words to represent particular obscure technical acronyms that Siri would always fail at. Then in the future I would do a ‘find and replace’.
I would always stand while dictating, and make sure water was nearby so that I spoke more clearly and could easily pace while thinking of the next thing to dictate.
I did this more as a fun experiment, but it made writing so much more enjoyable that I still keep some of the habits.
I would always stand while dictating, and make sure water was nearby so that I spoke more clearly and could easily pace while thinking of the next thing to dictate.
I did this more as a fun experiment, but it made writing so much more enjoyable that I still keep some of the habits.
If your hand were out of commission longer I would suggest learning a single-hand keyboard layout. Even for a few weeks, you might want to consider it. It may only take a few days to get faster than one-handed hunt-and-peck on QWERTY. Skilled users can reach 50+ wpm.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dvorak_keyboard_layout#One-han...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dvorak_keyboard_layout#One-han...
Ouch, hope you make a full recovery. Try and see if those vertical ergo keyboards are of any help.
I have RSI in my right wrist, and it sort of improved my dev work as I was forced to carefully weigh the code that I was writing, and also do more mental code-testing before writing it. I have a set amount of typing that I can do in a day otherwise my wrist gets inflamed pretty badly.
I have RSI in my right wrist, and it sort of improved my dev work as I was forced to carefully weigh the code that I was writing, and also do more mental code-testing before writing it. I have a set amount of typing that I can do in a day otherwise my wrist gets inflamed pretty badly.
I'm in similar situation, not as bad as you but I have to use one hand at some points.
Here are the tricks:
1. Use split keyboards
2. Use two monitors: with 2 hand I can do alt+tab all day long but now It's harder
3. Assign hotkey to a certain applications/shortcuts
Then just consitently force yourself to do that everyday. It's terrible at first but you will get use to it.
Here are the tricks:
1. Use split keyboards
2. Use two monitors: with 2 hand I can do alt+tab all day long but now It's harder
3. Assign hotkey to a certain applications/shortcuts
Then just consitently force yourself to do that everyday. It's terrible at first but you will get use to it.
I actually started a coding job in your situation, after breaking an arm. I used sticky key shortcuts and by the time my arm was ready to use again I was actually pretty fast with just one hand. Give sticky keys a try, see if it works for you
In place of short term disability, can you do paid programming / use it as a mentor / mentee opportunity for the next two months?
Build relationships, help others learn… could be cool.
Build relationships, help others learn… could be cool.
You'd assume removing one hand would mean you'd type at half the rate, but I'm finding I'm typing at maybe a quarter as quickly or slower.
I'm dreading this coming period of my life, but it could be worse, so I'm staying positive. At any rate, I'd appreciate help.
Has anyone here gone through a similar experience? Do you have advice / tips / received wisdom that I might benefit from?