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Comment by olalonde | Hacker News Reader

As a side note, this made me realize just how underutilized thumbs are when touch typing. Fingers are each responsible for around 4 keys (including the numbers row) while thumbs are each responsible for 0.5 keys (they both are responsible for the same space key). It's unfortunate these additional thumb keys didn't catch on back then.

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That's one of the reasons I switched to an Ergodox. Now both of my thumbs are responsible for 4 different keys and it works really well

> thumbs are each responsible for 0.5 keys

Depends on the person and setup. There's both thumbs for space, that's true.

But then you have a thumb each on left alt and right alt, and they're not redundant because alt is usually pressed in combo with another key so you use both. Then you've also got the windows key, which is one thumb only, and also the printscreen key, or whatever key is in the same position on the other side of the board, for the other thumb.

I'm hoping that someone comes up with a way to use the classic thinkpad-like button layout like on the KT-1255 keyboard [1]

[1] https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41qWiL0JSTL._AC_.jpg

Mine also hit the alt and command/windows keys depending on which they are paired with. That said, despite the opposable thumb's usefulness in grabbing things, it's the least dexterous of the fingers for most people.

Just realised the my left thumb is not even hitting any keys. It is left idling.

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