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Comment by iroddis | Hacker News Reader

I also find curly braces/parens/etc annoying to type, but recently had my mind blown when I saw a typing tutor program that recommended using left-shift to create those characters.

For 35+ years I’ve been using right-shift for things on the right side of the board, cranking my hand and stretching my fingers and complaining about programming languages with poor typing ergonomics.

It’s taking forever to break the habit, but so far it feels so much better.

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When I took typing in high school (mid-80s in the US), on an IBM Selectric, we were taught that way. If the key you wanted to capitalize (or needed the shift for) was on the left hand, you would use the right shift key and vice versa.

I didn't know it at the time, but that one semester class was immensely useful for me throughout my career.

I took typing as an elective class in school in Denmark fully expecting it to be useful for decades. And I was right :)

The teacher was a bored and unpleasant secretary and the typewriters were mechanical (and the shift keys so heavy for our pinkies) but it was still the most useful thing I did in school since I learned to read in first grade.

Interest, in contrast I have the bad habit of never using right shift, which is definitely inefficient when typing capital A for example.

I've not been very successful changing this habit.

Wow I'm analyzing some motor patterns I wasn't even aware of...

I think playing video games has made LeftShift + letter a really easy combo, right shift feels quite uncomfortable, but I did find that I use it when typing !

The problem is some games use shift for sprinting so left shift plus wasd becomes muscle memory.

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