Two Mice Technique | Hacker News Reader

Two Mice Technique

pubby.games

22 pointspubby13 comments

Started getting RSI symptoms in right hand years ago. Mainly from heavy gaming, but I needed to use mouse at work as well so right hand was not getting any rest.

Switched to using mouse in left hand for work, right hand for gaming. Never looked back. Turns out mouse motorics are almost independent from human handedness.

To comment the article, depending on OS and mice, you will have trouble assigning different orientation to different mice. Usually if you want left hand mouse to have index finger "left" click, it will also switch your right mouse... and trackpad...

I noticed that everyone who I know has told me they have RSI, and I had a chance to observe at the computer, had one thing in common: They have a very "stiff" posture while typing, hit the keys with sharp pokes, and also grip the mouse extremely tightly with what I'd consider a very awkward positioning of the fingers (looks like the mouse is too small for the hands.) IMHO being relaxed is probably the best way to prevent RSI.

No, this does not need be always the case.

I had problems with my carpal tunnels. I had surgery on both hands ten years ago, and the problems disappeared completely. First the left hand, then two years later the right hand. Recovery time a year each, but it is worth. Probably it's genetic. I see that one of my sons had something like a crease around his wrists when he was six years old. I feel his hands just has too tight carpal tunnels, like me.

Love this! I've started doing this in a sense by positioning my laptop closer to me than usual such that the trackpad can be comfortably used by my left hand. I originally did it when I wanted to eat with my right hand but still read a book or fluffy articles on a screen during my lunch break, but I find myself switching to the trackpad just to give my wrist a rest more often, just like the author.

I had pain in my right shoulder for a few years, so severe that some days I couldn't raise my arm higher than horizontal. I eventually figured out it was because my mouse pad was way off to the right, and that was because of the number pad on the right side of the keyboard taking up so much real estate on the desk. So after trying a couple of different mouse alternatives, like a roller bar, etc. I got on Amazon and bought a keyboard without a number pad, which moved my right arm inward, and pretty much immediately ended the pain.

If you're getting RSI pain:

1. Don't power through it. You can easily cause permanent damage.

2. Trying different ergonomic changes can help. Two mice is a very interesting idea, and there's numerous other variables to try, and in different combinations, to see what works for you.

Why stop at two mice?

Get yourself 2 keyboards, each with trackpoint nubs, and a mouse and a touchpad! Probably the touchpad comes for free if your desktop is a laptop with a touchpad; mice are cheap -- there's a big tangled knot of them near where the desktop support people hang out where I work. The same goes for cheapo keyboards, though keyboards with touchpoint are a bit more thin on the ground.

For a very long time I used 2 keyboards and one monitor, just because everyone else used 2 monitors and one keyboard. I'd use one keyboard for my left hand and another for my right hand; I'd randomly nudge the keyboards around the desk until I was comfortable with the setup and then nudge them around a bit later, just because. Also I had 2 mice -- a big messy desk workspace.

Anyhow, it's not like we're stuck with PS/2 inputs -- USB lets you have as many input devices as you like.

Lastly -- there's a bug in MacOS that for some reason the meta keys of one keyboard don't apply to key strokes from another keyboard. So left keyboard / left shift key and right keyboard letter a would result in an a glyph; while with windows (and perhaps linux; haven't tested) you'd get the "correct" output of "A".

There was an idea going around a few years ago to split the keyboard in half then make each half a mouse. King’s Assembly as a (successful but fizzled) kickstarter about this but there were others. I thought it was a great idea but it seems no one makes them now.

Keymouse ( https://www.keymouse.com/ ) looked promising, but I wanted to test drive before putting $600 down.

I’ve use a mouse to the right and a Magic Trackpad to the left for years. They, along with an ergonomic keyboard[1] help with wrist pain a lot.

[1] https://github.com/ecopoesis/nek-type-a

I wish the author went into more detail about his experience with wrist braces. I got one by a brand called Featol since I'll occasionally have a day of intense computer use. The wrist does wonders, usually absolving the pain within a day of wearing it

If you try two mice, after using one, you might try to see whether you "think differently" when using the unfamiliar hand to do some very familiar task.

Pro tip: switch mice in accordance with PESO: port, even; starboard, odd.

Right hand on odd numbered days, left hand on even numbered days.

Old Navy trick.

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