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Comment by vel0city | Hacker News Reader

I really wanted to get into fountain pens a while ago. I bought several different ones over the years and ultimately had roughly the same experience. In the end I didn't find them great for me, being a lefty in a right-to-left writing world. The main benefits of the fountain pen feel is when you're able to just lightly drag the pen across the paper, its nearly effortless to put down a good line. However, being a lefty, I'm often pushing the pen forward instead of dragging it across.

I just kind of feel like writing as a lefty in a right-to-left world is just pain.

Any other lefties have similar experiences?

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The article linked here has a section with the best pens for lefties.

You should be grateful that you have not been born a century earlier. When my father, who was also left-handed, was in elementary school (almost 90 years ago), it was still a practice to persuade the left-handed to write using their right hand by beatings.

The article linked does have pen recommendations for lefties, but it doesn't have recommendations for the best fountain pens for lefties.

Writing was definitely designed by right handed people!

There is some hope though, I've not found a nice fountain pen experience but there's some gel pens which are pretty hard to make smudge.

I use these:

Uni-Ball Jetstream Sport SXN-150S Ballpoint Gel Pens. Premium 1.0mm Rollerball Tip. https://amzn.eu/d/6mVJHLS

As a lefty who used a Lamy 2000 fine nib for years, it really comes down to adjusting pressure... and of course a quick drying ink.

Once you get it down it's no different than using a fine rollerball.

If you think it's painful, why not write with your right hand instead? Just because you are a lefty that doesn't mean you have to artificially limit yourself into doing things a painful way.

Because writing with my right hand is even more painful. Trust me, if writing with my right hand was a pleasant experience, I'd do it in a heartbeat. This isn't just some "I identify as a lefty; therefore, I do things left-handed" kind of thing. In fact, most other activities I do, I do right-handed.

Swing a bat/club? Right-handed. Throw a ball? Right-handed. Use a computer mouse? Right-handed. Shoot a rifle? Right-handed. Write a note? Left-handed. Paint a picture? Left-handed.

Same. One huge advantage you and I have is that we can write notes while we use the mouse to navigate the computer. Came in handy a lot in college.

In the mid-90s at work, I was known as that guy who used a left-handed mouse at all times (I am right-handed.)

I would swap L/R button functions on the Sun4 3-button optical mouse and set it to the left of the keyboard. This is a comfortable and natural position, especially considering the placement of the numpad.

Very soon, the word was out in the office, and NOBODY attempted to borrow my workstation!

Have you tried writing with your non-dominant hand? I'm a righty and I find left-handed writing effectively impossible.

Yes, I have and for cursive, which is relevant when not picking up a pen, it is not that hard since you don't have to worry about precision of where exactly you place down the pen.

I doubt they mean literal pain. Writing with your non-dominant hand is an exercise in frustration and futility unless you're really dedicated to it. I find the inability to make my hand do what I'm thinking very stressful.

Hey man, I feel like your comment came from a good place and this might be something that you don't know, but asking lefties to switch hands is a pretty emotionally sensitive topic. In modern society (as recently as 2007) left-handers had strong negative perceptions and left handed children were often forced to write right handed [1]. Forcing people to change has also had effects on their brain structure and chemistry [2].

Personally, my grandmother was forced to switch from left handed to right handed! In those days (early 1900s) the forced switch often came under threat of violence. Yes, they beat children to make them write "right". So this is a sensitive topic for a lot of people!

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bias_against_left-handed_peopl... [2] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6758284/

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