I stopped the RSI pain that almost destroyed my programming career (2016)

You know what's strange? I recall living through the 90s and the utter panic experienced by people like me, that CTS was going to destroy our livelihoods. My sister attained a dual college degree late in life, landed a cool job, and within a couple of years she was on permanent disability due to CTS, and other wrist issues.

But I've somehow been immune to injury and debilitating ailments like that. I've used keyboards since 1986, 30 WPM at the outset and worked up to 100 WPM consistently. I've used computers in my career, hobbies, and recreation time, practically every waking hour, say 16 hours a day, 7 days a week. Plus the one-hand mousing for decades (I tried left-hand mousing for a while, just to mix it up.)

Lately I've been embracing voice dictation to good effect, and the recognition is approaching a usable level, but only for ordinary text entry. If I were compelled to write code, or issue UI commands via voice... ouch!

Today I suffer from a lot of chronic pain, joint aches, stiffness and cramps, but it's generalized, and not yet debilitating on any given day. I have more trouble walking and carrying loads than typing. I feel like it's miraculous that injury hasn't slowed me down yet. I've never had a significant ergonomic setup, good posture or technique. I wish someone would study me and find out my secrets.

Previously discussed:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12986759 (236 comments, 8 years ago) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17132938 (225 comments, 6 years ago)