I literally went to an orthopedic specialist recently for overuse of the left alt key causing me pretty notable pain in my thumb.
I literally went to an orthopedic specialist recently for overuse of the left alt key causing me pretty notable pain in my thumb.
I had RSI issues early in my career and this advice alone really helped. Never got the Emacs pinky/thumb. I recently switched to a MacOS and that is giving me thumb issues with the overuse of the Meta button. I now consciously have to force myself to use a different finger when pressing Meta.
Always remember: You have five fingers - no need to keep using the same one/two fingers to press Ctrl or Alt. It will take time getting your brain used to using other fingers for this purpose.
Oh, and yes: Definitely got lots of ergonomic pains due to mouse use. In fact, I changed my career from "regular" engineering to SW engineering partially to avoid having to use a mouse (e.g. CAD SW). And every ergonomist you'll meet will tell you "Memorize keyboard shortcuts and avoid the mouse as much as possible."
My primary mouse is a trackball one, because I have pain in my arm (elbow and shoulder) when I use a regular one on a desk.
I will maybe get a split keyboard in the future. But I did get a mechanical one because of key travel. And I touch type, so I spend less time on the keyboard itself.