I thought I would share. I don't see this discussed much and thought it was interesting (it's my own post) when doing some introspection today. Is it from moving up in my career and I just type a little less? Has the movement from typing in a code editor all day to writing more prose helped? It's hard to say for sure, but a fun observation. :) I am curious if anyone else has experienced the same.
I have experienced exactly what you describe here. I am battling RSI for more than a decade, it has nearly cost me my career. Like you and many others, I have tried all sorts of things. I got the most improvement from:
- An ergonomic split keyboard, with a custom layout
- An ergonomic chair and desk setup
- Relearning to type from the home row
- Using dozens of custom shortcuts to reduce awkward hand movements
- Yoga and stretching
- Building a more active lifestyle with total body movement as a focus
- Improving diet to reduce inflammation
Despite all those interventions I still suffered debilitating hand and wrist pain, which eventually crept into my shoulder blades and back muscles. Doctors and physios were useless or clueless. One doctor refused to acknowledge that RSI exists. No amount of physiotherapy helped.
Using LLMs to do (almost) all of my coding tasks has reduced my RSI pain and stress by half or more. I feel so much better and healthier. I still have pain, and I still have to work hard to manage it, but I will never go back to writing everything by hand.
Thank you for sharing, and for reading. Wishing you good health.
One thing that helped me was to avoid chords with one hand.
In the past, I’d twist my left thumb for a single handed ctrl-c or the right fingers for shift-; (to type a colon in vim). Similar for ctrl-a and ctrl-b.
I switched to a single F12 key for tmux, semicolon for vim, and either use specialized macro keys for cut/paste or got in the habit of using two hands for them.
Long ago I worked on a project where the whole team was so productive I gave myself cubital tunnel from typing so fast for so long. I'd feel needle jabs in my forearms randomly. Like while standing around. Doctor recommended surgery.
Avoiding surgery involved months of finger stretches, forearm massage, 2 keyboards and 2 mice at different elevations, typing with my hands hanging slack like a zombie. It worked. But, even typing this out 20 years later I can still feel the RSI hiding in the shadows. Since then I've avoided RSI by spending 10x more time thinking about code than typing it.
All that is setup for: There have been many times recently where I've thought "I know exactly what I want this code to look like. But, damn. That's going to be a lot of keypresses..." The effort is nothing. Risking nerve damage is the concern.
In those cases I have been thrilled be able to tell AI exactly what to make, how to refactor it, how to clean it up, clean it up more, yet more, still not done. All in less than 10% of the keypresses that would have been required to type it by hand.
Thanks for sharing. I feel the same way but did not express it in my post. I've sat down to do some side projects in the past and realized that even though my mind has energy (I hear this can be rare.. but it is true for me!) the hands would be tired. I've probably completed more side projects this year than in the last few, even if the total amount of time spent on them is higher.
Like you, there was always this specter of "don't overdo it".
It's generally also just less typing if you are using long running agents, you can input the goals, steer it a bit then go for a nice walk and check in again on it in 30-40mins. I hope we can normalise this workflow as it will be much better for everyones health and longevity in the field.
IMO LLMs are the best thing to happen to coding in my ~15 years of being in the game.
I wager they have probably added on another 5-10 years to my engineering career as I was contemplating getting out before they showed up.
Have also been convincing some friends that have "gone woods" over the years to put the woodworking tools down for a day or two and give them a go. So far so good, a few folks have found the spark again and it's been awesome to see them make digital things again too.
I'm so confused at how people think that this will be a reality, like, what kind of boss would look at this and go: yep sure my people will only work for a few minutes here and there, let's keep paying them their huge 6 figure salaries ??
The walk is usually work too, just instead of staring at the screen and trying to think I take a walk and actually think. So when I get back I can provide input to the robot that will result in meaningful output.
Companies that pay people to hit enter instead of using auto-approve/bypass are going to lose to companies that pay people to think and produce results, regardless of how much time they spend in front of the screen or how many prompts they input.
I'm not saying this to be snooty or whatever, but RSI is also solvable via a custom keyboard or learning Vim motions (or both). I had really bad RSI and it totally went away after the combo of learning to type properly (which you mentioned in your post) and switching to Vim full time. Vim motions reduce the amount of stretching you need to do by a LOT. Snippets also helped. I am of course talking about in The Before Times.
I am saying this to be a little snooty. Your take is very dismissive to a large group of people whose experiences you don't know. I agree that split/custom keyboards and vim are awesome; I have used them for 25 years. But the idea that you can reduce RSI treatment and everyone's situation to something so simple just isn't true. It is fine to recommend solutions to people who are suffering, but to dismiss their problems as being "solved" comes across as basically calling them stupid for not helping themselves.
I know you didn't say that, and you softened your language, but many people with disabilities or chronic conditions have to deal with everyone they share their problems with telling them their "cure". Its exhausting.
Thanks for saying this. I already use Vim (in my browser too). I've used it on and off in an editor as well. I've tried reading books (like I mentioned in the post) which is something you only do when you're truly desperate. For some of us, our body will only allow so much.
I am sure the OP was just trying to help. I, too, when I started having such problems chalked it up to "surely some adjustments will help". And they did! But it never quite ceased.
That's been my experience as well. I remember the pain from the keyboard and also doing too much clicking when making wordpress websites. Now that I do more agentic development, I type a lot less and am working to dictate more with voice also.
For folks experiencing RSI, I recommend Talon voice and Cursorless extension. I experienced thumb pain that I kind of ignored for a while - look into prehab exercises before it becomes a concern since any aggravating motion could make it worse quickly.
I haven't read it yet but folks might benefit from this recent book, Body Electric: The Hidden Health Costs of the Digital Age and New Science to Reclaim Your Well-Being.
- Learning to type better (I still suck, but speed is fast enough, and I don't get a soar neck or fingers from my previous glance at KB then back to monitor and smash keys)
- Positioning top of monitor to eye level
- Gradually transitioning from programming through rapid trial and error, to building and exploring logical models of programs in my head, then type out some code that usually works.
All my experiments and usage of AI if anything lead to more typing rather than less.
What helped my RSI was learning a new computer layout (dvorak in my case). It went away and has stayed gone for 25-ish years. Keeping bikeyboardal between qwerty and dvorak probably helps.
I thought I would share. I don't see this discussed much and thought it was interesting (it's my own post) when doing some introspection today. Is it from moving up in my career and I just type a little less? Has the movement from typing in a code editor all day to writing more prose helped? It's hard to say for sure, but a fun observation. :) I am curious if anyone else has experienced the same.
Hi Vaughan,
I have experienced exactly what you describe here. I am battling RSI for more than a decade, it has nearly cost me my career. Like you and many others, I have tried all sorts of things. I got the most improvement from:
- An ergonomic split keyboard, with a custom layout - An ergonomic chair and desk setup - Relearning to type from the home row - Using dozens of custom shortcuts to reduce awkward hand movements - Yoga and stretching - Building a more active lifestyle with total body movement as a focus - Improving diet to reduce inflammation
Despite all those interventions I still suffered debilitating hand and wrist pain, which eventually crept into my shoulder blades and back muscles. Doctors and physios were useless or clueless. One doctor refused to acknowledge that RSI exists. No amount of physiotherapy helped.
Using LLMs to do (almost) all of my coding tasks has reduced my RSI pain and stress by half or more. I feel so much better and healthier. I still have pain, and I still have to work hard to manage it, but I will never go back to writing everything by hand.
Thank you for sharing, and for reading. Wishing you good health.
One thing that helped me was to avoid chords with one hand.
In the past, I’d twist my left thumb for a single handed ctrl-c or the right fingers for shift-; (to type a colon in vim). Similar for ctrl-a and ctrl-b.
I switched to a single F12 key for tmux, semicolon for vim, and either use specialized macro keys for cut/paste or got in the habit of using two hands for them.
It made an enormous difference for me.
Long ago I worked on a project where the whole team was so productive I gave myself cubital tunnel from typing so fast for so long. I'd feel needle jabs in my forearms randomly. Like while standing around. Doctor recommended surgery.
Avoiding surgery involved months of finger stretches, forearm massage, 2 keyboards and 2 mice at different elevations, typing with my hands hanging slack like a zombie. It worked. But, even typing this out 20 years later I can still feel the RSI hiding in the shadows. Since then I've avoided RSI by spending 10x more time thinking about code than typing it.
All that is setup for: There have been many times recently where I've thought "I know exactly what I want this code to look like. But, damn. That's going to be a lot of keypresses..." The effort is nothing. Risking nerve damage is the concern.
In those cases I have been thrilled be able to tell AI exactly what to make, how to refactor it, how to clean it up, clean it up more, yet more, still not done. All in less than 10% of the keypresses that would have been required to type it by hand.
Thanks for sharing. I feel the same way but did not express it in my post. I've sat down to do some side projects in the past and realized that even though my mind has energy (I hear this can be rare.. but it is true for me!) the hands would be tired. I've probably completed more side projects this year than in the last few, even if the total amount of time spent on them is higher.
Like you, there was always this specter of "don't overdo it".
It's generally also just less typing if you are using long running agents, you can input the goals, steer it a bit then go for a nice walk and check in again on it in 30-40mins. I hope we can normalise this workflow as it will be much better for everyones health and longevity in the field.
IMO LLMs are the best thing to happen to coding in my ~15 years of being in the game.
I wager they have probably added on another 5-10 years to my engineering career as I was contemplating getting out before they showed up.
Have also been convincing some friends that have "gone woods" over the years to put the woodworking tools down for a day or two and give them a go. So far so good, a few folks have found the spark again and it's been awesome to see them make digital things again too.
except management expectation will be that you spawn 30 different things and check them every 2 minutes
I'm so confused at how people think that this will be a reality, like, what kind of boss would look at this and go: yep sure my people will only work for a few minutes here and there, let's keep paying them their huge 6 figure salaries ??
am I missing something here..?
The walk is usually work too, just instead of staring at the screen and trying to think I take a walk and actually think. So when I get back I can provide input to the robot that will result in meaningful output.
Companies that pay people to hit enter instead of using auto-approve/bypass are going to lose to companies that pay people to think and produce results, regardless of how much time they spend in front of the screen or how many prompts they input.
I’m paying for business value creation, not for the tappy-tappy sounds.
The tappy-tappy is necessary(-ish) but isn’t the thing I care about.
There is definitely a limit to how many things you can manage at a time. Maybe 3 or 4 depending on how much context switching you do.
I'm not saying this to be snooty or whatever, but RSI is also solvable via a custom keyboard or learning Vim motions (or both). I had really bad RSI and it totally went away after the combo of learning to type properly (which you mentioned in your post) and switching to Vim full time. Vim motions reduce the amount of stretching you need to do by a LOT. Snippets also helped. I am of course talking about in The Before Times.
I am saying this to be a little snooty. Your take is very dismissive to a large group of people whose experiences you don't know. I agree that split/custom keyboards and vim are awesome; I have used them for 25 years. But the idea that you can reduce RSI treatment and everyone's situation to something so simple just isn't true. It is fine to recommend solutions to people who are suffering, but to dismiss their problems as being "solved" comes across as basically calling them stupid for not helping themselves.
I know you didn't say that, and you softened your language, but many people with disabilities or chronic conditions have to deal with everyone they share their problems with telling them their "cure". Its exhausting.
Thanks for saying this. I already use Vim (in my browser too). I've used it on and off in an editor as well. I've tried reading books (like I mentioned in the post) which is something you only do when you're truly desperate. For some of us, our body will only allow so much.
I am sure the OP was just trying to help. I, too, when I started having such problems chalked it up to "surely some adjustments will help". And they did! But it never quite ceased.
This has been a welcome benefit from the agentic coding era for my RSI. Thanks for sharing.
That's been my experience as well. I remember the pain from the keyboard and also doing too much clicking when making wordpress websites. Now that I do more agentic development, I type a lot less and am working to dictate more with voice also.
For folks experiencing RSI, I recommend Talon voice and Cursorless extension. I experienced thumb pain that I kind of ignored for a while - look into prehab exercises before it becomes a concern since any aggravating motion could make it worse quickly.
I haven't read it yet but folks might benefit from this recent book, Body Electric: The Hidden Health Costs of the Digital Age and New Science to Reclaim Your Well-Being.
https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250411211/bodyelectric/
What helped my RSI:
- Using mouse less
- Ergonomic keyboard
- Learning to type better (I still suck, but speed is fast enough, and I don't get a soar neck or fingers from my previous glance at KB then back to monitor and smash keys)
- Positioning top of monitor to eye level
- Gradually transitioning from programming through rapid trial and error, to building and exploring logical models of programs in my head, then type out some code that usually works.
All my experiments and usage of AI if anything lead to more typing rather than less.
What helped my RSI was learning a new computer layout (dvorak in my case). It went away and has stayed gone for 25-ish years. Keeping bikeyboardal between qwerty and dvorak probably helps.
llm + voice helps a ton with rsi. try experimental voice in codex
I recursively self-improve my shoe-tying powers every morning.
I could believe it. Honest to goodness, they might save my eyesight. No more marathon sessions staring at the screen for hours editing text.
I'm glad for you. What I see is that some people ask the LLM to code for them while they are doomscrolling on their phones
That's the other tough bit is cutting out the extraneous computer/phone use when dealing with RSI - it adds up.
If you set up speech to text like voxtype, you won't even have to type the prompt into the AI and can do your programming almost entirely by voice.
I don't have RSI, but I do this whenever my arms get tired to make sure I don't end up with it.
LLMs have indeed done wonders for recursive self-improvement. /s