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I used a split keyboard for 30 days - YouTube
Channel: Switch and Click
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your keyboard looks like this for the
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next 30 days
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my keyboard will look like this
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e all
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say i'm
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you type on a keyboard 40 hours a week
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52 weeks a year
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forever except for maybe vacations this
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can lead to some major problems
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including carpal tunnel repetitive
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strain
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injuries or just pain everywhere i often
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spend time after work days
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rolling out the painful spots and i
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can't help but think will it ever go
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away
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or am i stuck with this pain forever i
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looked online and a lot of people said
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that this keyboard can help out with
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these
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issues will this strange keyboard
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actually fix all the pain
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for the next 30 days i'm gonna test it
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and find out
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to start this challenge this keyboard
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was sent to me from rgbkb
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and this is called the soul 3. but first
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i had to build it
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[Music]
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boom done it's actually really cool it's
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held together by
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magnets it took me a grand total of 10
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minutes to build and it even comes with
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this cool tenting kit
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it sort of felt like legos but for
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adults all right
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time to get started i suppose for
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reference here's my typing speed on a
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normal keyboard now here's my
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first typing test on this new keyboard
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boom
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oh 35 words per minute
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and then i realized this challenge was
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going to be tough everything felt
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foreign and i had no idea what some of
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these keys even did
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typing at this bead isn't exactly
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optimal why am i torturing myself with
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this strange
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layout this keyboard mixes two strange
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elements the split
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aspect of it and the ortholinear layout
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of the keys
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most keyboards come in a staggered
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layout
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this comes from those typewriter days
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where everything was aligned a certain
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way to prevent the bars from jamming
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when computer keyboards were made they
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just followed the same design since
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that's just what everyone was used to
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there's really no reason
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why a staggered layout is needed anymore
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in theory
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the perfectly lined up keys are better
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for a more efficient and streamlined
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typing experience or so i've heard
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a split keyboard basically takes a
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normal keyboard
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and cuts it right down the middle why on
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earth would you do that it allows your
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wrist
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to be straight and not bend in either
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direction
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this helps prevent wrist pain another
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thing you can do is
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tense your keyboard lifting it up from
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the middle this lets you improve the
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position of your forearms
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you can also move the two halves any
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distance from each other
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to get the perfect width for your
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shoulders basically
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split an ortho means better ergonomics
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in theory but i'm gonna test it the
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first few days of the challenge
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were really tough even common letters
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such as
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n p m and c were difficult to press
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i knew this was gonna be tough making
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mistakes was detrimental
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as finding the backspace key and moving
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back to the home row resulted
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in my hands getting lost anytime a
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mistake was made i had to look
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back at the keyboard to reorient myself
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i didn't realize how much
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brain power and concentration i needed
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to do
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basic tasks such as writing a simple
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sentence
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as i developed muscle memory of the new
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layout
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things slowly started to improve i was
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typing
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a little bit faster i made less mistakes
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keys that were originally hard started
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to feel
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natural then something magical happened
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after a grueling five days i felt like
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my typing speed was
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mostly back with 25 days left in the
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challenge
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this was going to be easier than i
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thought the breakthrough in typing speed
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came with a realization i accepted that
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i had to relearn
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everything so i stopped thinking
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i have to touch type or else i wouldn't
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know where anything is and that thought
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completely changed my progress i started
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to commit the distance between keys to
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muscle memory
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and something clicked
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despite being able to type quickly there
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were still issues
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i was still uncomfortable i needed to be
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conscious of where my fingers were
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and that led to tightness in my fingers
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and my traps
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i felt everything gets harder from being
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so tense with focus
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and frustration doesn't that defeat the
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purpose of using this layout in the
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first place where it's supposed to fix
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all these issues
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but at this point i wasn't ready to give
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up this is when i started doing my own
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tweaks to the keyboard the first thing i
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did was swap out the keycaps to see
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exactly
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what some of these blankies even did but
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i found out that turning it into a
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monstrosity of different sets
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made it easier to see what keys did what
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although
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it was a bit unsightly i also found that
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the tenting kit that came with the
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keyboard was too aggressive
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and it added to my trap tightness i
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ended up removing the tenting kit and
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adding in pencils
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instead for a better typing angle while
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it wasn't the most stable
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it was a lot more comfortable typing
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numbers was also really difficult but
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that's when i found out something
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cool with the space between the two
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halves of the keyboard you can slide a
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number pad in the middle and the amount
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of customization
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you could do to this keyboard turned out
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to be pretty fun you could even fit a
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cup of coffee or a snack
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in between the two halves if you'd like
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i'm not that weird i promise with that
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being said i had to play around
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with where i positioned the two halves
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on my table to make it more comfortable
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too far apart
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and it was awkward and too close
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together well i might as well be typing
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on a regular keyboard
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i found that an ever so slight angle
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with a little bit of spacing
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was perfect for me after really getting
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used to the
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split layout and the lined up keys i was
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concerned
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i wouldn't be able to switch back to a
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staggered keyboard very easily
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i've read many forums where people
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didn't recommend you go
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all in on a new layout unless you could
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switch to it full time i found that if i
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needed to
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work on a laptop or use my husband's
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keyboard
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i made a lot of mistakes i was too used
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to the split layout and a normal
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keyboard started to feel foreign
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switching back to a
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regular keyboard resulted in a lot of
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typos
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and slower typing speed it was a pain
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and i didn't know how long it would last
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then i found this guy on youtube called
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dt
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he's been using this layout for a whole
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year it can actually
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switch between the ergo docks and a
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standard keyboard
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pretty well now that that was not the
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case initially initially
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that took an adjustment period and it's
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completely comfortable switching back
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and forth this gave me hope i wonder how
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long
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it would take me to get to that level i
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learned that the brand can adapt quickly
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and
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after several disheartening typing tests
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i slowly regained the ability to type
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normally again but it came with
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lasting effects believe it or not my
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typing style is completely different now
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i now type with more of my fingers
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as being stuck to the home row on the
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split keyboard made me adopt the more
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traditional way of typing is this a bad
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thing not necessarily
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i just didn't start this challenge
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expecting my typing style to change
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forever so were there any benefits
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to this challenge i know i can say a
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cop-out answer
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such as the journey is all that matters
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or blah blah blah but you probably want
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to know if you should try it too i did
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feel some improvements in ergonomics
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my wrist felt less pain and it was a
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nice change of pace
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from the usual eggs from typing that
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being said
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it did feel like i made a trade instead
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of my wrist hurting i felt more
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tightness in my traps and
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forearms from getting used to the new
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layout i think spending all day typing
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isn't healthy regardless of how
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ergonomic your
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layout is and the best bet to reduce
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pain is to take frequent breaks there's
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just no getting around that i think for
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me personally
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a keyboard that's more in the middle
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ground between a normal layout and a
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ortho split
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layout would be ideal i felt the split
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aspect
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was the main game changer where the
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ortho layout didn't make a huge
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difference
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just keep in mind everyone's bodies are
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built differently so you won't know
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what's best for you
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until you test it i also learned that
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the brain adapts
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way faster than i thought it could
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nowadays it takes merely a minute to
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switch back and forth between
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different layouts now this is all qwerty
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still so the challenge might not be big
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enough maybe next time i'll switch the
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layout
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completely like to comac devorak or
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workmen but
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that's a story for a different type if
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you're interested in trying out this
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keyboard you can find the soul 3 on
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rgbkb
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link down below
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