I must be lucky but I haven't developped RSI since I've been programming non stop since the 90s.
Sometimes I ask myself, why? Surely by now, I should have symptoms...
I genuinely think it's because I spend most time thinking and reasoning, navigating through code, and very few time actually typing. I don't have long steady streams of typing nearly as much as if I type a message here for example.
I also don't type "properly". My fingers travel. Which is why I never could get on board with split keyboards. I type fast, even though I was never taught how to type properly. The H key for example will be accessed by both hands depending of the word I'm typing as to save time, and my left hand travels way further than the right (invades the right).
A big difference I've found though is to drop keyboards with keypads. That way, my QWEF fingers are about inline with my left shoulder (slightly off inwards) and my mouse in the right hand is in front of my right shoulder. My resting hand are angled with the thumb area being clearly above, even when mousing.
All I can say after years of working on CRTs is to make sure you neck/shoulders are where they're supposed to be. Use a small pillow for your lower back (above your bottom), and that your natural gaze on the screen is just below the chrome of whatever application is in front of you, at arms distance at least. Also make sure you have glasses that protect your eyes as much as possible from fatigue (sharpening/blue filter).
If you have RSI, as a software developer, consider copilot. It takes off 70% of my typing these days.
The fallacy in your argument is to think RSI means something wrong is done.
It is like a game, where you think it would be like go or chess that skills is strongly correlated with outcomes. But I’d think that is more like monopoly, where great skills with poor luck will not save your day.
From what I’ve seen and read and experienced, some people do all the wrong things and never have developed RSI, some does everything correctly and yet a mild usage of keyboards results in RSI.
I'm an okayish speed typer, I use Emacs bindings, and use a full keyboard layout my entire life. No RSI. My hands are quite large though, so perhaps I strain less without thinking about it.
Sometimes I ask myself, why? Surely by now, I should have symptoms...
I genuinely think it's because I spend most time thinking and reasoning, navigating through code, and very few time actually typing. I don't have long steady streams of typing nearly as much as if I type a message here for example.
I also don't type "properly". My fingers travel. Which is why I never could get on board with split keyboards. I type fast, even though I was never taught how to type properly. The H key for example will be accessed by both hands depending of the word I'm typing as to save time, and my left hand travels way further than the right (invades the right).
A big difference I've found though is to drop keyboards with keypads. That way, my QWEF fingers are about inline with my left shoulder (slightly off inwards) and my mouse in the right hand is in front of my right shoulder. My resting hand are angled with the thumb area being clearly above, even when mousing.
All I can say after years of working on CRTs is to make sure you neck/shoulders are where they're supposed to be. Use a small pillow for your lower back (above your bottom), and that your natural gaze on the screen is just below the chrome of whatever application is in front of you, at arms distance at least. Also make sure you have glasses that protect your eyes as much as possible from fatigue (sharpening/blue filter).
If you have RSI, as a software developer, consider copilot. It takes off 70% of my typing these days.