driving causes wrist problems

Spike Jones (spike66@ibm.net)
Mon, 08 Nov 1999 22:57:56 -0800

Amara Graps wrote:

> It seems that the voice recognition software has come a _long_
> way in the last 5 years. And so cheap too!
>
> You might consider your new software/hardware as an alternative
> computer input device to help prevent repetitive strain injuries....

Glad someone brought this up, for I fear doctors are giving bad advice under some circumstances. When doctors see the youngest fingers going numb, especially in office workers, especially in the silly clone valley, the *immediately* say no keyboard for a month. How the hell is one to do one's job?

I have had this problem over the years, and experimented with it enough to report the following theory:

Whereas I agree this *may* be related to keyboard use in many people, in my case, the phenomenon is much more dependent upon... motorcycles!

I was getting better, fewer instances of finger numbness, etc. I went on vacation in New England, drove 4 megameters in 11 days, no keyboards, suddenly, major dead fingers! Both hands. The weekend we had extro4, rode the bike up to Berzerkely, dead fingers.

The first year I was doing extropians, no capital letters to reduce keystrokes, no difference. Wrote a 400 page fiction work in about a month, no increase in dead fingers. Gave up Jar Jar Binks, no difference.

Conclusion: in my case, the wrist problems are more related to driving than keyboards. Now I will wait and see if the medical community concludes similarly within a few years. Its driving and motorcycles.

EvMick, whaddya think? spike