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Ask HN: One month with one arm, after surgery

8 points by se2quohn ↗ HN
Hey everyone, in one month I'm getting shoulder surgery. I won't be able to use my left arm at all (I'm right-handed). I'm here to ask you all suggestions how to face this as proper nerd. Split keyboards (because it seems I can use my fingers, if I attach something right under them), programming with dictation, mechanical arms, DIY stuff, etc.

Example: I have a kid, I'm gonna buy a harness so that I can lift him with one arm when my wife needs help.

9 comments

[ 217 ms ] story [ 1043 ms ] thread
schwartzworld
I think for code you might just have to get used to typing slower. There's not much you can't do with one hand. If your keyboard has QMK you can program some custom shortcuts or macros to help with difficult key combinations.

For real writing (emails, slack messages etc), I'd say dictate it and then just use your keyboard for edits.

se2quohn
It's the right moment to try Chat GPT for code generation :)
logicalmonster
Coding slower for one month probably isn't the end of the world.

For emails, tell people about your arm issue and ask them to have some patience with you. Try and use voice tools to write out messages where you can.

Depending on what kind of programmer you are, try and focus more on the things you can do without much impact: perhaps planning and diagramming out systems on paper, doing research, or doing some graphics related work.

Hopefully your arm is ok.

egberts1
Coding slow is often better because you see further ramifications during that typing time.
joshuanomed
Do you use a Mac? If so try using Voiceover. It takes some getting used to and if you’re used to being a speedwhiz on the keyboard…you may find it frustratingly slow but I found it helpful when I lost use of one of my hands for a week.
toast0
There are one handed dvorak layouts. But if it's only for a month, it might not be worth the time to learn a new layout, when you may be able to hunt and peck proficiently your normal layout with one hand. Maybe some foot pedals for modifier keys? Maybe just enable sticky-keys.

Make sure you can enter your important human memory only passwords with one hand, sometimes that's harder than it would seem.