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Ask HN: Software engineer with broken arm, any tips?

2 points by spapas82 ↗ HN
I broke my right hand after a hard fall in the rain (I am right handed). Any tips on how to improve my computer usage with one hand?

TIA

13 comments

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debrisontrack
Don't break your other arm too. Just kidding, sorry for your injury and get well soon.

As for a real tip, since you mentioned software engineer specifically, I think you are using the keyboard a lot, so you obviously must've looked into voice/speech to text related stuff, but for the mouse usage, I can recommend those small form factor wireless/bluetooth keyboards with the touchpad portion in the top center, those are fairly easy to use even with the non dominant hand (or even with the fingertips if you can move those). I won't link here directly, but they look like small game controllers and are relatively cheap.

catchnear4321
Speech to text has come a long ways. Personally dislike it, but even then, have found myself using it on occasion.

If you’re using an LLM as part of this, it was already faster at typing, so lean into that.

spapas82
I have tried to use an open-source program, Handy, but it didn't work well for Greek. So I switched to Wispr Flow, which was recommended by another friend, and it works very well.
riteshsethia7
Granola or Wisper flow should help you a bit, or with some research you can find open source alternatives which can work locally using on device LLM.
spapas82
Thank you very much. Wispr Flow is great and it also transcribes my primary language, which is Greek
t0md4n
codex gpt-6 astra medium fast for computer use and hex/parakeet voice model on button press
giantg2
You can burp the worm with your other hand. It will feel strange at first if you're not used to it.
bjacobt
Sorry to hear about your arm, hope you have a speedy recovery!

I don't have a real tip, but when I broke a finger on my left hand, I was surprised how many of the keys I use as a programmer are on the left side. I mostly work in VS Code, PyCharm and SSH sessions .