| ▲ | rgoulter 3 days ago | |
> the engineers who care enough to invest in keyboards like this (1) spend a lot of time investing in their tooling and (2) are extremely productive I think (1) is true. Whereas, (2) may be less so. Or at least, "smart but unproductive" is also a class. :) (And I'm sure there are those who have had bad experiences working with such people). I suppose using a keyboard like this is an expensive signal. As in.. it's fairly easy to buy a typical mechanical keyboard, but more difficult to get one of these small split keyboards. -- But I think this is just "interested in technical excellence", which is somewhat different than "highly productive". ;) As for these keyboards? The most pragmatic & superior tooling part isn't the "36-key keyboard" so much as "each thumb has 2-3 keys" each. That's what allows these keyboards to expressively bring the full functionality of the keyboard to within reach of the hands on home row. | ||
| ▲ | egypturnash 3 hours ago | parent | next [-] | |
> using a keyboard like this is an expensive signal You can get premade keyboards in this layout for about $150. The Kinesis 360 mentioned earlier in the article is $400-500. Decide for yourself how pricey "learning these things exist" and "making a custom DIY one is in terms of both resources and time. | ||
| ▲ | MorehouseJ09 2 days ago | parent | prev | next [-] | |
You hit the nail on the head with the 2/3 thumb key bit. That is what was such a game changer for me with the kinesis. all the sudden you have real estate to take a layering approach that you just can't with normal keyboards. Smart but unproductive is a class. We've all had experiences with those types of engineers. I think startups generally weed them out though. It's hard to survive at a startup without being productive. I probably should have put that as a disclaimer up front. | ||
| ▲ | lawn 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | |
I think 3 thumb keys are too much as the thumb is slow and awkward to move. You can easily get by with 2 and you can get by with just one for normal usage. See my own keyboard layouts for inspiration: https://www.jonashietala.se/blog/2024/11/26/the_current_cybe... | ||