
Reasons You Should Put the Mouse on the Left If You’re Right-Handed - hb20007
https://medium.com/@hb20007/10-reasons-you-should-put-the-mouse-on-the-left-if-youre-right-handed-20510d5e211d
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izzydata
A lot of these don't make a lot of sense to me. How is freeing up my right
hand to use the keyboard a reason to use my left hand? If I use my right hand
then it frees up my left hand to use the keyboard instead.

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hb20007
It frees your right hand to use keyboard buttons intended for the right hand
such as backspace, delete and numpad.

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guiambros
> _...frees your right hand to use keyboard buttons intended for the right
> hand..._

On the other hand (ha!) you lose access to navigational keys that are
typically used when you're "mousing", changing between apps/tabs and screens -
e.g. alt-tab, ESC, alt-w, alt-q, alt-F4, meta-shortcuts, etc.

I noticed that I use the right keys - enter, backspace, delete, etc - mostly
when I'm typing, so I want my two hands in the keyboard anyway.

For me the mouse on the right side is the best combination.

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SurrealSoul
I am a left handed person and use a left handed mouse at work (OSX) and a
right handed mouse at home (Windows). It helps with dissociating the macros
for each system and gives me a subtile work vs play mindset. I would recommend
giving it a shot for a day or two if you have the desk space

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JamesBaxter
I move my mouse to either side so I don’t have issues with the general concept
but this is nonsense and is just to pad the number to an even 10.

“It makes you a more interesting person”

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kqr
Random story time: I have vivid memories of my (left-handed) dad insisting on
having the mouse on the left of the keyboard. I remember it being annoying to
move it back to the right side after he had used the computer. But when asked
today, my dad – with apparent full sincerity – says it's preposterous and he
has no memory of that. Given that he's worked with computers pretty much since
I was born, he must remember if that was the case, right?

I guess it may have to remain a mystery.

I sometimes feel like half of what my dad did when I was very young must have
been planting these weird memories as an experiment in order to see how I
react to it when I get older. (I also remember him deliberately picking out
the bottommost package of diapers in the pile at the dollar store, causing the
entire pile to fall and cascade over the floor. Cannot get him to admit it to
this day. I did very recently manage to drag out of him an admission of the
sleight of hand where he ceased his heartbeat in the wrist, something else
he's denied for a long time.)

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kmano8
This comment reminded my of an episode of Malcolm Gladwell's Revisionist
History podcast on memory -- with Brian Williams' story around an experience
he had in Iraq 15 years ago. If I remember correctly, the takeaway is that
memory isn't infallible.. not a video recording of the past.

He also describes experiments done on flashbulb memories (e.g. what were you
doing when you heard about 9/11).. and found that people who wrote down that
week what they were doing, then returned to that notation years later, will
swear they remember it differently.. admit it's their handwriting but express
they must have been lying at the time. Pretty interesting stuff.

[http://revisionisthistory.com/episodes/24-free-brian-
william...](http://revisionisthistory.com/episodes/24-free-brian-williams)

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thecatspaw
we all know what the true reason is for putting the mouse on the left if
you're right handed

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jugg1es
A broken right arm in my adolescent years forced me to perform the action you
allude to here with great precision using my left hand.

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kennu
I tend to keep a trackpad or mouse on both sides, so that no matter what
position I happen to be sitting in, it's always easy to reach it.

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justacat
Yea, I keep a mouse on the right and a trackpad on the left. It is a good
combination.

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mchahn
I live with a 3D joystick in my left hand and trackball in my right hand.
Obviously I do this for 3D cad work. My arms barely move. I go out of my way
to avoid the keyboard, even to the point of using the "mouse" for cutting and
pasting.

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davidjgraph
I'm left handed and always naturally used the mouse on the right-hand side.
The handy side-effect of this is when I developed RSI in my right wrist, using
a touchpad on the left was really easy...

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iliaznk
For what it's worth, I'd strongly recommend everyone try using a trackpad
instead of a mouse with its advantage being less space it requires for
operation. When using a mouse you constantly have to slide your arm around
within an imaginary square on the desk surface and regularly lift the mouse to
relocate your arm from the edge of the square back to its center. While with a
trackpad you arm just rests and a single finger is all you need to do all the
work. It's at least more quiet and you don't have to move you arm too far away
from the keyboard when you need to use it.

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sky_rw
Problems also solved by increasing your mouse sensitivity.

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lysp
Yep this.

I use dual screen and I only need to move the mouse about an inch or slightly
more to move completely over both screens.

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lb1lf
I'm a leftie and keep my mouse (or, if I've got any influence over the choice
of pointing device, a trackball) on the right.

The biggie is that it frees up my dominant hand for writing - additionally,
I've noted that my fine-motorical skills using my right hand has improved
drastically over the years, to the extent that I am now almost ambidextrous.

(My handwriting is definitely readable when written with my right hand, but I
find it more of a mental effort for less gain than simply just writing with my
left hand...)

Think of moving the mouse over to the 'wrong' side as an exercise in building
redundancy. :)

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SketchySeaBeast
I've experienced the opposite - I'm a lefty with the mouse on the right, but
with the exception of mouse use my hand has gotten no more dexterous - I still
write like a toddler.

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Slaul
I have always used my mouse on the left side of the keyboard despite being
right handed. I think it comes down to being a child learning to play PC games
and not really having the dexterity in my left hand to control WASD and the
various keybinds properly with my left hand. So I adjusted to mouse on the
left and right hand on the keyboard.

It does make it annoying to type and play games at the same time though since
I usually have to move the keyboard pretty far off center to get comfortable
and if I want to type I have to move it back to center first.

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potlee
This is very cool and I am going to try this!

There are also studies that show there are benefits to your brain when you
learn new neuro-muscular skills, like brushing with your left hand.

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dingaling
I have become generally more adept with my left hand after moving my trackball
to the left about 15 years ago.

Sometimes i find myself using a screwdriver or knife in the left.

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wastedhours
I did this when I was using Photoshop in college and started destroying my
right shoulder. Now I have a wireless mouse I switch from hand-to-hand every
so often to ensure I'm ruining both of my shoulders instead.

Using a mouse on the left side as a right handed person is amazingly fast to
pick up. It's also really useful when showing people how to do things on a
computer as you train yourself on the mouse, rather than just the muscle
memory.

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potlee
I learned to use my thumb on the trackpad when I am using my laptop. I feel so
much more productive, my fingers can stay very close to their home position
while my thumb handles minor mouse tasks. I do switch to using my finger for
when I need more fine grained pointer control.

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saltcured
This is why some of us are Thinkpad devotees... We use the pointy-stick
between the G, H, and B keys to shove the cursor around during keyboard-heavy
interaction. I use the thumb to click three button zones on the top of the
trackpad. To drag, you hold down the thumb and keep steering the stick with
your index finger.

I also change the settings to use the edges of the trackpad for scrolling
rather than requiring a multi-finger gesture. This allows me to do brief bouts
of scrolling with much less relocation of the hands. I would even turn off the
trackpad mouse behavior if I could do so without also losing the scroll
function. It's only ever a mistake when I brush the across it and move the
mouse.

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tom_
I switched to mousing left-handed about ten years ago, and actually use the
mouse more, not less, because it's now so close. I still use the keyboard for
invoking commands, but use the mouse a lot more now for moving the cursor,
even for quite short distances.

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mnm1
For RSI purposes, both sides suck horribly but it helps to alternate. The idea
of having a mouse or trackball off center is often a huge reason for the RSI
in the first place. And if one is concerned with RSI, simply using a mouse,
even one of the more ergonomic ones is a bad idea due to the large amount of
movement. Trackballs, trackpads, and other devices, especially if they can
stay centered, IMO, are preferable. I really like the rollermouse, which
despite its name, is not a mouse at all. If anything, switching hands
constantly is the ideal and this allows that. The magic trackpad 2 from apple
is not bad either, but takes a lot more work from the arms and fingers.

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de_watcher
Well, when we got mice, they felt kinda optional. So organically we used the
left hand for them.

I keep it like that now. There are way more buttons on the keyboard - more
work for the right hand.

Default WASD gaming is also more solid: place the thumb of your right hand on
the left Ctrl - you can do a healthy rotation around this point while all
other fingers are always above some relevant keys.

Mouse on the left is useful if someone is sitting alongside you (on your left)
and wants to point something on the screen with your mouse.

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sevensor
I did this because I was experiencing intense pain in my right shoulder. Ten
years on, the pain hasn't returned and the mouse stays on the left.

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neolefty
Same here! Except eventually I did switch back just from inertia (and having a
right-handed mouse).

It's even where my HN username comes from. Mousing on the left felt like
weightlifting for my corpus callosum or something.

[https://neolefty.org/wordpress/about/](https://neolefty.org/wordpress/about/)

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foxyv
Intriguing, but not likely to make me want to change. Everything about my
current setup is designed around having the mouse on the right side. Also
typing on the keyboard doesn't use the amount of fine movement that my mouse
does. It's easy to hit a key with my left hand. Moving a mouse over a 4px
border is a lot more difficult.

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zero_intp
Wow, I did this for all of the listed reasons here. I work with the left hand,
game with the right.

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ectospheno
Right hand use of the mouse for work never hurt my wrist. Minecraft and WoW
did though. I kept the device on the right side but switched to a trackball
and rebound any mouse button actions to the keyboard instead. Solved all my
RSI issues.

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GW150914
I switched to a vertical mouse and my wrist pain went away. A good keyboard is
also a must. I don’t think there is one “right” way though, it’s all very much
a personal choice.

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jackskell
I like to use a keyboard with no number pad, as long as the work doesn't
require one. This shortens the reach for the mouse appreciably.

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nickthegreek
Left hander who used to mouse with right, but now uses left due to RSI. The
hardest thing for me is realizing how often I used the ESC key (which my left
hand used to rest on).

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bwl
I'm left handed and use mouse on the right side. Thanks for putting a positive
spin on this. RSI in particular.

Unfortunately I miss out on the being an interesting person part!

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austinshea
The author isn't taking this article seriously, and I think it's pretty
mundane in terms of it's humor.

What is it that people see in this?

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qbrass
It's harmless bikeshedding.

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austinshea
Thanks. I was unaware of this term, but I agree 100%

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ajoy39
I have a trackpad for gestures on my left and a mouse for point and click on
my right. I am certifiably weird.

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gaius
Mouse on the right, Surface Dial on the left

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jasonmaydie
Sounds like it would increase the risk of RSI instead of decreasing it

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hypfer
Why is this in my rss feed.

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abdulhaq
We give up, why is it in your RSS feed?

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GoToRO
What's the difference between a start-up and a corporation? In a corporation
the mouse is symmetric. (so you can move it on the left)

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madeuptempacct
"People who notice that I’m right-handed but keep my mouse on the left often
ask me why. It never fails to arouse the curiosity of people who have never
seen it before, and it has led to interesting conversations with individuals
that I wouldn’t have spoken much with otherwise."

This kind of ruins the article. It's up there on cringe with "I keep a pack of
gum on my desk and people know me as the 'gum guy'!"

Anyway, do you just use a standard mouse or re-map the buttons?

