Learning to use your non dominate hand

left hand man comic

I was curious if I could use my left hand to use the mouse and do what my right hand usually does. This entire week has been an experiment in using it.

The first days were the most difficult. Getting over the impulse to use the fingers from left to right took some practice. It was also difficult to be precise with the movements of the mouse. My left hand was also weaker than my right so that took some time to adjust to that as well.

left hand man comic
left-hand man comic

However now that it has been five days it is working pretty well. They are not equal but if I continue to use them, they will be. I think I will continue to use both of them equally to see if I can be ambidextrous. I sometimes use the right hand too much with the mouse and keyboard and using the left will give my right side a chance to rest.

As a kid, I was impressed with left-handed people. I didn’t know many but I thought that was fascinating. They had to work against the design made for right-handed people. For example, desks had support for the right hand but not the left one. I always admired that they were tougher than right-handed people and could adjust to the circumstances.

You can’t help but admire people who adjust to the circumstances no matter of difficult they are. We can be aware of the hidden assumptions and try to design and find ways to help people who have all kinds of abilities. Many famous left-handed people made significant cultural contributions and I wonder how many more left-handed people might contribute if we had helped them so that they had more energy and opportunity like right-handed people.

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Isn’t it strange? We argue for a chance to prove ourselves, but we don’t give others the same opportunity. Rather we try to put blocks in their way so that they can’t compete. Like making voting harder, making education dumber, and making our discourse what we want to believe instead of facts.

You can believe whatever you want, but you will suffer for your ignorance. You can’t ignore this truth.