As any writer knows, the pain that comes from constantly typing is pretty intense, and hard to get rid of.
This is because of where the letters on a normal keyboard are positioned. They are basically structured in the most awkward way possible, and force hands to work in unnatural positions. So why are they still set up this way?

The answer lies in the invention of the typewriter. The arms of each letter needed to be thrown forwards hard enough to leave an ink print on the paper, and these arms had a nasty habit of getting tangled in each other when someone was typing fast. The letters on a standard QWERTY keyboard were designed to minimise arm-tangling, and our modern keyboards stick with this design purely out of habit.

Dvorak was a guy who realised that machines need to serve humans, rather than the other way around.

He developed a keyboard where the most commonly used letters are all on one line (the centre line) and eliminated the need to hit two keys in a row with the same hand, eliminating hand and wrist strain. The design takes a little getting used to, but once you have mastered the Dvorak keyboard, your typing speed usually increases by 100 to 200 per cent.

The crazy thing about the Dvorak keyboard is that it was invented all the way back in 1936.

Why don’t we all use it? In short, we are lazy. There is a good reason that Microsoft’s inferior products keep being used over the user-friendly Apple products: We use what we are given, get used to it, and call it good. Forever.

There’s no need to buy a new keyboard if you switch to Dvorak. You can install it in much the same way as you install/switch to a new language on your current keyboard. And it’s free. All modern operating systems (yes, including the good old Dancing Bears XP and Vista) include Dvorak and you can fiddle with the settings for about 60 seconds to change your keyboard. It takes a little longer to make tiny stickers for all your keys though!

You can even buy overlays (for a couple of bucks online) to place over your current keyboard to help you get used to it.

The bonus giggle comes when people help themselves to your computer. Watch them try to write anything that makes sense when you have made the switch to a new letter system.

Getting rid of carpal tunnel syndrome or increasing your typing speed probably doesn’t sound that exciting until your living depends on how many words you can crank out per hour. Freelance writing, anyone?

Interestingly, although Dvorak was born in the United States, his family is originally from the former Czechoslovakia. He, like so many brilliant scientists, has a strong musical talent and is even distantly related to the composer Antonin Dvorak. Renting apartments in Budapest may not help you learn the (infinitely better) Dvorak keyboard but it’s a great excuse to take a break in one of the most beautiful cities in the world.