Atlas · Details
Blogger Finger
Author’s note
Some good jokes in this one. Mostly this is the story of how I got Trigger Finger while overpracticing one of my guitar pieces, requiring a cortisone shot and then surgery. In the post, I reported being 95% recovered. Interestingly, the road to 100% took four years. But after that my hand was as good as new.
AI Notes
Steve's return post after roughly a year of silence — two essays in one. The first half is a comic account of why he stopped: he had cared too much about the writing, the haters had gotten through, and the sabbatical had handed him the perspective that there is nothing on this earth that can make everyone happy — a line he turns into a running gag, rating everything afterward with a Reddit-style approval percentage. He fakes an early sign-off ("Cheerio!"), then reverses himself ("HAHAHA DISREGARD THAT") and delivers the real story behind the title. "Blogger Finger" is a pun on trigger finger — digital tenovaginitis stenosans — which Steve developed in his right hand from practising a Villa-Lobos arpeggio an estimated 650,000 times in five months. The piece follows it through a cortisone needle that "materialized from under the table, the way a knife appears in a bar fight" and on to hand surgery, closing on a groaning pun about his sabbatical bringing him some clojure.
It's also the origin story of the guitar injury behind the music Steve still arranges and plays.
Related listings
-
2006
Psh. Whatever!
The other deeply personal post in the archive. Psh. Whatever! is where the blog stopped being only technical; Blogger Finger is where Steve writes most plainly about what the blog itself had cost him.
-
2011
Hacker News Fires Steve Yegge
Both are about the friction of being widely read. Blogger Finger is the year of silence the haters earned; Hacker News Fires Steve Yegge is the next round, a year later, of the internet telling Steve what he had said.
-
2007
How To Make a Funny Talk Title Without Using The Word 'Weasel'
Two pieces about the performance of being Steve Yegge — the nervy work of being asked to be funny, and what happens when caring about the audience too much finally catches up with you.
Where it was argued
- Hacker News Jul 2010
From the peanut gallery
Read the rest of the thread · 137 more
-
Great to see you back Steve! I'm sorry to hear about your hand troubles, and glad that there's a 95% approval rating.
The interweb just got slightly better again. Welcome back. -
I missed your posts, welcome back!!
-
What Josh said. Your voice has been missed.
-
Holy Crap.
I am so happy that i can read your writing again. Awesome. You made my day.
Keep on keeping on :)
Best wishes from far Poland. -
Yay, Steve is back!
-
Yay! I was reading some of your old posts (obviously not all the way through) 2 days ago and wondering what you were up to.
Trigger finger sounds like it sucks. Luckily I get frustrated with my playing far too quickly to run the risk of getting it. (Can you get trigger larynx?) -
I'm glad to see you back. Being a non-computer guy, reading you is like trying to read The Jabberwocky, but I still have fun.
I've quoted you three times in the last dozen weeks in my own weekly essay-blog, most notably about your anime experience as I attended an anime convention as (almost) the only old guy there.
By the way, I'm a touch-typist, but right after in April reading your typing rant I switched to dvorak. Now I'm slower, but I feel so cool. -
So does that mean that you abandoned your plan to abandon your blog...? (That would be greatly appreciated, by the way)
-
Welcome back! I give your return a 70% approval rating.
I guess this lays to rest my hypothesis that pre-announcing the end of your blog killed your ability to publish because of a desire to perfect those final entries. -
This is awesome! I thought you had quit for good, so glad it's not the case. Most of my favourite blog posts are Yegge rants..
-
I thought my RSS reader was lying to me! Yay Steve's back!
-
Welcome back! Very happy to see you post after a long time and sorry about your hand problems.
You are one guy who I thought need not care about haters and crap.
Waiting for your post on Clojure. -
"I've switched to a sustainable new guitar style and a new repertoire,"
I hope you write more about this some day. Cheers, -
Glad you're back. I like the long posts, though.
-
Glad to see you back. I really have enjoyed some of your older posts, especially about Java being too Noun Oriented (http://steve-yegge.blogspot.com/2006/03/execution-in-kingdom-of-nouns.html)
Dave Barry is definitely the man. You had a few good chuckles in this article -
Steve! I for one, am one of those rare beasts who actually READS - hence your blog, and by extension, your long rants -er, posts - are like getting dessert with my coffee! What a great day this is going to be! Stevey's Back!
-
I had trigger finger in my left index finger that kind of built up slowly. The pain got progressively worse until I finally saw a doctor who immediately knew what it was. I ended up needing two shots, as the first wore out. Now I have a developing case in my left middle finger. LOL. Taking NSAIDs for a few weeks to see if that helps, but if not, another shot. I don't play music. I just code. So it's weird that I now have two separate incidents.
By the way, my doctor gave me the impression that the surgery is 100% side-effect free, but my veterinarian father-in-law, who has a human medical background too, told me that isn't the case. You do lose a tiny amount of motor precision. -
Hooray! Your timing couldn't be better.
You won't believe this, but I just finished re-reading *all* your old posts, *all* the way through!
I took a month or so over it. Adding books and papers you mentioned to my reading stack; Digging a little deeper into the topics that interested me (Stuff written by Knuth, Turing, etc; Interpreters; Weirdy programming languages; Looking at how you ended up making everything so scriptable in Wyvern)
My point is that even if changing the world is hard, you *can* still change the parts of it that consist of those people who want to listen.
So thanks for sharing. For the record, I like the long posts, but you should do what you feel is right. -
Maybe now that you're back you can change the Obama '08 tag? Just sayin...
-
Congratulations on your recovery from what sounds like a quite nasty condition.
More congrats on your return to the producer segment of the blogosphere.
Looking forward to reading this site with a bit more frequency once again. -
Welcome back! You were missed greatly.
I wish you a full recovery, and many more years of typing and guitaring! -
Glad you're posting again. Don't be shy about long-form stuff if that's what you feel like writing.
-
Great! Welcome back Steve!
-
Glad you're back, Steve
-
Oh, hell to the yeah! So glad you're back to writing, Steve! You've been sorely missed. Sorry to hear about the health issue too, glad you're on the road back to 100% approval.
Bring on clojure! -
I don't know about the haters, but you should know that there are plenty of people who think you're brilliant. You're one of my blogging legends, a great source of inspiration, and, like any good writer, someone whose works I turn to whenever I'm in the mood to learn. Actually, even when I'm just in the mood to have an enjoyable half hour of reading.
Welcome back, and please, whatever you do, don't stop writing! :)
Oh, and write a book (even just a collected essays-type book with an intro), I'd love your writing on my bookshelf (and for you to get some well-deserved money). -
Nice to have you back!
I want to hear more about your clojure ;) -
To be great, one must have zeal. To rail against zeal is to rail against the desire for greatness. It is zeal that makes you go the extra distance to become great. Robert Martin
-
Oh my God, its really you again!! I thought my Reader had gone nuts!! Welcome back Steve!!! (From some dude in India!!)
-
Glad to see you back!
-
Steve, had a meeting with some friends last night and you came up, as in where the hell were you, and now you're back!
Good to read your words again. -
Welcome back! Don't forget you promised to write another one emacs-related post :)
-
"When I type, or play piano or guitar, my right-hand fingers twist and curl in elaborate, incomprehensible dances to avoid a pain that is for the most part no longer there."
Almost 10 years ago, I broke both my tibia and fibula an inch or two above the ankle. After the cast came off, I did a lot of hiking to strengthen and stretch the ankle, but it was two years before I was willing to jump down and land on both legs evenly. The good news is, it eventually came back.
Welcome back, Steve. -
I feel your pain! 2 months before starting on a major renovation done solely by me (what was I thinking) I was diagnosed with carpal tunnel. Doc said to get it fixed within 6-9 months to prevent permanent nerve damage. I asked him what can I do now so that I can get the addition buttoned up before winter. He stuck 2" inches of needle in my wrist and said "wiggle your fingers". Then he put the rest of the needle in. Holy crap, I wasn't ready for that!
Anyway, I blogged about the project until I had surgery, then my blogging dropped off.
http://maladon.com -
Hey Steve, welcome back! Good to have your voice again.
If it's not crossed your radar, I'd encourage you to check out CoffeeScript. It's great. (Clojure on the server, CoffeeScript on the client, for me.) -
Welcome back!! Would love to hear a 2010 follow up about Rhino on Rails :D
-
I'm *pretty* sure that it was emacs that caused your trigger finger. There have been studies linking emacs usage and trigger finger pretty much 1000%, so... there's that.
-
Good to see you back. I look forward to reading more.
Not all of us are haters. -
I'm so glad you've decided to post the occasional rant again!
Every now and again I found myself reading the older posts for kicks. But I kept you blog in my feedreader, just in case... and it looks like my gamble paid off. -
Welcome back. :)
-
Glad to hear from you again! Sorry to hear about the hand surgery. I had it 15 years ago and it made a huge difference (both hands). I sort of consider the scars the mark of a Real Programmer ! :-)
Gene -
Yay! :D
-
Welcome back Steve! We definitely missed you!
800 words is a nice length, lately I've been trying to tone it down too. I decided that it was better reach out to people, then it was to lecture to them.
The haters are the cost of blogging. For every opinion, there is an anti-opinion and if you're reasonable, they're probably fanatical. It would be nice if everybody was constructive, but some people aren't mature enough to understand why that's a better approach.
Paul. -
Nice to have you back! Looking forward to some clojure, emacs and other random blog goodies!
-
Great to have you back Steve
-
Welcome back!
-
I sorely missed your insightful, not to mention hilarious, articles. You inspired me to improve my touch typing, and learn Emacs. I'm now learning Clojure and wondering how I got thru life sans Lisp. It's great to have you back.
-
Always love your posts Steve. Glad you're back.
-
Glad to see you back. If the haters start getting to you, just remember the wise words of Bun B: "You're only hating on yourself when you're hating on the next man."
-
Such a nice thing to see in my rss feed reader this morning. First thing I clicked on! I learn something every time I come to this blog. Thanks Steve!
-
Welcome back Steve! I missed ya!
I never minded the long posts (liked 'em, in fact), but can certainly understand wanting to keep it shorter now.
And I thank you greatly for both your Emacs writings and your NBL thoughts (which may have saved me from a career of writing PHP or Perl while pining for Ruby jobs).
A tip: the best way to ignore the Reddit haters is to avoid Reddit entirely. -
Your blog is without a doubt the best programming blog in the universe. I give it a 3.14 x 10^6 approval rating.
Seriously though, I'm glad you are back to blogging. And, I like the long blog posts. Anyone who whines about length can and should be ignored on principle. It's refreshing to see someone think deeply and take the time to express themselves, even though it may result in long blog posts. -
Yay, welcome back! Dave Barry had a great style.
-
Glad to see you again.
-
Nope. Haven't quite forgotten you :)
-
Welcome back, Steve.
-
It's so awesome that you're back.
Your posts are at least 43% more readable than TimeCube dude but his stuff makes for awesome Markov generator input:
God
and
hour days within
that Cubic measure of China upon Nature.
rip off the dumb-
Opposite Creation based on Earth.
Jew as a 4th corner head has ever exist.
singularity is composed of singularity idiot who did he is hate for Cubic and indoctrinate
and The Wisest Human
NO God is to 4 Days rotating daily.
an evil belief.
singularity and will
in a wildfire. The primary purpose for both Sun to a Spiraling 4 corners of Opposites - cancelling
mind to kill
the
rocks -
I get this thing about gaming. I've spent huge chunks of time on, eg, Team Fortress 2.
Should I feel guilty? Or is everyone who doesn't have Steam installed on their computer a 21st century Philistine, like Roger Ebert before his change of heart?
This is hard to explain to my wife, who plays certain games, but doesn't out and out love them like me.
I'm a well-rounded person. I'm a good parent, I like making music and reading and programming the text editor. But the thing I get guilt trips for, from myself and others, is the gaming. -
So, what is your new guitar repertoire? I'm in need of new tunes that don't bend fingers.
-
Yay! Stevey's back!
As for the hands I know there is a company that makes foot pedals for your control and alt keys. (I think it was kenisis.) Might prevent you from having to do all of that emacs gymnastics trying to hold dow 5 keys at once. :) -
Steve Yegge, you're my hero! I want to be just like you when I grow up (except for the hand thing). You have great insights and today's post made me laugh out loud twice.
-
Your posts are one of the only things I care to read online, regardless of size, so...welcome back!
-
Yay! Welcome back!
Just before I noticed your blog had a new post, I was just thinking how sad it was that you and _why dropped off the internet.
Now if you could just convince _why to come back... -
This comment has been removed by the author.
-
It's great to have you back! Like wilig, I was inspired by you to improve my typing skills, learn Emacs, and learn new languages. I'm also learning Clojure right now, and can't wait to see your thoughts about it.
Question: do you think you will allow Wyvern programming in Clojure or Scala at some point? -
Adding my voice to the choir of welcome-backers. Congrats on the successful recuperation!
-
Nice to see you back here.
-
originally posted on HN, but felt it was worth sharing here also
I've had my fair share of code reviews, so I had always assumed that I was adapted to criticism. However, in the process of writing a book I've discovered a whole new level of frustration. To be fair, there have been mistakes put down on the page and I fully expect that they be criticized. However, as soon as the face-to-face aspect of criticism is eliminated people lose their damn minds. I imagine 50 years ago there were boundless trolls writing their screeds to local newspapers. However, thanks to the Internet those guys have no barrier preventing their vitriol. As much as you try to avoid letting it bother you, the constant barrage is exhausting. I can't even imagine what it must be like for someone of Yegge or pg's readership.
As a teen I worked at a record shop. 99% of all customers were nice, courteous, or at worst disregarded my existence. However, a single dickweed was all it took to ruin your whole day.
Welcome back Steve. For once the dickweeds have been thwarted. -
I can't tell you how glad I am you're back. Your blog was highly formative for my early programming days, and actually inspired me to learn Lisp, which cumulated in writing a book on Clojure:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1430272317
Let me know if you want a complimentary copy, I've got several extras. -
Glad you're back!
-
I'm so glad you're back! I can't wait to read your new blog posts.
Also, clojure is indeed great =]
By the way, have you considered using speech recognition software? John Ousterhout, the creator of Tcl, has had to deal with a really bad case:
http://home.pacbell.net/ouster/wrist.html -
Has it been a year already? Glad to see you back, Steve.
-
If haters gotta hate, fanboys have to fawn. It's great to see you posting again. Welcome back.
-
I have only read your posts in retrospect, but by far the most helpful of them was effective-emacs. At the end you left a list of some 20 or so more tips you planned to flesh out later. Will you revisit effective-emacs, with your new shortcuts as a bonus?
-
Clojure was just Yegged !!
Welcome back -
Great to have you back buddy! Missed you for too long. Let the creative juices flow and have us enjoy your awesome posts...
-
Hey, it's great you're back!
-
Welcome back. You have been missed.
-
Sorry to hear about your injury, do take care.
Can't avoid posting a link to some classic Dave Barry though :)
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/001800.html
"""
Q. Please explain the expression: ``This does not bode well.''
A. It means that something is not boding the way it should. It could be boding better.
""" -
welcome back! We missed you :)
-
Still reading time after time the insightful «The Universal Design Pattern» and many others. The longer the better.
Bring on Clojure, it rhymes with future! -
Glad to see you are ok again... Now I know what to do if my hand aches... Relax! It can be worse and then better.
-
http://www.kinesis-ergo.com/images/500-blk.jpg
Because, you know, you're worth it. -
Welcome back, Stevie! I'd definitely give this post a solid “66%” approval rating. :)
But now what the hell am I gonna do with the next 50 minutes? (I usually budget about an hour for a Stevie blog post, heh) -
like... oh wait, you're still on blogger.com RT... oh whatever, welcome back
-
I'm glad you're back to blogging! I'm also looking forward to those final two "Programmer's view of the universe" posts; your short story "The Death of Richard Dawkins" presented some intriguing ideas. But I'll be patient.
-
Just a thought, but perhaps the fan/hate mail tapered off so much because your email is no longer displayed on your profile.
-
you'd have to be happy with all those warm & fuzzy comments...I guess i'm happy for you with your optimum blood pressure and improved life expectancy but I suspect I'd have liked you even more before.
-
I and so glad I didn't remove you when you retired from blogging. Welcome back! You've made my day. Thank you.
-
so great to know you're back!
when are we going to see you playing the guitar on youtube? :)
all the best! -
I always liked the length of your posts. Just because lots of people complained doesn't make them the majority.
-
Welcome back Steve , I really missed your rants :)
-
Welcome back. And thanks for your advice about Trigger Finger and guitar practice (not that I'm getting near TOO MUCH of it, anyway)
-
Steve,
So great to see you writing again. Keep the posts coming and forget the haters. -
I like your long posts. If someone else's typical blog post is like a slice of whole wheat toast, one of your posts is like a dozen Bavarian cream donuts, only non-caloric.
As for the people who don't like long posts, well, it reminds me of the story about the English academic who posted a sign in his yard saying "Cave Canem" in order to deter burglars. When someone pointed out that many burglars would not understand the Latin, the academic replied, "Then they are not the sort of burglars we want, are they?" -
Welcome back! I always enjoy your posts. Once or twice they have even been educational.
I nearly killed my hands chording. Not to the surgery level, thank God, but I still have to be careful. Doesn't Emacs involve a lot of chords? You might want to be careful with those.
ps. How much for one of those brightly-coloured caskets? -
This comment has been removed by the author.
-
I had almost given up hope...so glad you are back!
-
Did you stick with the Mac?
-
"trying way too hard to change the world via blogging"
Don't worry, there are still plenty of other ways to change the world. Meanwhile, welcome back. -
Despite what you might think, Steve, you _have_ changed the world via blogging, and, you _have_ changed the way some people think about certain aspects of our field.
In terms of thoughtful posts about programming and the life of programmers, the internet became less interesting when you stopped blogging.
Forget the tl;dnr crowd! Blog on! -
Great to see you back... I enjoy reading your long posts.
I used to regular look at your feed in my reader, hoping you would start. Finally you did....
waiting for some coding paradigm unraveled in next(long) post. -
Welcome back!
-
I've enjoyed the blog.Thank.
-
Steve,
You mentioned you thought you should stop trying to change the world via blogging.
But surely the existence of Clojure is evidence that it is working!!!
Steve - please blog some more - you're changing the world!
If that isn't reason enough - then read this: http://sites.google.com/site/steveyegge2/you-should-write-blogs
TLL -
You haven't really changed. That was one incredibly long build-up to the bomb in the very last word.
Welcome back. -
Welcome back
-
Welcome back, Steve. Like Paul Hobbs suggested, you could try some speech recognition software, but it needs to constantly update its vocabulary of words to catch up with you :-)
-
Why they said your posts are long?, I mean, you've got more words in comments than in the real post (didn't count really). For me it is like a good book, you don't want it to end. By far the best part of my day was reading you again. Keep it up. Oh Ah, really sorry on your Trigger finger matter, hope it doesn't slow you down.
-
Umm... Those guys, +1
Seriously though, it's great to hear you've decided to return to blogging, but even better that you've almost got your hand back to normal. I can only just imagine what a burden being unable to use both hands must've been to you as a musician, a blogger and a software developer. -
@Sean Crawford
re: Dvorak
I first learned to type on Dvorak because of claims it's faster. Niether 'real' studies nor my own experience have definitively confirmed this, but I used to get stiff/sore/tingly hands from typing a lot^H^H^H^H^Htoo much, and now I don't. YMMV, but it sure works for me. -
This remark about "Compiler as a Service" reminded me immediately of your talk on marketing.
-
That's a nice surprise. I just came back from a vacation and found you new blog post.
Welcome back. -
Hey, Steve ... you don't know me, but I'm wondering if you'd be willing to write me at [email protected]. I work for someone who asked me to get in touch with you based on your 5/29/06 "Manager's Secret Sauce" post. I'll say more offline.
--Laurie Masters, freelance editor
Precision Revision
www.greensongpress.org -
On the haters thing - this is a thought-provoking essay by Paul Graham: http://www.paulgraham.com/top.html
Summary: we probably only have one highest priority subject of thought at any one time. Make sure it's the one you want. -
I am so glad you're back! Damn. I laughed out loud for almost a minute over that piece about the needle.
I really missed you.
Don't hold back on the long posts (unless you really really really want to). Don't align yourself with how the rest of the internet behaves, there are still people out here that can focus for more than 180 seconds. -
Hi.
1. I really appreciate you're being back. When to my astonishment I found a new blog-post in my browser I immediately went to fetch a(nother) coffee to be well prepared for the expected long blog post. Don't make 'em shorter.
2. Since two fellow authors on Clojure books already came along to say hello, please let me add that here is another author speaking. I came to Clojure by reading about it here and over at Bill Clementson's blog. I'm looking forward to read about your thoughts about Clojure.
3. Forget the guitar, take a bass-guitar. ;-)
Cheers,
Stefan -
welcome back steve
-
If humorist Dave Barry has shorter prose it is because such is the nature of comedy, just as comedy TV is shorter. Milton Berle said that a comedy show could only be a half hour: to go any longer required a variety show.
Berle was big in the days of black and white TV, but since his time I have seen no one hour situation comedies. And when I read prose aloud I have to read at a fast or normal speed: any slower kills the comedy.
For me it would be the opposite of comic if someone gifted thought he had to write short. -
Well Stevey it's great to see you back to blogging! Count me among the 'lovers' (as opposite from haters) -- I've always greatly enjoyed all your blog posts, long & short.
The first one I read was "Execution in the Kingdom of Nouns". After that, I started browsing through all your blogs, old & new, and quite regretted it when you stopped... So yeah, definitely glad to read from you again!
Enjoy life, enjoy blogging, and don't let them get to you :-) -
A bit late to the party, but you've been missed! :)
-
Btw, I forget if I told you or not: Great to have you back posting. Missed your posts terribly.
Regardless of agree or not, bullshit or deep-philosophy, a Stevie blog post always improves my week.
Thanks! :) -
I did the hand surgery thing too, end of last year, for a broken thumb. God it knocked me around, and while recovering I ended up playing a computer game for great chunks of time, something I almost never do. I loved sneaking around Venice.
-
Welcome back!
I kept your RSS button on my bookmarks toolbar and kept hopefully clicking from time to time. Couldn't believe it when I saw the new post; made my day. -
1) Great to hear you blogging again. I find that when you stop feeding the haters for awhile, sometimes they just shrivel up and die (remember that Scala dude who kept calling you Steve? I don't either...)
2) Also, I'm sorry to hear about your bout with trigger finger. Now might be a good time to switch to a Kinesis keyboard, if you haven't already.
3) Is clojure the NBL? -
This comment has been removed by the author.
-
"the way a knife appears in a bar fight" ... that's an unbelievably good simile. I'm jealous.
-
If you're still having problems with that hand, I would strongly recommend the DataHand. While the price (around $995 when I last checked) is steep, it's well worth it if you type a lot and have hand injuries. Ergonomic keyboards don't come close.
http://www.micro-isv.asia/2010/02/datahand-for-programmers/
http://www.datahand.com/products/proii.htm
It's a shame that most wouldn't consider using such a device because of the price. -
Greatest mix I know of humor/tech/life/fun/prog, and the rest. Your are precious to me cause, with your kind of humor, you gave me understanding of concepts/functions I would barely have grasped elsewhere, and I'have often Rolled On My Bed Laughing,( ROMBL!). Long, good life and keep on trucking. Reine from France.
-
Steve, this post is golden. I laughed, I... didn't cry, but I definitely laughed.
Very entertaining. Hope to see more in the near future. :) -
You did change the world. Glad you're back!
-
Well past the post-date, but have you ever considered trying an alternative keyboard? I use a kinesis advantage with ctrl accessible with both thumbs as well as well as the foot pedal and it helps a lot when working in emacs
-
It's great that your surgery got 95% approval rating. I'm sure it will rise to 100% if you bind the most frequently used functions to the F-keys in Emacs. This keeps the key strokes short and in "inconvenient" positions, so that you have to slow down and rest your hands ;-)
-
I stumbled on your blog via the effective-emacs post after starting to use emacs... and the thought that went through my head was, damn this guys hands must hurt like hell.
I started my emacs career via Xah Lee's "ErgoEmacs" which basically boils down to remapping the key combinations based on the amount of function usage.
http://ergoemacs.org/
Sure, some things might break, and it could be difficult to learn because you are used to the way things are currently done, but the amount of acrobatics is drastically reduced. -
I came across your blog from your phone interview site just wanted to thank for for putting such a fabulous resource.
-
I started reading your entries from the most recent, and after the first two I thought, "This guy has some of Dave Barry's style."
He's one of my heroes too. I love his writing.
Good job. :-)
I've enjoyed the blog and I'm glad you're back.
In my work life I'm a neuroscientist doing work related to focal dystonia, so your story really caught my interest. I thought you might be interested to read about what's going on in the brain during your kind of experiences. Most researchers in the field agree that "overlearning" like you describe drives maladaptive changes in brain organization that manifest as the kind of movement problem that you experienced.
Here's a recent editorial overview from the journal Brain with some good clinical references:
http://brain.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/126/12/2571
— socialprimate · 9:25 AM, July 15, 2010
Never had trouble with my hand after Etude #1. But I use vim.
— Thras · 3:47 PM, July 15, 2010
I stopped reading after you mentioned you are an emacs user.
Unfortunately, that was at the freaking end of the article!
Thanks for ruining my day. Let's do it again sometime.
ctrl-x, c
— Ryan · 6:01 AM, July 15, 2010
I don't hate you, Steve, but when I took time out of my work and hobbies and playing with my kids to try to help you when you asked for some help, and you flamed me for my trouble like I've never been flamed before, it definitely took a lot of my enjoyment out of your writing.
Glad your hand is feeling better.
— Dethe Elza · 12:58 PM, July 19, 2010