[HN Gopher] Why I hate the index finger (1980)
___________________________________________________________________
Why I hate the index finger (1980)
Author : consumer451
Score : 249 points
Date : 2024-11-19 00:35 UTC (1 days ago)
(HTM) web link (pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov)
(TXT) w3m dump (pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov)
| gnabgib wrote:
| (1980)
| consumer451 wrote:
| Updated, thanks. But the hilarity is timeless.
| isoprophlex wrote:
| That was unexpectedly hilarious, wow.
| consumer451 wrote:
| Is there much of this type of thing hiding on PubMed?
|
| Not a source I had previously associated with top-tier humor.
| jaggederest wrote:
| I believe every year The Canadian Medical Association Journal
| publishes a mostly-humorous edition around Christmas. And
| there's a long history of satire in NEJM, BMJ, The Lancet,
| etc
|
| I particularly enjoy this one (PDF):
|
| http://cda.psych.uiuc.edu/multivariate_fall_2013/salmon_fmri.
| ..
| consumer451 wrote:
| Thanks. I think I found another good one, though more
| technical than OP.
|
| > The case of the disappearing teaspoons: longitudinal
| cohort study of the displacement of teaspoons in an
| Australian research institute
|
| https://www.bmj.com/content/331/7531/1498
| genewitch wrote:
| that... isn't... satire. It's written in a funny way
| because it was a "silly"[0] experiment, but it showed a
| real issue with fMRI.
|
| > What we can conclude is that random noise in the EPI
| timeseries may yield spurious results if multiple testing
| is not controlled for. In a functional image volume of
| 60,000-130,000 voxels the probability of a false discovery
| is almost certain.
|
| [0] silly as in "there's no way this fMRI will show the
| frozen salmon as alive, right?"
| jaggederest wrote:
| I think we run into the definition of satire and parody,
| here.
|
| Satire is "the truth, in the most extreme way", so I
| think it definitely qualifies to very, very seriously
| examine a dead salmon with an fMRI to see if it has brain
| activity.
|
| It's not a parody - they actually did the study, and the
| results were as described, not an imitation journal
| article ala The Onion.
| dingnuts wrote:
| That may be one definition of satire but it strikes me as
| controversial or incomplete and when I search online for
| it, I only find this comment.
|
| I think you're coining a definition to fit your purpose.
| If you want to argue that the article fits some
| definition of satire you need to actually provide a
| reference to a definition that is accepted by more people
| than just you. You can't just put quotation marks around
| your personal definition; that's not how it works.
|
| I find your definition of satire to be unsatisfactory and
| reject it, pending further documentation.
| jaggederest wrote:
| Ok, quoth Oxford:
|
| > the use of humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to
| expose and criticize people's stupidity or vices,
| particularly in the context of contemporary politics and
| other topical issues.
|
| In this case, they're using an analysis which is commonly
| used to "show activity" in various psychological and
| psychiatric contexts to "show activity" in a dead salmon.
| This directly exaggerates ("truth, but in the most
| extreme way" is about exaggeration, in my definition) and
| shows the futility of trying to draw significant results
| without screening for random chance among thousands of
| comparisons.
|
| A comparison I'd make is to arch-satirist Jonathan
| Swift's "modest proposal" - it described a real problem
| (i.e. famine in Ireland) and skewered by exaggeration the
| English tendency to prescribe solutions that affected
| none of the core issues as though they knew best and
| could overcome English exploitation, greed, and callous
| disregard by the right public policy.
| ARandumGuy wrote:
| Satire needs a target to actually be satire. Something
| can be silly, lighthearted, or humorous without being
| satire. On the flip side, satire itself doesn't actually
| need to be funny to be effective satire.
|
| So for your example, what is the dead salmon study
| satirizing? Is there some other study that did something
| similar that they're making fun of? Is there a broader
| scientific movement that they're criticizing?
|
| I concede that there may be a target that I'm not aware
| of. But I find it more likely that someone just said
| "what if we put a dead fish in an fMRI", and their
| colleagues found it funny enough to actually do. Many
| scientists have a sense of humor, and will absolutely do
| something just because they think it would be funny.
| jaggederest wrote:
| > So for your example, what is the dead salmon study
| satirizing? Is there some other study that did something
| similar that they're making fun of? Is there a broader
| scientific movement that they're criticizing?
|
| Yes. fMRI studies are used to "prove" this and that about
| cortex activation under certain kinds of tasks, and
| they're demonstrating that even a dead salmon shows
| significant activity under fMRI if you analyze it "in the
| standard way". Thus, it's absurd to draw conclusions in a
| psychological or psychiatric context without screening
| for false positives.
|
| The arch-satirist Jonathan Swift is always my archetype.
| A modest proposal was about the famine in Ireland, but
| more than that, it was about a certain kind of English
| attitude that external technocracy could solve problems
| in the face of exploitation and callous disregard.
| ajb wrote:
| This one is quite good:
| https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC300808/
|
| Also https://www.cell.com/cancer-
| cell/fulltext/S1535-6108%2802%29...
| smitelli wrote:
| "Remember, you cannot make normal more normal because that is
| abnormal."
|
| I will indeed remember that.
| DiggyJohnson wrote:
| Worth the read.
|
| I am so worried that we as a society have lost the ability to
| write well, and risk losing the ability to recognize and
| appreciate good writing. Rote professional written communication
| skills are changing and diminishing. The written word is
| generally seen to be a burden. Anyways, bittersweet thoughts from
| a really funny article.
| MrMcCall wrote:
| This place really is good practice for all sorts of skills:
| expressive, physical, mental, emotional, and even spiritual.
| And beyond learning about various zones of my beloved nerdtech,
| there are very subtle levels of sociology, anthropology, and
| psychology on display here, too.
|
| But yeah, the decline is real, my friend. I declined to use IRC
| for all these years, and I'm afraid its descendant, texting,
| has not improved our society's level of anything beyond the
| most mundane trivial pursuits.
| bongodongobob wrote:
| I think this is a poor example of "society writing well". It
| reads like a medical journal. I personally hate it and couldn't
| get through it.
| nuz wrote:
| Well this is from the 80s when writing was still quite
| respected and practiced
| blt wrote:
| Thanks to LLMs, the death of stylish writing in non-literary
| fields is assured. I agree, many people seem to view writing as
| a burden.
|
| I have only met a handful of people that can lay out a complex
| argument from scratch in speech alone. For most of us, writing
| is thinking. If you avoid writing, your ideas will remain murky
| forever.
| codexb wrote:
| Up until recently, there always seemed to be a marked
| difference between the way people spoke vs how they conveyed
| thoughts in writing. These days, it often feels like most
| writing is just conversational and stream of consciousness and
| differs little from how many people speak.
|
| It always makes me curious how we generally view the people of
| antiquity as speaking very eloquently and properly, but that's
| probably because we only have writings from their time, not
| recordings of how they actually spoke.
| blharr wrote:
| I'm surprised you mention us not having recordings of the
| older times being why we thought people spoke eloquently.
| Even in old recorded audio and video, like old TV, it feels
| to me like people speak much more eloquently.
| jaggederest wrote:
| Go listen to some Teddy Roosevelt speeches, blown away by
| the clarity and fluency. Or the Cross of Gold audio
| snippets.
| codexb wrote:
| Prepared speeches don't really count; they're basically
| reading written prose. I'd be interested to hear actual
| conversations from Victorian times. I wonder if they are
| anything like how we write them in TV shows and movies.
| jaggederest wrote:
| Well, we do have recordings from that period, but it
| would be as out there as having a finetuned AI of your
| own writings these days so I don't know how natural it
| would have been.
|
| Also, apparently TR used the manuscript much less than
| most speakers, delivering much of the actual wording
| impromptu and the general structure from the script, so
| he was actually pretty fluent off the cuff.
| grahamj wrote:
| tbf with the advent of text messaging and the internet a much
| greater proportion of text _is_ conversation
| exmadscientist wrote:
| Part of the reason this is written like it is is that it is the
| work of a true master. (Like his opinions or not, he's come by
| them the hard way and really does know what he's talking
| about.) Mastery is just not as common as it used to be,
| probably in no small part because there is so much more to
| cover these days.
|
| But when you find someone else who really knows their topic,
| inside and out -- they will probably write about it a lot like
| this.
| Mistletoe wrote:
| https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-our-team-over...
|
| It's really important, ok?
| rob74 wrote:
| All those cartoons had it right all along: four fingers per hand
| is more than enough!
| tomcam wrote:
| You try to find the matching kid gloves, pal
| mst wrote:
| I have no trivial solution to this, but "make friends with
| somebody who likes knitting things" will probably work well.
| (I wear a wrist brace on my left arm a lot of the time so I
| need significantly lopsided gloves and that's the only
| solution I've found to *that* problem)
| humanfromearth9 wrote:
| Yeah, but maybe this should be a bit more specific and state
| that one should always be the thumb.
|
| And then, why have we evolved with 5 of 4 is enough? Is it for
| redundancy, in case one fails? If yes, why is there no second
| thumb?
| layer8 wrote:
| GenAI models disagree. ;)
| MrMcCall wrote:
| I'm rather ambivalent about the index finger. The middle finger,
| however...
| rob74 wrote:
| Look at it this way: if there was no index finger, you wouldn't
| have a middle finger either...
| azangru wrote:
| > if there was no index finger, you wouldn't have a middle
| finger either
|
| You would have two :-)
| valicord wrote:
| No, you'd actually have two middle fingers then: upper middle
| finger and lower middle finger. Just think of the
| possibilities!
| lcnPylGDnU4H9OF wrote:
| I guess if you lose all but one finger on a hand then, among
| other things, you will be unable to point at anything with it
| without flipping someone off.
| MrMcCall wrote:
| Call it a feature, not a bug ;-)
| dogman1050 wrote:
| My ring finger is on my mind presently. It's turned into a
| trigger finger from riding a stiff clutch motorcycle for a week
| nine months ago. If bent too close to my palm it doesn't come
| back without help. It's interfering with my Spiderman web
| shooter operation. Must have it looked at.
| MrMcCall wrote:
| That's interesting. My wife's cooking has done it to her ring
| finger as well. She spoke to a hand orthopedist, but he said
| that she'd be out of action for weeks if they did the
| procedute that shaves it, so they just gave her a shot of
| roids to help it calm down. They can do that up to three
| times before they need to do the shaving procedure. Good luck
| with it, Spidey ;-)
| engineer_22 wrote:
| Having experienced mallet finger in the past, I might
| consider wearing a splint for a couple weeks to let it heal
| iwontberude wrote:
| Whoever wrote this was creating satire and I don't even know if
| they realize it.
| consumer451 wrote:
| People still surprise me, but given this part, it's hard for me
| to imagine that the author was not being satirical on purpose:
|
| > Obviously, I do not like arrogant disabled index digits and
| believe they should be removed if they cannot be restored to a
| functional status. There is no in-between with index fingers.
|
| > To me, index fingers portray a hideous personality reflecting
| conceit and pantywaist attitudes. In essence, they are smart-
| ass digits we can often do without. If I had to lose a finger
| and had my choice, I would choose first my nondominant hand
| index ray and next the other index. I find index digits easy to
| hate and sometimes hard to love.
|
| Although, maybe the author's point was serious?
| idlewords wrote:
| If you read through carefully, the author is making a serious
| point: that in many cases of injury to the index finger, it
| is better functionally and cosmetically to remove it. He
| cites examples of patients with chronic pain or burning in
| the stump, and patients who have the remaining portion of the
| finger permanently extended, facilitating re-injury.
|
| I'm no fingerologist but I do appreciate anyone who can make
| serious points in such a funny way.
| consumer451 wrote:
| I definitely noticed that, but if the goal was to convey a
| serious point, then would that be best served by humorous
| delivery?
|
| That's the confusion I was trying to express by saying:
| "Although, maybe the author's point was serious?"
| dnsco wrote:
| The point the author is making seems to be against the
| consensus of other hand specialists (this is at least my
| perception, as someone who has an index finger issue and
| has asked specialists "can't I just cut it off?").
|
| The author is basically (and provocatively) saying "Are
| you kidding me? You really think it's useful for people
| to continue to be burdened with non-functional
| appendages?" to his colleagues, and I think the humor is
| likely to get them to engage with his thesis rather than
| dismiss it off hand.
|
| I have sent this to several doctor friends, and the
| writing style prompted them to send it to several more,
| so, I think it's quite likely that tone served the
| author's point.
| consumer451 wrote:
| I was going to ask you about this on your top-level
| comment, so thanks for finding my confusion and
| responding. That is super interesting. Wow.
| nikanj wrote:
| His target audience is not the patients, its other
| doctors. Just like any other professions, the best talks
| / articles are the ones that are a pleasant audience
| experience. A dead-dry paper just gets skimmed and
| changes nobody's mind
| dnsco wrote:
| I partially amputated (at the joint closest to the nail) my index
| finger a decade ago, and it's been a huge impediment. This has
| motivated me to seek out some other opinions.
|
| Sent it to some doctor friends and they are floored by the
| writing style as well.
| sph wrote:
| It's hard for me to rationalise that a few cms off the index
| could be a huge impediment, so can you please share where you
| find yourself impaired the most? I imagine gripping things,
| like a glass, should be more or less unaffected.
| dnsco wrote:
| TL;DR nerves are really weird.
|
| It tingles all the time. There's a ton of "referred pain". It
| frequently feels like there is a dental drill going of in my
| face, when it's not painful, it's a a persistent nagging
| tickle, on my cheek/temple/around my eye.
|
| It gets reynauds phenomena, my house is 68F 20C right now,
| but my finger is freezing/painful because of how cold it is,
| this happens pretty much any time I wash my hand, so even in
| the summer when there's a slight breeze I'm hiding my hand in
| my pocket for warmth.
|
| When I bang it on things it really hurts, and like this paper
| says it's extended basically all the time when I'm trying to
| use my hand for other things.
|
| When I use it to grab things, it feels really weird, so I've
| kind of trained myself to keep it out of the way. This paper
| says cut it off, which the few other orthopedists I've talked
| to have not advised, but at this point, it's been a decade,
| and seeing a doctor be like "dude, the thing that's only
| there to make your hand more precise, is actually making your
| hand way less precise and detracting from your quality of
| life, cut it off", is a perspective I'm happy to hear. I
| manage mostly alright, but it's been a decade of major
| annoyance at best.
| Zancarius wrote:
| This is really fascinating to me, because it explains some
| things.
|
| I have a friend who crushed the tip of one of her fingers,
| but it wasn't amputated. She's described sensations very
| similar to yours, presumably from nerve damage. I never
| asked a bunch of questions about it, and now I wish I had
| after reading this post.
|
| If it ever comes up in conversation again, may I share a
| link to your comment with her?
| fouc wrote:
| HN is a public site. Posts here are public. Share.
| 4k93n2 wrote:
| i dont have any nerve damage (that i know of) but if i
| touch along my ring or little finger near the knuckle,
| sometimes i feel a tickling sensation on my cheek next to
| my ear. kinda weird!
| buildsjets wrote:
| I lost the tip of my right thumb on a planer, but kept the
| joint. I experience similar phenomena. The worst thing is
| pushing a supermarket shopping cart on a rough surface, the
| vibrations it sends into my hand are intensely painful.
| Also iDevice touchscreens hate my nub.
| specialist wrote:
| Have you tried any of the neuroplasticity stuff for
| mitigating chronic pain?
|
| I experience referred pain. I'm told my brain's
| intepretation is out of sync with the stimulation. Phantom
| limb syndrome is an example.
|
| Swedish Hospital (Seattle WA) Pain Services clinic got me
| on the right path. https://www.swedish.org/services/pain-
| services For me, it was a 4 week course, 3 days/week. Learn
| (or relearn) meditation, breathing, the current best
| available science about pain, life skills, etc.
|
| Maybe call them up to help find a clinic near you.
|
| The curriculum seems like total bullshit. But it somehow
| worked, despite me thinking it wouldn't. I now do a daily
| regiment that's supposed to reprogram my brain. Including
| tai chi and HIIT. Seems to be working. A lot of initial
| progress (like clearing a plugged drain) and now slow and
| steady improvement. YMMV.
|
| I'm sorry about your pain. Of all my chronic pains, the
| nerve stuff is by far the worst. So I can sympathize a bit.
| I hope you find some relief.
| codingdave wrote:
| Gabapentin is what worked for me. I won't presume that
| the same answer is going to work for all of us, but I'm
| in agreement that there are a number of things that can
| be tried between "suffer through it" and "cut it off".
| Besides, if the amputation of the end of a nerve is
| causing so many problems, more amputation will just give
| you another cut of the nerve at a different point. I'm no
| doctor, but that sounds like it could backfire bigtime.
| ninalanyon wrote:
| "When you make the patient your enthusiastic ally in
| reconstructive surgery, you can get him to fly with six or eight
| small feathers."
|
| That is just brilliant. The article was an object lesson in
| clarity and humanity.
| navigate8310 wrote:
| Quite a jarring and informative article. I had no clue how
| finicky muscles are and bad amputation may result net negative
| results to the patient.
| leoc wrote:
| Probably most experienced drumkit players don't generally use
| their index fingers either (except when playing the ride cymbal).
| BriggyDwiggs42 wrote:
| It's useful for fast finger strokes
| fellowniusmonk wrote:
| I mean if the middle finger is that versatile and important it's
| great that we have less important fingers providing a buffer on
| both sides of it.
|
| Ablative fingering, what an innovation.
| JohnMakin wrote:
| As an older competitive gamer, I liked the part of this that
| describes how on injury or amputation the middle finger will
| quickly take over the index duties - I've noticed over the years
| that when my "trigger" finger on a controller is experiencing
| tendonitis and I have to rest it, that my middle finger performs
| just as adequately and I barely notice. This has always surprised
| me.
| greenmartian wrote:
| I've got the inverse problem. Middle is my trigger finger. And
| when it's tired, I fall back to using the index finger. With
| games that are sensitive to analog trigger levels (e.g. car
| throttle), it's extremely noticeable how much my precision
| degrades when using the index.
|
| Always chalked it up to not enough practice. After reading this
| paper, I feel somewhat vindicated. It's not my fault, it's the
| finger's.
| onelesd wrote:
| This article is giving Kurt Vonnegut and I love it.
| flint wrote:
| I play string bass. Many suggest you focus your attention through
| the thumb of your left hand as you practice.
| picometer wrote:
| I'm a violinist (amateur but play regularly). When I have an
| important note, which is held for a while and needs vibrato, I
| frequently decide to shift my left hand position so that my
| middle finger is responsible, rather than the index finger. It
| feels stronger, easier to nail the intonation (pitch) with
| precision, and freer to perform the desired type of vibrato.
| (String players do vibrato by wiggling the left hand finger,
| which affects the pitch and overtones / oscillation modes of the
| string.) In fact, I tend to avoid using the index finger on notes
| that require vibrato.
|
| That preference might be explained here, by the
| precision/strength combination. I tried holding a hammer as
| described in the author's hammer exercise, and there's
| similarity, though it requires much more weight-holding. The left
| hand doesn't hold the weight of the violin (consider a cello or a
| guitar with shoulder strap), but a little grip strength is
| required to securely hold down the string, especially with
| vibrato.
|
| Overall, fascinating article. I feel quite motivated to read more
| on hand anatomy and biomechanics.
| MrMcCall wrote:
| Sounds like the precise opposite of B.B. King doing his famed
| vibrato, by 'twilling' (?) around his index finger.
| litenboll wrote:
| Similar on guitar with bends I think. I feel like using the
| index finger is very awkward, I use the middle finger or ring
| finger (when what I'm playing allows it) rather than the index
| finger. Typically with the next finger behind to guide and
| provide stability/strength.
| omershapira wrote:
| The proprioception on the index finger while bending on
| guitar is worse for me than locking the ring finger and using
| the wrist to control the magnitude of the bend. Useless
| backfill-ass finger.
| throw4847285 wrote:
| Well it worked for Roland Deschain...
| excalibur wrote:
| IIRC Roland lost his middle finger as well and had to pull the
| trigger with his ring finger.
| psunavy03 wrote:
| "I do not shoot with my hand; he who shoots with his hand has
| forgotten the face of his father. I shoot with my mind."
| Ancalagon wrote:
| Hilariously, I anecdotally also can relate to this. I'm a
| competitive powerlifter and the calluses on my hands and fingers
| are most pronounced on the middle, ring, and pinky - with very
| little on the index.
| blharr wrote:
| Huh, now that you mention it, after rock climbing, I similarly
| got the least callused on my index finger. Even the base of my
| index near the palm is much less worn than the rest of the non-
| thumb fingers
| hawski wrote:
| I do pullups sometimes and I also observed this. I wonder if it
| is related to how index finger is not really in-line with the
| arm. When I look at my hand I can see that if U would draw
| extension lines from edges of my forearm they would contain
| middle, ring and pinky fingers, but not really the index
| finger.
| ossopite wrote:
| I could relate to the claims in the article: for the last 6
| months I've had soreness and pain in my left index fingertip that
| has confounded the doctors I've seen about it, and all that's
| helped is to avoid using it. Perhaps someone here has experienced
| something similar?
|
| When typing I feel pain initially at the fingertip where nail
| meets skin, which worsens and radiates around to the middle
| finger side of the fingernail after more use. Even when typing
| without using the index finger, stretching the finger to keep it
| away from the keyboard induces some pain after a while. If I cut
| the nail very short, I think I notice some tenderness and loss of
| sensation in a spot near the middle of the skin just under the
| nail edge.
|
| I think the pain developed over time while heavily using a split
| mechanical keyboard (kinesis freestyle edge) with poor typing
| technique and putting repeated pressure on the tip and side of
| the finger, but it has not gone away after switching to something
| more comfortable (kinesis 360). I don't remember any significant
| injury happening.
|
| The only visual sign is that the skin seems strongly attached to
| the nail near its edge, there is minimal free edge compared to
| what my other fingernails (which are all short) have. Actually
| that is somewhat true of the other index finger, but to a much
| lesser extent. There is nothing apparently abnormal about the
| skin under the nail but perhaps any issue isn't visible.
|
| Interestingly, the pain seems worse when my hands are warmer.
|
| X-rays/MRI/ultrasound scans showed nothing abnormal apparently.
| All my internet searching for an explanation has yielded nothing,
| hence writing this comment to see if anyone can help.
| akdor1154 wrote:
| Unsure about the new one, but on a mechanical keyboard, stick
| rubber o-rings under all the keycaps to make impacts much
| softer.
| ossopite wrote:
| I did actually try that, and it felt like it helped for a
| brief while, but not for long
| Superfud wrote:
| This is probably the very first thing you tried, but maybe
| don't cut the nail quite so short? Recommend upgrading to sharp
| and precise nail cutters as they make it easier to control
| exact nail length.
| ossopite wrote:
| Ha, I have tried long and short. Somehow when the nail is
| longer it feels like there is more soreness, maybe more
| tension created between the nail and whatever is up with the
| skin underneath, I don't know
| tomcam wrote:
| Someday my arthritis will get me beaten to a pulp by a gang
| member or, more likely, a cop. I seem to get itches on my face a
| lot and scratching with my index finger hurts too much. I use my
| middle finger instead. I try to be situationally aware but it's
| only going to take one lapse...
| nurbl wrote:
| The hammer example made me remember something. I did some Aikido
| long ago, and the instructor spent quite a lot of time showing us
| how to grip things like sticks. As I remember it, instead of the
| instinctive way of just forming a fist around it, we should
| instead start from the little finger, wrapping the fingers one by
| one, but letting the index finger actually rest more along the
| handle than wrapping it. That way, supposedly, the grip is just
| as good, but more flexible and the index finger can help with
| control.
| robaato wrote:
| This is a classic way to teach use of a sword. It's also easy
| to feel what happens. Compare the feeling when gripping with
| first two fingers vs 3rd and 4th. With first 2, you will feel
| tension along top of forearm, whereas with the other 2 it is
| the underneath of forearm. This affects flexibility, softness,
| and thus ability to manipulate the sword.
| williamscales wrote:
| This tracks with my experience fencing using a pistol grip.
| The index finger mostly gets in the way and I even injured
| mine using it too much. The middle finger is the main driver
| of grip and control.
| js2 wrote:
| Similarly, holding a chef's knife you wrap your thumb and
| index around the blade, with the remaining three fingers
| around the handle:
|
| https://www.epicurious.com/expert-advice/how-to-hold-a-
| knife...
| hinkley wrote:
| Most martial arts teach something like this.
|
| Typical civilian relies too heavily on the index finger when
| grabbing for instance your arm, and that makes it easier to
| twist out of the grapple, by using the shoulder and the bicep
| to lever out along the line halfway between the thumb and the
| index finger. Usually these are stronger muscles than the
| forearm, possible exception of rock climbers.
| trgn wrote:
| index finger is useless for holding tennis racket too.
| stevage wrote:
| Makes me think of Tommy Caldwell, top-tier rock climber who
| created so many of the iconic routes in Yosemite Valley. Despite
| losing an index finger in his 20s.
| dumbfounder wrote:
| "In spite of its singular ability of precision, it is not
| difficult to feel ashamed of the index finger."
|
| "To me, index fingers portray a hideous personality reflecting
| conceit and pantywaist attitudes. In essence, they are smart-ass
| digits we can often do without. If I had to lose a finger and had
| my choice, I would choose first my nondominant hand index ray and
| next the other index. I find index digits easy to hate and
| sometimes hard to love."
|
| LOL
| grahamj wrote:
| yeah TIL pantywaist is a word
| grahamj wrote:
| Great article. Unfortunately the author overlooked a critical use
| case for the index finger: the Vulcan salute.
| theultdev wrote:
| When I was teaching my wife how to play shooters I had to study
| how I was using my left hand on the keyboard.
|
| I noticed that the WASD placement excluded the middle finger.
| Once you lift it up and keep it hovering, the pinky hitting A,
| the ring hitting W and S and the index hitting D, it's very easy
| to dance them.
|
| I find the middle finger much less responsive than other fingers
| due to tendon connections (it is much stronger though as another
| user noted for bowling)
|
| I am left handed but I do use the PC like a "normal" person. She
| is right handed and she played noticeably better once doing this.
|
| The other major thing was to avoid cross talk between hands. Full
| aiming related things on the right, full movement related things
| on the left. (grenades, aimed abilities, etc. on mouse keys)
|
| Related note: in paintball, you feather the trigger with the
| index and middle finger as they are the fastest. The pinky is
| also fast but the ring is so slow that doesn't work. Middle and
| ring is slow for the same reason.
|
| TLDR: ring is your muscle finger, other fingers are more agile.
| duderific wrote:
| As a competitive bowler, the index finger is not used at all. The
| middle and ring fingers are inserted into the finger holes. I
| think it has to do with the connection to forearm muscles as
| described in the paper - the middle and ring fingers provide the
| most grip strength which is required to provide torque to the
| ball.
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