My name is Tired, formerly known (by primarily friends) by the moniker TiredSysadmin. I work as a System Administrator and Information Assurance Officer. These days I spend more time at my desk writing reports and managing people rather than servers, but that’s the nature of growing up I suppose.
I never really cared about Keebs if I’m being honest. I was the “If it Clicks it Fits” type gamer who wanted his RGB with a side of loud mechanical switches and didn’t really concern myself with much else. As I get older, however, I find more and more that I need the items at my desk to not just serve a purpose but be of a design that fits ME. This includes the typing experience of my keyboard. What I find myself focused on a few key attributes:
-Space utilization.
-Aesthetically pleasing work spaces.
-Comfortable and pleasing typing experience.
On Tuesday of this week I received my first big investment into those ideals, my Drop Alt keeb with Cherry MX Browns. While this isn’t exactly a unique choice, it was a phenomenal space reduction coming from a Corsair Strafe Mk.2 gaming keyboard and the option to hot-swap keys and modify keyboard with QMK came as a huge bonus and a great (albeit pricey) segway into a new obsession. Now that I have a 65% board, I see endless possibilities in front of me to customize my keeb experience in search of the perfect, most aesthetically pleasing, most comfortable keeb out there for me. I look forward to getting to interact with you all as a member of such a fine community.
Welcome to the community! Drop Alt is a good gateway - I ordered one back in May, and ended up buying and trying out a different keeb while I waited for it; band-aided and lubed the stabs on it and it’s a pretty nice board. Great place to try out new switches too. Definitely play around with QMK - I have a new Preonic on my desk now, and even its default keymap is giving me some nice ideas to take back onto my Alt mappings. Although now I’m starting to think about going with fewer keys…
What are your current thoughts on aesthetic and comfortable?
Be warned, I went a little overboard in my response. Sorry in advance!
Thanks for the warm welcome! Aesthetics for me is less about color and more about space. It’s one of the main factors for switching away from my Corsair and moving to the Alt. The smaller form factor and clear design gives my desk a feeling like I have more room. I have a lot of issues with clutter and it produces and almost tangible anxiety in me when I feel distracted by my lack of space in a work area or there is an excess of clutter. It made me good at running cables as a Sysadmin
Comfort is both internal and external imho. Externally, it’s about how my hands fit the keyboards, height, weight, key press, the kinds of things you’d expect. Internally it is a lot less specific. It’s about feeling “right” if you don’t mind me being a tad obscure about it. It’s like trying on new shoes and you are looking for all these functional things, then you put on a pair and something just clicks and you’re like “Yeah, these are the right ones.” I’m after the same thing with my entire desk space, but primarily focused around my keyboard as that is the tool of my trade. It’s a craftsman approach.
That all sounds so egotistical when I put it down like that, lol. Honestly, I just want to be happy when I’m at home working. It’s bad enough that I don’t get to customize my office space (where I’m currently typing on some god awful HP standard keyboard) so I don’t feel like I should compromise the “look and feel” at home.
@Binson I’m glad that the walls of text are appreciated. As my Wife always says, I have a tendency to become “a storyteller” when I start speaking about something I am even remotely passionate about.
I never knew how much having a keyboard that I put a lot of time and research into would drastically change the way I feel about how I work on a daily basis.
Also Deep Work by Cal Newport. That entire novel will change the way you feel about your own professional productivity.
