> 2) Sit up straight, dammit. In every photo we ever see of new startups, how many people are sitting with good posture? None of them.
Do you have data that indicates that contributes to RSI? My personal experience is that trying to "sit up straight" and maintain "good" posture is the fastest, most direct route to wrist pain. Like, less than a half hour. By contrast, if I slouch my body, my wrists can maintain a graceful positive curve (not straight or bent back) and I can comfortably code or game for hours (though I try not to sit in one place that long, in general). As a side benefit, this also puts my eyes at a better angle when I'm using the laptop screen.
The thoracic region of the spine is supposedly very sturdy and resilient to injury. But sitting hunched over with head forward over many years can catch up to you.
It's possible that other parts of your workstation are out of place (this is something I need to figure out how to fix myself): chair height, monitor distance, chair angle, desk height, etc.
Do you have data that indicates that contributes to RSI?
Well, I have horrendous neck and shoulder problems from years of sitting improperly. I had no issues whatsoever for decades of uber-nerdy computing, then blammo, I went from, "my neck seems tense" to "my left index finger is numb and I can't sit at a computer for more than an hour" in a couple of months. An ex, who had previously been a massage therapist, even specifically warned me that I had problems in the upper back area, but since I felt no discomfort I ignored her.
Here's the really bothersome part: while this awful neck/back injury was developing, things that were terrible for me actually felt good. For example, having one leg crossed over the other, left arm on my knee, slouching forward with my chin resting on my hand. It felt like a great neck stretch but, wow, was it ever demolishing my neck!
As for RSI with regards to the wrist and hands, I don't see how proper posture could exacerbate wrist pain. If it does, I would suspect that you need to examine other factors, like keyboard height and hand placement width (e.g. my Kinesis puts my hands much further apart than a standard keyboard, which makes a huge difference in wrist pain).
By the way, did you know that modern shirts are actually cut differently than decades past, because the average person's shoulders have rotated significantly forward? If you try to maintain posture in a typical, modern shirt, you'll have bunching in weird places because it's not cut for that!
Do you have data that indicates that contributes to RSI? My personal experience is that trying to "sit up straight" and maintain "good" posture is the fastest, most direct route to wrist pain. Like, less than a half hour. By contrast, if I slouch my body, my wrists can maintain a graceful positive curve (not straight or bent back) and I can comfortably code or game for hours (though I try not to sit in one place that long, in general). As a side benefit, this also puts my eyes at a better angle when I'm using the laptop screen.