WEBVTT - Right-Handed Bias: A Sinister Problem 0:00:04.400 --> 0:00:07.760 Welcome to text Time, a production from I Heart Radio. 0:00:12.160 --> 0:00:15.520 Hey there, and welcome to tex Stuff. I'm your host, 0:00:15.680 --> 0:00:19.200 Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with I Heart Radio, 0:00:19.280 --> 0:00:23.160 and I love all things tech and it is a 0:00:23.400 --> 0:00:27.280 story time you guys. Now, those of you who follow 0:00:27.480 --> 0:00:32.839 my personal account over on Twitter, which is at John Strickland, 0:00:33.080 --> 0:00:39.200 it's j O. N. Strickland. If you're morbidly curious. Those 0:00:39.240 --> 0:00:41.320 of you who do follow me, you might know that 0:00:41.440 --> 0:00:47.120 I was eagerly anticipating the delivery of a Squire Classic 0:00:47.240 --> 0:00:52.319 Sixties Vibe Stratocaster, an electric guitar. And you know, I've 0:00:52.360 --> 0:00:55.200 done episodes about electric guitars, I've talked about them a lot, 0:00:55.840 --> 0:00:59.000 and I thought, I really want one of these. It 0:00:59.040 --> 0:01:01.240 would be really nice to have one. This would have 0:01:01.280 --> 0:01:05.199 been my first six string electric guitar. And I figured, 0:01:05.200 --> 0:01:07.720 since you know, I'm working from home now, it would 0:01:07.720 --> 0:01:10.600 be good to pick up a new skill to keep 0:01:10.640 --> 0:01:13.640 my mind sharp and occupied, and you know, to help 0:01:13.640 --> 0:01:16.679 me get into a sort of meditative state to help 0:01:16.800 --> 0:01:20.840 manage anxiety. By the way, um, anxiety is a real 0:01:21.080 --> 0:01:24.440 pain in the butt, and I recommend anyone who has 0:01:24.480 --> 0:01:27.360 anxiety to look into ways to manage it in a 0:01:27.440 --> 0:01:30.399 really healthy manner, because that stuff is no joke, and 0:01:30.440 --> 0:01:33.960 it's obviously getting more challenging to deal with that. Anyway, 0:01:33.959 --> 0:01:37.520 back to my story, I had been thinking about getting 0:01:37.520 --> 0:01:40.800 a guitar, and I wanted it to be a decent guitar, 0:01:41.200 --> 0:01:43.479 you know, something I would actually want to pick up 0:01:43.520 --> 0:01:47.360 and play. I didn't want to buy something super cheap 0:01:47.680 --> 0:01:49.600 and then find out I didn't like the feel of 0:01:49.640 --> 0:01:53.320 it or how it sounded, because that would discourage me 0:01:53.400 --> 0:01:55.840 from playing it. I would just set it down and 0:01:55.880 --> 0:01:57.920 never pick it up again. But on the other hand, 0:01:58.160 --> 0:02:00.960 I also didn't want to go crazy and buy some 0:02:01.040 --> 0:02:04.200 sort of, you know, super expensive guitar, because guitars can 0:02:04.240 --> 0:02:07.360 get real expensive, y'all. I mean, what if I didn't 0:02:07.440 --> 0:02:10.160 like playing guitar just because I didn't like it? Right? 0:02:10.240 --> 0:02:13.040 What if I decided that I didn't enjoy playing. I 0:02:13.080 --> 0:02:16.840 am forty five years old this year, and skills just 0:02:16.919 --> 0:02:19.120 don't come to me as quickly as they used to. 0:02:20.000 --> 0:02:24.440 So it's entirely possible that I could become frustrated or 0:02:24.480 --> 0:02:27.560 I could become bored, even with a really nice guitar, 0:02:28.160 --> 0:02:31.920 and then just set it down and let it collect dust. 0:02:32.520 --> 0:02:34.720 So I would have wasted a lot of money on 0:02:34.760 --> 0:02:38.520 a really expensive decoration at that point, and that would 0:02:38.520 --> 0:02:42.359 be really irresponsible even in a good economic climate, let 0:02:42.400 --> 0:02:45.920 alone one as uncertain as the one we find ourselves 0:02:45.960 --> 0:02:49.600 in today. So I did what I do. I did 0:02:49.639 --> 0:02:54.560 a lot of research, like a lot of research. My 0:02:54.600 --> 0:02:57.760 wife was getting amused by how frequently I was watching 0:02:57.840 --> 0:03:03.760 videos about different guitars and different price ranges, weighing them, saying, well, yeah, 0:03:03.800 --> 0:03:06.800 this is gonna be a slightly less expensive guitar, which 0:03:06.800 --> 0:03:09.800 means it's going to have these sort of things that 0:03:09.880 --> 0:03:12.760 I'll have to consider. But but on the other hand, 0:03:12.880 --> 0:03:15.120 it's better than this other guitar, you know. I went 0:03:15.160 --> 0:03:19.280 through all of that. Ultimately I decided I wanted a 0:03:19.360 --> 0:03:23.519 strato caster, a classic electric guitar. The strato caster is 0:03:23.560 --> 0:03:27.280 made by Fender, and I really like the sound of 0:03:27.320 --> 0:03:30.919 strato casters now. I love stuff like surf rock, and 0:03:31.040 --> 0:03:34.160 Dick Dale, one of the most famous surf rock guitarists, 0:03:34.680 --> 0:03:38.000 played a strat But I also wanted to be financially 0:03:38.040 --> 0:03:42.000 responsible because there are a lot of different strato casters 0:03:42.000 --> 0:03:45.760 out there, and generally they mostly share a couple of 0:03:45.840 --> 0:03:51.640 common traits. Most strato casters have three single coil pickups, 0:03:51.720 --> 0:03:54.760 and the pickups are the components that pick up the 0:03:54.880 --> 0:03:58.320 vibration of the strings and then convert that into electric 0:03:58.400 --> 0:04:01.640 signals that can then feed out to an amplifier and speakers. 0:04:02.120 --> 0:04:05.840 Strats have three of these, typically one near the base 0:04:06.040 --> 0:04:08.760 of the neck of the guitar the neck pickup, one 0:04:08.800 --> 0:04:11.200 in the middle of the body of the guitar, and 0:04:11.280 --> 0:04:15.160 one towards the bridge of the guitar. A switch on 0:04:15.240 --> 0:04:19.200 the strat lets you select which pickup or which pair 0:04:19.279 --> 0:04:21.920 of pickups are active at any given time, and that 0:04:22.040 --> 0:04:24.360 changes the sound you get out of the guitar when 0:04:24.360 --> 0:04:29.840 it plays through an amplifier. But beyond these general similarities, 0:04:29.880 --> 0:04:33.279 there are a ton of different options. You can buy 0:04:33.279 --> 0:04:37.440 a starter entry level strat for less than two hundred dollars, 0:04:37.560 --> 0:04:40.320 or you could go bunkers and buy a mod shop 0:04:40.360 --> 0:04:44.080 guitar for around eight hundred dollars. So yeah, there is 0:04:44.200 --> 0:04:47.040 a range, and of course if you went full custom 0:04:47.080 --> 0:04:51.359 shop it could be way more expensive. So I looked 0:04:51.360 --> 0:04:54.520 into the Squire line of guitars. Now this is Fender's 0:04:54.680 --> 0:04:58.280 budget line, but they tend to measure up pretty well 0:04:58.440 --> 0:05:03.800 to guitars from the more prestigious official Fender line, particularly 0:05:04.160 --> 0:05:07.479 in the Squire Classic Vibe series, which are guitars they 0:05:07.480 --> 0:05:09.479 are designed to be closer to the style of the 0:05:09.520 --> 0:05:13.599 classic electric guitars of the fifties and sixties. Now, I'm 0:05:13.680 --> 0:05:17.279 left handed, and that's really what I'm going to get 0:05:17.320 --> 0:05:21.280 into in this episode, because being left handed means there 0:05:21.279 --> 0:05:24.680 are a lot of little struggles in your life. Most 0:05:24.720 --> 0:05:28.599 of the time, they aren't particularly meaningful or noteworthy. They 0:05:28.640 --> 0:05:32.919 tend to mostly be slightly frustrating at worst, and that's 0:05:33.080 --> 0:05:35.919 about it most of the time. So I want to 0:05:35.920 --> 0:05:38.679 stress from the beginning of this episode that the stuff 0:05:38.720 --> 0:05:42.039 I'm going to talk about is really not that big 0:05:42.040 --> 0:05:44.640 a deal in the grand scheme of things most of 0:05:44.640 --> 0:05:48.080 the time. But being left handed often means that when 0:05:48.080 --> 0:05:51.719 it comes to purchasing stuff where handedness is a factor, 0:05:52.200 --> 0:05:56.159 like guitars, you're faced with fewer options than you're right 0:05:56.200 --> 0:05:59.919 handed counterparts. For example, if you were to go to 0:06:00.120 --> 0:06:03.839 Fenders website the morning that I wrote this, and you 0:06:03.880 --> 0:06:07.320 were to look at the different options for electric guitars 0:06:07.320 --> 0:06:10.280 that they had in stock, you would see at that 0:06:10.360 --> 0:06:14.159 time that the company had one hundred eleven guitars for 0:06:14.320 --> 0:06:20.120 right handers in stock for left handers eight eight versus 0:06:20.240 --> 0:06:25.840 one hundred eleven. Now, typically a left hander has fewer options, 0:06:25.880 --> 0:06:30.120 and then fewer choices within those options, choices like the 0:06:30.200 --> 0:06:33.960 color of the guitar, for example. So while I could 0:06:34.040 --> 0:06:38.719 have loved a Candy Apple red left handed Squire Classic 0:06:38.760 --> 0:06:43.080 Sixties Vibes stratocaster, that was not an option. Nor could 0:06:43.120 --> 0:06:46.760 I get the lovely Lake Placid blue option that right 0:06:46.839 --> 0:06:51.039 handers could get. Those right handed versions had Candy Apple 0:06:51.080 --> 0:06:53.880 red and Lake Placid blue, but for left handers you 0:06:53.920 --> 0:06:58.080 didn't have a choice. There was only one color option, sunburst, 0:06:58.440 --> 0:07:02.640 which sadly is my least favorite of the three colors. 0:07:02.680 --> 0:07:05.520 But hey, them's the brakes. And while I wasn't in 0:07:05.600 --> 0:07:07.800 love with the color, I could live with it. And 0:07:07.839 --> 0:07:10.360 I did love all the things I read about the 0:07:10.480 --> 0:07:14.160 line of guitars, so I didn't really let that bother 0:07:14.280 --> 0:07:18.440 me so much. And before anyone pipes up about restringing 0:07:18.600 --> 0:07:21.440 a guitar so that you can convert a right handed 0:07:21.440 --> 0:07:25.760 guitar into a left handed guitar, yeah, I could technically 0:07:25.760 --> 0:07:29.080 have purchased a right handed Candy Apple red model, taking 0:07:29.120 --> 0:07:32.160 the strings off, taking the nut off, the top of 0:07:32.160 --> 0:07:37.000 the neck, flip the nut around, reinserted it, then restrung 0:07:37.080 --> 0:07:39.080 the guitar so that it was a left handed guitar. 0:07:39.120 --> 0:07:41.040 But that would also mean that all the controls for 0:07:41.120 --> 0:07:44.240 the guitar, like the volume and tone knobs and the 0:07:44.320 --> 0:07:48.000 tremolo or whammy bar would have been on the wrong side, 0:07:48.480 --> 0:07:50.040 and I would have to figure out how to deal 0:07:50.080 --> 0:07:53.400 with that in order to play it properly. So I 0:07:53.480 --> 0:07:55.960 wasn't really keen on trying to make a product that 0:07:56.000 --> 0:07:58.840 had been made for a right hander work for a 0:07:58.920 --> 0:08:02.560 left hander. I had a few gift cards for Amazon, 0:08:02.800 --> 0:08:05.680 not a sponsor, and that sealed the deal for me. 0:08:05.720 --> 0:08:08.600 I said, I'm gonna use these gift cards toward buying 0:08:08.640 --> 0:08:11.320 a guitar. I would buy a Squire Strato caster for 0:08:11.360 --> 0:08:15.240 four hundred dollars, which is not an insignificant sum of money, 0:08:15.280 --> 0:08:19.600 particularly if you're trying to stay economically responsible during a 0:08:19.600 --> 0:08:22.680 time of uncertainty. But with the gift cards, that would 0:08:22.760 --> 0:08:25.680 bring the price down to about half price, and I 0:08:25.720 --> 0:08:28.480 figured I would splurge on myself as sort of a 0:08:28.600 --> 0:08:32.000 late birthday present. I figured, if nothing else, I could 0:08:32.040 --> 0:08:35.960 consider it an investment in my mental health. I placed 0:08:35.960 --> 0:08:39.160 my order on a Saturday, and I was predicted to 0:08:39.200 --> 0:08:44.000 receive the guitar on the following Friday, so a week later. Now, 0:08:44.040 --> 0:08:45.800 over the course of that week, I grew a bit 0:08:45.800 --> 0:08:48.480 anxious because when I would check on the order status, 0:08:48.880 --> 0:08:52.480 it hadn't changed. It had registered order, but it never 0:08:52.559 --> 0:08:56.600 moved to shipping, let alone out for delivery. And then 0:08:56.960 --> 0:09:00.600 on that Friday that I was to receive it, July fourth, 0:09:01.040 --> 0:09:04.720 twenty that was the morning that I wrote this, I 0:09:04.880 --> 0:09:08.480 finally got an email that said my order had been 0:09:08.520 --> 0:09:13.800 canceled due to quote lack of availability end quote. Now, 0:09:13.840 --> 0:09:16.680 Amazon's system had said that there was only one of 0:09:16.720 --> 0:09:20.480 these guitars and stock, but apparently they just couldn't locate it, 0:09:20.760 --> 0:09:25.920 and so I did not get my guitar, though I 0:09:25.960 --> 0:09:29.000 did receive the accessories I had ordered. So now I've 0:09:29.000 --> 0:09:32.280 got a guitar stand and a guitar strap, but no 0:09:32.440 --> 0:09:37.400 guitar to go with it. Sad trombone. Now, I don't 0:09:37.440 --> 0:09:40.600 tell this story just because I'm bummed out and I 0:09:40.640 --> 0:09:43.680 want to grouse about it, though I admit that's definitely 0:09:43.760 --> 0:09:46.760 part of it. I want to talk about the problems 0:09:46.800 --> 0:09:50.240 that left handers face when it comes to certain technologies, 0:09:50.400 --> 0:09:54.160 and how those relatively minor problems can open the door 0:09:54.200 --> 0:09:58.319 to the realization and acknowledgement that other people face much 0:09:58.360 --> 0:10:02.400 more serious challenges when it comes to tech and bias 0:10:02.640 --> 0:10:05.840 and accessibility. And before I get into it too much, 0:10:06.120 --> 0:10:10.079 let's talk about why I'm not upset at Fender Guitars 0:10:10.120 --> 0:10:14.000 for this in general, I'm not even really upset at Amazon. 0:10:14.440 --> 0:10:17.720 I mean, when it comes down to one unit in 0:10:17.840 --> 0:10:21.040 all of Amazon, I imagine it's not that uncommon for 0:10:21.080 --> 0:10:24.800 something to appear in an online inventory, and yet you 0:10:24.840 --> 0:10:28.679 can actually track down the physical thing when someone places 0:10:28.679 --> 0:10:31.120 in order. You just can't figure out where it is 0:10:31.120 --> 0:10:33.600 in a warehouse somewhere. That's got to happen, you know, 0:10:34.880 --> 0:10:39.640 fairly frequently. The prevailing wisdom is that left handers make 0:10:39.720 --> 0:10:44.120 up about ten of the total population. Now that number 0:10:44.240 --> 0:10:47.800 is sometimes disputed. Some argue there are way more lefties 0:10:47.840 --> 0:10:51.400 than that, but the general consensus is that nine out 0:10:51.400 --> 0:10:54.679 of ten people are right handed. So if you are 0:10:54.720 --> 0:10:59.319 making products where handedness matters, it makes far more sense 0:10:59.360 --> 0:11:02.199 to dedicate your or focus on the right handers. They 0:11:02.240 --> 0:11:05.520 make up the bulk of the population, they represent your 0:11:05.640 --> 0:11:10.200 primary customers, and that will guide many of your other decisions. 0:11:10.440 --> 0:11:14.720 For example, if what you're making requires mass production, you 0:11:14.800 --> 0:11:18.680 have to create an assembly process, and that assembly process 0:11:18.760 --> 0:11:23.480 needs to be as efficient as possible. Efficiency relates to cost, 0:11:23.800 --> 0:11:26.480 so the more efficient you are able to make the 0:11:26.480 --> 0:11:30.319 production process, the less it costs to make the thing 0:11:30.360 --> 0:11:33.000 you're making, and that means you can be competitive in 0:11:33.000 --> 0:11:35.360 your pricing. When you put your product up on the 0:11:35.360 --> 0:11:39.160 market against products from other companies. You need to charge 0:11:39.480 --> 0:11:41.880 more than it costs to make so that you can 0:11:41.920 --> 0:11:44.040 make a profit. You don't want to sell things at 0:11:44.080 --> 0:11:47.920 a loss typically, but you can also be competitive against 0:11:47.960 --> 0:11:50.200 those other companies that are also making whatever it is 0:11:50.200 --> 0:11:53.320 you're making. But this means your assembly process needs to 0:11:53.320 --> 0:11:57.800 be fine tuned toward that product. You can imagine that 0:11:57.880 --> 0:12:01.280 there is an ideal version of whatever it is you're making. 0:12:01.559 --> 0:12:03.600 This is the model you're working off of. This is 0:12:03.600 --> 0:12:07.520 what you're trying to replicate every single time. So your 0:12:07.559 --> 0:12:10.720 goal is to produce stuff like guitars that match that 0:12:10.800 --> 0:12:14.880 model as much as possible. And with guitars made from wood, 0:12:14.920 --> 0:12:18.080 this is actually impossible. You're never going to have two 0:12:18.120 --> 0:12:21.480 guitars come out exactly the same because there's going to 0:12:21.520 --> 0:12:25.200 be variations in the wood. You'll be able to see 0:12:25.320 --> 0:12:29.160 and maybe even feel minor differences from guitar to guitar, 0:12:29.320 --> 0:12:33.000 even in the same line, even produced on the same day. 0:12:33.040 --> 0:12:36.199 But the goal is to get each guitar as close 0:12:36.240 --> 0:12:39.720 to this standard as you possibly can, and that means 0:12:39.760 --> 0:12:43.840 that the whole process needs to be precise, consistent, and 0:12:44.000 --> 0:12:48.040 easy to replicate. So the process works great as long 0:12:48.080 --> 0:12:52.120 as you're producing the same thing over and over. You'll 0:12:52.200 --> 0:12:56.320 get small variations, but in general you'll chug along and 0:12:56.400 --> 0:13:00.000 you'll build however many guitars as your facility can manage 0:13:00.200 --> 0:13:03.440 given the process of materials, as long as all these 0:13:03.440 --> 0:13:07.600 guitars require that same process. And that's where the left 0:13:07.640 --> 0:13:11.520 handed problem comes in. To make a left handed guitar, 0:13:12.000 --> 0:13:14.920 you need to flip everything a hundred eighty degrees. The 0:13:15.000 --> 0:13:19.520 string order is reversed, the headstock has to be flipped, 0:13:19.559 --> 0:13:22.480 the tuners will have to be on the opposite side 0:13:22.520 --> 0:13:26.520 of a right handed guitar. The controls like volume and tone, 0:13:26.600 --> 0:13:29.040 and the tremolo or wamy bar have to be on 0:13:29.080 --> 0:13:33.000 the opposite side. The pickguard has to be flipped. You 0:13:33.040 --> 0:13:35.520 get the idea. The real problem is you can't just 0:13:35.720 --> 0:13:38.360 flip a switch on the assembly line to go from 0:13:38.480 --> 0:13:41.720 right handed to left handed and have the whole process 0:13:41.760 --> 0:13:45.520 PLoP out ten left handed guitars for every one right 0:13:45.559 --> 0:13:49.800 handed guitars. It doesn't work that way. Instead, you either 0:13:49.920 --> 0:13:54.199 need a parallel assembly line just for left handed guitars, 0:13:54.480 --> 0:13:56.880 but that doesn't make much sense because you're never going 0:13:56.920 --> 0:14:00.679 to need to produce as many left handed guitars, or 0:14:00.920 --> 0:14:04.920 you have to retool your normal assembly process in order 0:14:04.920 --> 0:14:09.840 to occasionally produce some left handed models. Either way, producing 0:14:09.880 --> 0:14:13.440 a left handed guitar isn't as efficient as producing a 0:14:13.520 --> 0:14:17.320 right handed one, and that means it costs more to make. 0:14:17.840 --> 0:14:20.800 Now you could charge more for a left handed guitar, 0:14:21.120 --> 0:14:24.720 and some companies do, or you could resign yourself to 0:14:24.760 --> 0:14:27.240 the fact that you just won't make as much money 0:14:27.280 --> 0:14:30.520 selling a left handed guitar as you would selling a 0:14:30.640 --> 0:14:34.760 right handed guitar. Either way, you're not likely to make 0:14:35.040 --> 0:14:39.200 that many left handed guitars, and it's important that you 0:14:39.240 --> 0:14:43.960 know I am not criticizing that decision. It makes no 0:14:44.120 --> 0:14:47.880 economic sense to produce left handed anything's in the same 0:14:47.920 --> 0:14:51.120 amount as right handed ones. You would never sell them 0:14:51.160 --> 0:14:53.600 all because there's just not enough left handers to make 0:14:53.720 --> 0:14:57.080 up the market. The same is true for all the 0:14:57.120 --> 0:15:01.400 different options you find with products like guitars. Sure you 0:15:01.480 --> 0:15:04.840 could spend the time and effort necessary to provide the 0:15:04.920 --> 0:15:08.480 exact same options to lefties as you do to right ease, 0:15:08.880 --> 0:15:10.600 but there's a good chance you would end up with 0:15:10.600 --> 0:15:14.800 a lot of unsold stock. You might eventually move that 0:15:14.960 --> 0:15:18.920 unsold stock by selling products at a huge discount, but 0:15:19.040 --> 0:15:22.800 by then you could be looking at maybe breaking even 0:15:22.920 --> 0:15:25.680 or perhaps even selling them at a loss. It makes 0:15:25.680 --> 0:15:28.280 way more sense to just never make the ding dang 0:15:28.360 --> 0:15:31.880 durned things in the first place. So this means that 0:15:32.000 --> 0:15:35.400 left handers often have to make some compromises when it 0:15:35.440 --> 0:15:38.640 comes to technology. Either we have to make do with 0:15:38.800 --> 0:15:41.720 things that were made for right handers and find a 0:15:41.720 --> 0:15:44.200 way to make it work, or we are left with 0:15:44.240 --> 0:15:47.600 a limited number of options that pales in comparison to 0:15:47.680 --> 0:15:50.760 what is available for right handers. When we come back, 0:15:51.040 --> 0:15:54.800 we'll talk about how the more sinister among us have 0:15:54.960 --> 0:16:06.560 to navigate technology, But first let's take a quick break. Now, 0:16:06.720 --> 0:16:09.440 I'm not going to go into the history of how 0:16:09.480 --> 0:16:13.880 being left handed is or was a taboo in many 0:16:14.000 --> 0:16:17.680 cultures that gets outside the realm of tech stuff, but 0:16:17.760 --> 0:16:20.600 it mostly comes down to how groups of people are 0:16:20.640 --> 0:16:24.800 pretty good at identifying individuals who do not fit the norm, 0:16:24.880 --> 0:16:27.680 and then they attempt to find ways to explain why 0:16:27.720 --> 0:16:31.280 that person is different, and those ways often can end 0:16:31.360 --> 0:16:35.760 up being negative. Going into left handed technology is interesting 0:16:36.040 --> 0:16:39.520 because in some cultures the typical approach to dealing with 0:16:39.640 --> 0:16:43.440 left handers was to force them to perform tasks as 0:16:43.480 --> 0:16:46.760 a right hander. Forcing people to write with their right 0:16:46.800 --> 0:16:49.120 hand even if they were left handed. You hear the 0:16:49.200 --> 0:16:52.760 story all the time, and this is not always easy 0:16:52.840 --> 0:16:56.440 for left handers. I mean, assuming you're not ambidexterous, I 0:16:56.440 --> 0:16:59.360 imagine there are things that you would find fairly simple 0:16:59.400 --> 0:17:03.640 to do with your dominant hand that become frustratingly difficult 0:17:03.680 --> 0:17:07.280 to do with your non dominant hand. I figured we'd 0:17:07.320 --> 0:17:11.040 start with a technology that I found quite vexing in 0:17:11.080 --> 0:17:16.600 my youth, a very simple technology, scissors. Let's talk about 0:17:16.640 --> 0:17:20.920 how scissors work. So scissors are a type of compound machine, 0:17:21.200 --> 0:17:24.280 and a compound machine is one that makes use of 0:17:24.600 --> 0:17:29.600 two or more simple machines. The six simple machines. The 0:17:29.680 --> 0:17:33.600 classic simple machines are the wheel and axle, the lever, 0:17:34.200 --> 0:17:40.320 the inclined plane, the pulley, the screw, and the wedge. Now, interestingly, 0:17:40.800 --> 0:17:44.840 the pully, screw, and wedge are all extensions of the 0:17:44.960 --> 0:17:49.480 first three machines, and simple machines are intended to change 0:17:49.680 --> 0:17:53.840 the magnitude of a force or the direction of that force. 0:17:54.640 --> 0:17:58.440 A pair of scissors consists of two blades, which are 0:17:58.520 --> 0:18:02.479 essentially wedges, and that's one of the simple machines. They 0:18:02.480 --> 0:18:06.280 are also mounted in a cross shape around a fulcrum, 0:18:06.600 --> 0:18:10.360 and that turns the handles of the scissors into levers, 0:18:10.400 --> 0:18:14.399 another simple machine. So pushing the levers together brings the 0:18:14.400 --> 0:18:18.400 wedge blades together, and that's what allows you to cut stuff. Moreover, 0:18:18.680 --> 0:18:22.479 the process of squeezing the handles actually creates pressure that 0:18:22.640 --> 0:18:25.720 squeezes the blades together, not just up and down, but 0:18:26.000 --> 0:18:29.520 left and right, so there's a sort of pinching action 0:18:29.640 --> 0:18:33.639 happening between the blades that allows for a nice clean cut. 0:18:34.200 --> 0:18:36.600 That is, they do this if you happen to be 0:18:36.720 --> 0:18:40.119 using the scissors in the proper hand. If a left 0:18:40.160 --> 0:18:44.680 hander tries to use right handed scissors with their left hand, 0:18:45.119 --> 0:18:47.480 they will find that the blades tend to create a 0:18:47.560 --> 0:18:51.000 space between them as they close, so they close up 0:18:51.000 --> 0:18:54.000 and down, but there's a space left and right that 0:18:54.080 --> 0:18:58.680 allows whatever you're cutting to bend between the blades, which 0:18:58.760 --> 0:19:01.760 usually means you don't tend to cut anything at all, 0:19:02.400 --> 0:19:04.679 or if you do cut, you do so in a 0:19:04.680 --> 0:19:07.440 way where you're mauling whatever it is you're trying to cut. 0:19:07.480 --> 0:19:10.080 I can't tell you how many times I ended up 0:19:10.359 --> 0:19:14.040 with what looked like shredded paper instead of a nice 0:19:14.080 --> 0:19:17.119 clean cut. The squeezing action with the left hand just 0:19:17.240 --> 0:19:20.200 creates a force along that fulcrum that moves the blades 0:19:20.240 --> 0:19:23.520 apart rather than squeezing them together. Now, left handers can 0:19:23.560 --> 0:19:27.000 attempt to compensate for this by creating a different force 0:19:27.119 --> 0:19:30.680 with their fingers, essentially pushing their thumbs and index fingers 0:19:30.680 --> 0:19:34.159 in a way to create that pinching force. You're forcing 0:19:34.560 --> 0:19:39.119 the blades together. The boy, howdy, that is not comfortable. 0:19:39.440 --> 0:19:42.880 It hurts. Moreover, the position of the blades means that 0:19:42.960 --> 0:19:46.000 the top blade is always on the right side. You 0:19:46.000 --> 0:19:47.800 can flip the blades over, but that means the top 0:19:47.840 --> 0:19:50.680 blade is still on the right side. This actually makes 0:19:50.680 --> 0:19:53.120 it really hard for left handers to see what they 0:19:53.160 --> 0:19:56.359 are cutting. If they're trying to cut with their left 0:19:56.400 --> 0:19:59.560 hand because the blade is in the way. Left handed 0:19:59.560 --> 0:20:03.359 scissor have the top blade on the left side rather 0:20:03.400 --> 0:20:06.840 than the right side. That there are so called left 0:20:06.840 --> 0:20:09.840 handed scissors that don't do this, but they are left 0:20:09.880 --> 0:20:12.240 handed only in the sense that they have handles that 0:20:12.320 --> 0:20:15.800 have contours that better fit the left hand. But without 0:20:15.880 --> 0:20:19.120 changing that blade orientation, you really haven't solved the problem. 0:20:19.200 --> 0:20:21.600 You still can't really see what you're cutting, and you're 0:20:21.600 --> 0:20:25.040 still going to be forcing those blades apart from each other. Now. 0:20:25.080 --> 0:20:28.800 Fun fact, I never learned to use left handed scissors 0:20:28.840 --> 0:20:31.320 because when I was going to school, my school just 0:20:31.400 --> 0:20:34.960 didn't have any. I would use right handed scissors, either 0:20:35.040 --> 0:20:37.280 trying desperately to get them to work with my left 0:20:37.280 --> 0:20:40.280 hand or just giving up and using my right hand, 0:20:40.320 --> 0:20:42.159 knowing that whatever I was going to cut was going 0:20:42.200 --> 0:20:45.480 to look awful because of my lack of fine motor 0:20:45.560 --> 0:20:49.679 skills with my non dominant hand. For another common tool, 0:20:50.080 --> 0:20:53.600 one much more advanced than a pair of scissors, let 0:20:53.680 --> 0:20:57.520 us consider the computer mouse. Now, your typical computer mouse 0:20:57.600 --> 0:21:00.639 tends to have at least two buttons, one on the 0:21:00.720 --> 0:21:04.000 left and one on the right. There are ones that don't. 0:21:05.000 --> 0:21:08.600 They're the single button mouse. Types like the ones that 0:21:08.640 --> 0:21:10.679 are used with certain max that kind of thing. But 0:21:10.880 --> 0:21:13.879 your typical computer mouse has at least two buttons, a 0:21:13.960 --> 0:21:17.159 left click and a right click, and they tend to 0:21:17.240 --> 0:21:20.000 be contoured in such a way the mouse is that 0:21:20.080 --> 0:21:23.760 they have a nice fit with the right hand. They 0:21:23.800 --> 0:21:26.240 don't fit the left hand the same way. They're just 0:21:26.320 --> 0:21:30.160 not contoured that way. And most programs tend to incorporate 0:21:30.240 --> 0:21:35.240 mouse commands by shifting important functions for the keyboard to 0:21:35.320 --> 0:21:38.080 the left side of that keyboard, so that way you've 0:21:38.119 --> 0:21:40.359 got the mouse in your right hand and your left 0:21:40.359 --> 0:21:42.960 hand remains free on the left side of the keyboard 0:21:43.000 --> 0:21:46.680 to do whatever other functions you need to do to 0:21:46.800 --> 0:21:49.760 navigate the program. Computer games tend to be a good 0:21:49.760 --> 0:21:52.640 example of how this plays out in favor of right ees. 0:21:53.080 --> 0:21:56.760 So take a first person shooter game like Doom. The 0:21:56.800 --> 0:22:00.480 mouse controls your point of view or your aim the game. 0:22:01.000 --> 0:22:03.400 You use your mouse to direct your line of sight 0:22:03.560 --> 0:22:06.600 and thus where you have your big zappy gun pointed 0:22:06.640 --> 0:22:08.600 at any given moment so you can shoot all those 0:22:08.600 --> 0:22:13.399 little demon critters. Your character's movement maps typically to the 0:22:13.480 --> 0:22:17.840 WAZA keys, the W A S D keys w being 0:22:17.880 --> 0:22:21.280 forward s being backward and A and D typically being 0:22:21.359 --> 0:22:25.359 straffe left and strafe right, respectively. In a shooting game, 0:22:25.720 --> 0:22:28.920 you need to have precise aim to compete at really 0:22:29.119 --> 0:22:32.600 high levels. If you watch some pro e sports players 0:22:32.600 --> 0:22:35.040 and you really pay attention to how fast and precise 0:22:35.040 --> 0:22:38.040 they are with their aim, it's incredible and it requires 0:22:38.040 --> 0:22:41.680 a highly developed fine motor skill set with whatever hand 0:22:41.680 --> 0:22:45.080 you're using to aim. In contrast, your movement in these 0:22:45.119 --> 0:22:49.040 style of games is important, but typically does not need 0:22:49.119 --> 0:22:53.720 the same level of precision as aiming, so offloading movement 0:22:53.760 --> 0:22:57.680 to the non dominant hand isn't a huge problem. Left 0:22:57.680 --> 0:23:01.560 handers have it harder. If they're using a traditional right 0:23:01.600 --> 0:23:05.000 handed set up. They're aiming with their non dominant hand, 0:23:05.400 --> 0:23:09.120 and thus they tend to be less precise and less accurate. 0:23:09.480 --> 0:23:11.280 Now I know that's the case with me, and of 0:23:11.320 --> 0:23:14.719 course I'm also older, so my reaction times are slowing 0:23:14.760 --> 0:23:18.359 down too. I guess what I'm saying is you really 0:23:18.400 --> 0:23:21.760 don't want me to be on your Overwatch team. There 0:23:21.800 --> 0:23:24.960 are left handed versions of the computer mouse out there, 0:23:25.240 --> 0:23:28.160 and the fact that we've gone to USB connections rather 0:23:28.200 --> 0:23:32.000 than the old PS slash two ports that computers and 0:23:32.119 --> 0:23:35.439 stuff like keyboards and mice used to depend on. We 0:23:35.520 --> 0:23:38.480 don't use those anymore, which that usually means you actually 0:23:38.480 --> 0:23:41.720 have more options of where you can connect stuff to 0:23:41.920 --> 0:23:45.160 your computer, so cable management isn't as big a pain 0:23:45.200 --> 0:23:48.359 in the neck because you typically have more options of 0:23:48.400 --> 0:23:52.720 where that USB cable can plug into. If the game 0:23:52.720 --> 0:23:55.480 developers thought it through, you might even be able to 0:23:55.600 --> 0:23:59.080 map your computer keys so that your movement stuff can 0:23:59.080 --> 0:24:03.320 go to a different set of four keys, such as I, J, K, L, 0:24:03.760 --> 0:24:08.400 or the number pad. If you can't map keys, then 0:24:08.440 --> 0:24:10.520