WEBVTT - Rerun: Right-Handed Bias - A Sinister Problem 0:00:04.400 --> 0:00:07.800 Welcome to tex Stuff, a production from my Heart Radio. 0:00:11.840 --> 0:00:14.400 Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, 0:00:14.600 --> 0:00:18.200 Jovian Strickland. I'm an executive producer with I Heart Radio. 0:00:18.280 --> 0:00:21.520 And how the tech are you? I am still on 0:00:21.640 --> 0:00:25.680 vacation and so we are having a rerun episode. This 0:00:25.720 --> 0:00:30.319 episode originally published on July twenty nine. It is called 0:00:30.480 --> 0:00:34.080 right handed bias a sinister problem, and as a left hander, 0:00:34.479 --> 0:00:37.360 I often get real grouchy about having to fumble my 0:00:37.440 --> 0:00:40.120 way through using a lot of common tools that just 0:00:40.200 --> 0:00:44.200 weren't made from my dominant hand. I managed to funnel 0:00:44.240 --> 0:00:47.839 that frustration into an entire episode, and that's what you 0:00:47.920 --> 0:00:54.520 get here. Enjoy. It is a story time you guys. Now, 0:00:54.560 --> 0:00:58.200 those of you who follow my personal account over on Twitter, 0:00:58.400 --> 0:01:05.280 which is at John Strickland j O N. Strickland, if 0:01:05.360 --> 0:01:08.760 you're morbidly curious, those of you who do follow me, 0:01:08.840 --> 0:01:13.559 you might know that I was eagerly anticipating the delivery 0:01:13.600 --> 0:01:19.360 of a Squire Classic Sixties Vibe Stratocaster, an electric guitar. 0:01:20.200 --> 0:01:22.679 And you know, I've done episodes about electric guitars, I've 0:01:22.680 --> 0:01:26.440 talked about them a lot, and I thought, I really 0:01:26.440 --> 0:01:28.440 want one of these it would be really nice to 0:01:28.480 --> 0:01:31.680 have one. This would have been my first six string 0:01:31.840 --> 0:01:34.800 electric guitar, and I figured, since you know, I'm working 0:01:34.840 --> 0:01:37.600 from home now, it would be good to pick up 0:01:37.640 --> 0:01:40.959 a new skill to keep my mind sharp and occupied, 0:01:41.080 --> 0:01:42.880 and you know, to help me get into a sort 0:01:42.920 --> 0:01:48.040 of meditative state to help manage anxiety. By the way, um, 0:01:48.240 --> 0:01:50.680 anxiety is a real pain in the butt, and I 0:01:50.720 --> 0:01:54.760 recommend anyone who has anxiety to look into ways to 0:01:54.880 --> 0:01:58.160 manage it in a really healthy manner, because that stuff 0:01:58.200 --> 0:02:01.160 is no joke and it's obviously getting more challenging to 0:02:01.240 --> 0:02:04.160 deal with that. Anyway, back to my story, I had 0:02:04.240 --> 0:02:07.680 been thinking about getting a guitar, and I wanted it 0:02:07.760 --> 0:02:10.560 to be a decent guitar, you know, something I would 0:02:10.560 --> 0:02:13.799 actually want to pick up and play. I didn't want 0:02:13.800 --> 0:02:17.000 to buy something super cheap and then find out I 0:02:17.000 --> 0:02:20.080 didn't like the feel of it or how it sounded, 0:02:20.520 --> 0:02:23.040 because that would discourage me from playing it. I would 0:02:23.080 --> 0:02:25.360 just set it down and never pick it up again. 0:02:25.480 --> 0:02:27.600 But on the other hand, I also didn't want to 0:02:27.600 --> 0:02:30.800 go crazy and buy some sort of you know, super 0:02:30.960 --> 0:02:34.880 expensive guitar, because guitars can get real expensive, y'all. I 0:02:34.880 --> 0:02:37.600 mean What if I didn't like playing guitar just because 0:02:37.600 --> 0:02:40.080 I didn't like it? Right, what if I decided that 0:02:40.160 --> 0:02:43.480 I didn't enjoy playing. I am forty five years old 0:02:43.520 --> 0:02:46.320 this year, and skills just don't come to me as 0:02:46.400 --> 0:02:51.000 quickly as they used to. So it's entirely possible that 0:02:51.120 --> 0:02:54.920 I could become frustrated, or I could become bored even 0:02:54.960 --> 0:02:57.440 with a really nice guitar, and then just set it 0:02:57.480 --> 0:03:01.480 down and let it collect dust. So I would have 0:03:01.520 --> 0:03:05.400 wasted a lot of money on a really expensive decoration 0:03:05.480 --> 0:03:08.760 at that point, and that would be really irresponsible, even 0:03:08.840 --> 0:03:12.480 in a good economic climate, let alone one is uncertain 0:03:13.000 --> 0:03:16.280 as the one we find ourselves in today. So I 0:03:16.320 --> 0:03:19.079 did what I do. I did a lot of research, 0:03:19.639 --> 0:03:24.480 like a lot of research. My wife was getting amused 0:03:24.520 --> 0:03:28.120 by how frequently I was watching videos about different guitars 0:03:28.160 --> 0:03:32.400 and different price ranges, weighing them, saying, well, yeah, this 0:03:32.480 --> 0:03:35.520 is gonna be a slightly less expensive guitar, which means 0:03:35.560 --> 0:03:38.560 it's going to have these sort of things that I'll 0:03:38.560 --> 0:03:41.560 have to consider. But but on the other hand, it's 0:03:41.800 --> 0:03:43.880 better than this other guitar, you know. I went through 0:03:43.960 --> 0:03:48.640 all of that. Ultimately I decided I wanted a strato caster, 0:03:48.880 --> 0:03:52.840 a classic electric guitar. The strato caster is made by Fender, 0:03:53.560 --> 0:03:57.240 and I really like the sound of strato casters now. 0:03:57.320 --> 0:04:00.360 I love stuff like surf rock, and Dick Dave, one 0:04:00.360 --> 0:04:04.040 of the most famous surf rock guitarists, played a strat. 0:04:04.680 --> 0:04:08.120 But I also wanted to be financially responsible because there 0:04:08.160 --> 0:04:11.720 are a lot of different strato casters out there, and 0:04:11.840 --> 0:04:16.200 generally they mostly share a couple of common traits. Most 0:04:16.360 --> 0:04:20.839 strato casters have three single coil pickups, and the pickups 0:04:20.839 --> 0:04:24.080 are the components that pick up the vibration of the 0:04:24.120 --> 0:04:27.600 strings and then convert that into electric signals that can 0:04:27.640 --> 0:04:31.120 then feed out to an amplifier and speakers. Strats have 0:04:31.240 --> 0:04:34.800 three of these, typically one near the base of the 0:04:34.839 --> 0:04:37.440 neck of the guitar the neck pickup, one in the 0:04:37.480 --> 0:04:40.360 middle of the body of the guitar, and one towards 0:04:40.440 --> 0:04:44.239 the bridge of the guitar. A switch on the strat 0:04:44.640 --> 0:04:48.480 lets you select which pickup or which pair of pickups 0:04:48.520 --> 0:04:51.120 are active at any given time, and that changes the 0:04:51.200 --> 0:04:53.279 sound you get out of the guitar when it plays 0:04:53.320 --> 0:04:58.839 through an amplifier. But beyond these general similarities, there are 0:04:58.880 --> 0:05:02.240 a ton of different options. You can buy a starter 0:05:02.600 --> 0:05:06.120 entry level Strat for less than two hundred dollars, or 0:05:06.240 --> 0:05:09.160 you could go bonkers and buy a mod shop guitar 0:05:09.240 --> 0:05:13.320 for around eight hundred dollars. So yeah, there is a range, 0:05:13.360 --> 0:05:16.440 and of course if you went full custom shop it 0:05:16.480 --> 0:05:20.159 could be way more expensive. So I looked into the 0:05:20.240 --> 0:05:24.000 Squire line of guitars. Now, this is Fenders budget line, 0:05:24.520 --> 0:05:27.640 but they tend to measure up pretty well to guitars 0:05:27.839 --> 0:05:32.880 from the more prestigious official Fender line, particularly in the 0:05:32.920 --> 0:05:36.479 Squire Classic Vibe series, which are guitars they are designed 0:05:36.480 --> 0:05:38.760 to be closer to the style of the classic electric 0:05:38.800 --> 0:05:43.080 guitars of the fifties and sixties. Now, I'm left handed, 0:05:43.480 --> 0:05:46.320 and that's really what I'm going to get into in 0:05:46.360 --> 0:05:49.960 this episode, because being left handed means there are a 0:05:49.960 --> 0:05:53.560 lot of little struggles in your life. Most of the time, 0:05:53.560 --> 0:05:57.960 they aren't particularly meaningful or noteworthy. They tend to mostly 0:05:58.160 --> 0:06:02.880 be slightly frustrating worst, and that's about it most of 0:06:02.880 --> 0:06:05.560 the time. So I want to stress from the beginning 0:06:05.560 --> 0:06:07.839 of this episode that the stuff I'm going to talk 0:06:07.880 --> 0:06:11.240 about is really not that big a deal in the 0:06:11.279 --> 0:06:14.360 grand scheme of things most of the time. But being 0:06:14.480 --> 0:06:17.560 left handed often means that when it comes to purchasing 0:06:17.600 --> 0:06:22.640 stuff where handedness is a factor, like guitars, you're faced 0:06:22.640 --> 0:06:26.960 with fewer options than you're right handed counterparts. For example, 0:06:27.480 --> 0:06:30.360 if you were to go to Fender's website the morning 0:06:30.360 --> 0:06:33.520 that I wrote this, and you were to look at 0:06:33.640 --> 0:06:36.919 the different options for electric guitars that they had in stock, 0:06:37.640 --> 0:06:40.120 you would see at that time that the company had 0:06:40.200 --> 0:06:44.640 one hundred eleven guitars for right handers in stock, for 0:06:44.760 --> 0:06:51.480 left handers eight eight versus one hundred eleven. Now, typically 0:06:51.800 --> 0:06:55.960 a left hander has fewer options, and then fewer choices 0:06:56.160 --> 0:06:59.760 within those options, choices like the color of the guitar, 0:07:00.000 --> 0:07:04.320 for example, So while I could have loved a Candy 0:07:04.360 --> 0:07:09.600 Apple red left handed Squire Classic Sixties Vibes stratocaster, that 0:07:09.680 --> 0:07:12.440 was not an option, Nor could I get the lovely 0:07:12.800 --> 0:07:17.040 Lake Placid blue option that right handers could get. Those 0:07:17.520 --> 0:07:20.880 right handed versions had Candy Apple red and Lake Placid blue, 0:07:20.920 --> 0:07:23.440 but for left handers you didn't have a choice. There 0:07:23.480 --> 0:07:28.680 was only one color option, Sunburst, which sadly was my 0:07:28.800 --> 0:07:32.560 least favorite of the three colors. But hey, them's the brakes. 0:07:32.720 --> 0:07:35.200 And while I wasn't in love with the color. I 0:07:35.200 --> 0:07:37.520 could live with it, and I did love all the 0:07:37.600 --> 0:07:41.400 things I read about the line of guitars, so I 0:07:41.440 --> 0:07:44.440 didn't really let that bother me so much. And before 0:07:44.480 --> 0:07:48.240 anyone pipes up about re stringing a guitar so that 0:07:48.280 --> 0:07:51.520 you can convert a right handed guitar into a left 0:07:51.520 --> 0:07:55.120 handed guitar, yeah, I could technically have purchased a right 0:07:55.200 --> 0:07:59.119 handed Candy Apple red model, taking the strings off, taking 0:07:59.160 --> 0:08:01.880 the nut off the top of the neck, flip the 0:08:02.000 --> 0:08:06.320 nut around, reinserted it, then restrung the guitar so that 0:08:06.360 --> 0:08:08.200 it was a left handed guitar. But that would also 0:08:08.240 --> 0:08:10.680 mean that all the controls for the guitar, like the 0:08:10.760 --> 0:08:14.360 volume and tone knobs and the tremolo or whammy bar 0:08:14.720 --> 0:08:17.400 would have been on the wrong side, and I would 0:08:17.400 --> 0:08:19.360 have to figure out how to deal with that in 0:08:19.480 --> 0:08:22.880 order to play it properly. So I wasn't really keen 0:08:23.160 --> 0:08:25.160 on trying to make a product that had been made 0:08:25.240 --> 0:08:29.000 for a right hander work for a left hander. I 0:08:29.040 --> 0:08:32.120 had a few gift cards for Amazon, not a sponsor, 0:08:32.760 --> 0:08:34.600 and that sealed the deal for me. I said, I'm 0:08:34.600 --> 0:08:37.920 gonna use these gift cards toward buying a guitar. I 0:08:37.920 --> 0:08:41.520 would buy a Squire stratocaster for four hundred dollars, which 0:08:41.559 --> 0:08:45.040 is not an insignificant sum of money, particularly if you're 0:08:45.040 --> 0:08:49.320 trying to stay economically responsible during a time of uncertainty. 0:08:49.360 --> 0:08:51.959 But with the gift cards that would bring the price 0:08:52.000 --> 0:08:55.160 down to about half price, and I figured I would 0:08:55.200 --> 0:08:58.400 splurge on myself as sort of a late birthday present. 0:08:58.760 --> 0:09:01.559 I figured, if nothing else, I could consider it an 0:09:01.600 --> 0:09:05.360 investment in my mental health. I placed my order on 0:09:05.400 --> 0:09:08.640 a Saturday, and I was predicted to receive the guitar 0:09:08.800 --> 0:09:12.720 on the following Friday, so a week later. Now, over 0:09:12.720 --> 0:09:14.720 the course of that week, I grew a bit anxious 0:09:14.760 --> 0:09:17.480 because when I would check on the order status, it 0:09:17.520 --> 0:09:21.360 hadn't changed. It had registered order, but it never moved 0:09:21.440 --> 0:09:25.640 to shipping, let alone out for delivery. And then on 0:09:25.720 --> 0:09:29.880 that Friday that I was to receive it, July twenty, 0:09:30.720 --> 0:09:33.760 that was the morning that I wrote this, I finally 0:09:33.880 --> 0:09:37.520 got an email that said my order had been canceled 0:09:37.640 --> 0:09:42.920 due to quote lack of availability end quote. Now, Amazon's 0:09:43.000 --> 0:09:45.400 system had said that there was only one of these 0:09:45.440 --> 0:09:48.920 guitars and stock, but apparently they just couldn't locate it, 0:09:49.240 --> 0:09:54.360 and so I did not get my guitar, though I 0:09:54.400 --> 0:09:57.439 did receive the accessories I had ordered, so now I've 0:09:57.480 --> 0:10:00.760 got a guitar stand and a guitar strap, but no 0:10:00.920 --> 0:10:05.839 guitar to go with it. Sad trombone. Now, I don't 0:10:05.880 --> 0:10:09.080 tell this story just because I'm bummed out and I 0:10:09.080 --> 0:10:12.160 want to grouse about it, though I admit that's definitely 0:10:12.200 --> 0:10:15.240 part of it. I want to talk about the problems 0:10:15.240 --> 0:10:18.679 that left handers face when it comes to certain technologies, 0:10:18.880 --> 0:10:22.600 and how those relatively minor problems can open the door 0:10:22.679 --> 0:10:26.800 to the realization and acknowledgement that other people face much 0:10:26.840 --> 0:10:30.880 more serious challenges when it comes to tech and bias 0:10:31.080 --> 0:10:34.280 and accessibility. And before I get into it too much, 0:10:34.600 --> 0:10:38.560 let's talk about why I'm not upset at Fender Guitars 0:10:38.600 --> 0:10:42.440 for this in general, I'm not even really upset at Amazon. 0:10:42.920 --> 0:10:46.200 I mean, when it comes down to one unit in 0:10:46.320 --> 0:10:49.480 all of Amazon, I imagine it's not that uncommon for 0:10:49.559 --> 0:10:53.280 something to appear in an online inventory, and yet you 0:10:53.320 --> 0:10:57.120 can't actually track down the physical thing when someone places 0:10:57.160 --> 0:10:59.560 in order. You just can't figure out where it is 0:10:59.600 --> 0:11:02.080 and aware how somewhere that's got to happen. You know, 0:11:03.320 --> 0:11:08.120 fairly frequently the prevailing wisdom is that left handers make 0:11:08.200 --> 0:11:12.560 up about ten of the total population. Now that number 0:11:12.720 --> 0:11:16.240 is sometimes disputed. Some argue there are way more lefties 0:11:16.280 --> 0:11:19.839 than that, but the general consensus is that nine out 0:11:19.880 --> 0:11:23.160 of ten people are right handed. So if you are 0:11:23.200 --> 0:11:27.800 making products where handedness matters, it makes far more sense 0:11:27.840 --> 0:11:30.880 to dedicate your focus on the right handers. They make 0:11:30.960 --> 0:11:35.559 up the bulk of the population, they represent your primary customers, 0:11:35.600 --> 0:11:39.560 and that will guide many of your other decisions. For example, 0:11:40.000 --> 0:11:43.480 if what you're making requires mass production, you have to 0:11:43.559 --> 0:11:47.640 create an assembly process, and that assembly process needs to 0:11:47.720 --> 0:11:52.520 be as efficient as possible. Efficiency relates to cost, so 0:11:52.800 --> 0:11:56.120 the more efficient you are able to make the production process, 0:11:56.600 --> 0:11:59.360 the less it costs to make the thing you're making, 0:11:59.640 --> 0:12:02.160 and that means you can be competitive in your pricing. 0:12:02.240 --> 0:12:04.800 When you put your product up on the market against 0:12:04.800 --> 0:12:08.400 products from other companies. You need to charge more than 0:12:08.440 --> 0:12:11.000 it costs to make so that you can make a profit. 0:12:11.120 --> 0:12:13.719 You don't want to sell things at a loss typically, 0:12:14.160 --> 0:12:17.280 but you can also be competitive against those other companies 0:12:17.280 --> 0:12:19.560 that are also making whatever it is you're making. But 0:12:19.640 --> 0:12:23.080 this means your assembly process needs to be fine tuned 0:12:23.360 --> 0:12:26.880 toward that product. You can imagine that there is an 0:12:26.920 --> 0:12:30.320 ideal version of whatever it is you're making. This is 0:12:30.320 --> 0:12:32.400 the model you're working off of. This is what you're 0:12:32.400 --> 0:12:36.439 trying to replicate every single time. So your goal is 0:12:36.480 --> 0:12:39.760 to produce stuff like guitars that match that model as 0:12:39.840 --> 0:12:43.600 much as possible. And with guitars made from wood, this 0:12:43.679 --> 0:12:47.119 is actually impossible. You're never going to have two guitars 0:12:47.120 --> 0:12:50.040 come out exactly the same because there's going to be 0:12:50.160 --> 0:12:53.920 variations in the wood. You'll be able to see and 0:12:53.960 --> 0:12:58.000 maybe even feel minor differences from guitar to guitar, even 0:12:58.040 --> 0:13:01.440 in the same line, even produce just on the same day. 0:13:01.480 --> 0:13:04.640 But the goal is to get each guitar as close 0:13:04.720 --> 0:13:08.160 to this standard as you possibly can, and that means 0:13:08.200 --> 0:13:12.320 that the whole process needs to be precise, consistent, and 0:13:12.440 --> 0:13:16.480 easy to replicate. So the process works great as long 0:13:16.520 --> 0:13:20.600 as you're producing the same thing over and over. You'll 0:13:20.679 --> 0:13:24.800 get small variations, but in general you'll chug along and 0:13:24.840 --> 0:13:28.559 you'll build however many guitars as your facility can manage 0:13:28.640 --> 0:13:31.880 given the process of materials, as long as all these 0:13:31.920 --> 0:13:36.040 guitars require that same process, and that's where the left 0:13:36.080 --> 0:13:39.960 handed problem comes in. To make a left handed guitar, 0:13:40.440 --> 0:13:43.400 you need to flip everything a d eighty degrees. The 0:13:43.480 --> 0:13:47.959 string order is reversed, the headstock has to be flipped, 0:13:48.040 --> 0:13:50.960 the tuners will have to be on the opposite side 0:13:51.000 --> 0:13:55.000 of a right handed guitar. The controls like volume and tone, 0:13:55.080 --> 0:13:57.480 and the tremolo or wamy bar have to be on 0:13:57.520 --> 0:14:01.480 the opposite side. The pickguard has to be flipped. You 0:14:01.520 --> 0:14:04.000 get the idea. The real problem is you can't just 0:14:04.200 --> 0:14:06.840 flip a switch on the assembly line to go from 0:14:06.920 --> 0:14:10.199 right handed to left handed and have the whole process 0:14:10.240 --> 0:14:13.960 pop out ten left handed guitars for every one right 0:14:14.040 --> 0:14:18.240 handed guitars. It doesn't work that way. Instead, you either 0:14:18.360 --> 0:14:22.960 need a parallel assembly line just for left handed guitars, 0:14:22.960 --> 0:14:25.360 but that doesn't make much sense because you're never going 0:14:25.400 --> 0:14:29.160 to need to produce as many left handed guitars, or 0:14:29.360 --> 0:14:33.360 you have to retool your normal assembly process in order 0:14:33.400 --> 0:14:38.320 to occasionally produce some left handed models. Either way, producing 0:14:38.320 --> 0:14:41.880 a left handed guitar isn't as efficient as producing a 0:14:42.000 --> 0:14:45.800 right handed one, and that means it costs more to make. 0:14:46.320 --> 0:14:49.280 Now you could charge more for a left handed guitar, 0:14:49.560 --> 0:14:53.200 and some companies do, or you could resign yourself to 0:14:53.240 --> 0:14:55.680 the fact that you just won't make as much money 0:14:55.760 --> 0:14:59.000 selling a left handed guitar as you would selling a 0:14:59.120 --> 0:15:02.800 right handed guitar. Are either way, you're not likely to 0:15:02.880 --> 0:15:07.480 make that many left handed guitars, and it's important that 0:15:07.520 --> 0:15:12.080 you know I am not criticizing that decision. It makes 0:15:12.200 --> 0:15:16.080 no economic sense to produce left handed anything's in the 0:15:16.160 --> 0:15:19.400 same amount as right handed ones. You would never sell 0:15:19.440 --> 0:15:21.800 them all because there's just not enough left handers to 0:15:21.920 --> 0:15:25.400 make up the market. The same is true for all 0:15:25.440 --> 0:15:29.560 the different options you find with products like guitars. Sure, 0:15:29.760 --> 0:15:33.000 you could spend the time and effort necessary to provide 0:15:33.240 --> 0:15:36.320 the exact same options to lefties as you do to 0:15:36.520 --> 0:15:38.760 right ease, but there's a good chance you would end 0:15:38.840 --> 0:15:42.440 up with a lot of unsold stock. You might eventually 0:15:42.640 --> 0:15:46.960 move that unsold stock by selling products at a huge discount, 0:15:47.320 --> 0:15:50.880 but by then you could be looking at maybe breaking 0:15:50.920 --> 0:15:53.800 even or perhaps even selling them at a loss. It 0:15:53.880 --> 0:15:56.480 makes way more sense to just never make the ding 0:15:56.560 --> 0:16:00.000 dang durned things in the first place. So this means 0:16:00.240 --> 0:16:03.760 that left handers often have to make some compromises when 0:16:03.760 --> 0:16:06.760 it comes to technology. Either we have to make do 0:16:07.000 --> 0:16:10.080 with things that were made for right handers and find 0:16:10.080 --> 0:16:12.560 a way to make it work, or we are left 0:16:12.600 --> 0:16:15.960 with a limited number of options that pales in comparison 0:16:16.000 --> 0:16:19.240 to what is available for right handers. When we come back, 0:16:19.520 --> 0:16:23.280 we'll talk about how the more sinister among us have 0:16:23.440 --> 0:16:36.520 to navigate technology. But first let's take a quick break. Now. 0:16:36.680 --> 0:16:39.400 I'm not going to go into the history of how 0:16:39.440 --> 0:16:44.480 being left handed is or was a taboo in many cultures. 0:16:44.560 --> 0:16:47.800 That gets outside the realm of tech stuff. But it 0:16:47.880 --> 0:16:50.880 mostly comes down to how groups of people are pretty 0:16:50.920 --> 0:16:54.760 good at identifying individuals who do not fit the norm, 0:16:54.840 --> 0:16:57.560 and then they attempt to find ways to explain why 0:16:57.680 --> 0:17:01.200 that person is different in those ways often can end 0:17:01.280 --> 0:17:05.720 up being negative. Going into left handed technology is interesting 0:17:05.960 --> 0:17:09.479 because in some cultures the typical approach to dealing with 0:17:09.560 --> 0:17:13.400 left handers was to force them to perform tasks as 0:17:13.440 --> 0:17:16.720 a right hander, forcing people to write with their right 0:17:16.760 --> 0:17:19.080 hand even if they were left handed. You hear the 0:17:19.160 --> 0:17:22.560 story all the time, and this is not always easy 0:17:22.800 --> 0:17:26.400 for left handers. I mean, assuming you're not ambidexterous, I 0:17:26.400 --> 0:17:29.320 imagine there are things that you would find fairly simple 0:17:29.359 --> 0:17:33.560 to do with your dominant hand that become frustratingly difficult 0:17:33.600 --> 0:17:37.240 to do with your non dominant hand. I figured we'd 0:17:37.240 --> 0:17:40.919 start with a technology that I found quite vexing in 0:17:41.000 --> 0:17:46.600 my youth, a very simple technology, scissors. Let's talk about 0:17:46.600 --> 0:17:50.800 how scissors work. So scissors are a type of compound machine, 0:17:51.119 --> 0:17:54.199 and a compound machine is one that makes use of 0:17:54.520 --> 0:17:59.520 two or more simple machines. The six simple machines the 0:17:59.600 --> 0:18:04.240 class simple machines are the wheel and axle believer, the 0:18:04.320 --> 0:18:10.280 inclined plane, the pulley, the screw, and the wedge. Now, interestingly, 0:18:10.760 --> 0:18:14.800 the pulley, screw, and wedge are all extensions of the 0:18:14.920 --> 0:18:19.400 first three machines, and simple machines are intended to change 0:18:19.600 --> 0:18:23.800 the magnitude of a force or the direction of that force. 0:18:24.560 --> 0:18:28.360 A pair of scissors consists of two blades, which are 0:18:28.480 --> 0:18:32.399 essentially wedges, and that's one of the simple machines. They 0:18:32.440 --> 0:18:36.240 are also mounted in a cross shape around a fulcrum, 0:18:36.560 --> 0:18:40.280 and that turns the handles of the scissors into levers, 0:18:40.320 --> 0:18:44.320 another simple machine. So pushing the levers together brings the 0:18:44.359 --> 0:18:48.320 wedge blades together, and that's what allows you to cut stuff. Moreover, 0:18:48.640 --> 0:18:52.399 the process of squeezing the handles actually creates pressure that 0:18:52.600 --> 0:18:55.639 squeezes the blades together, not just up and down, but 0:18:55.960 --> 0:18:59.440 left and right, so there's a sort of pinching action 0:18:59.560 --> 0:19:03.560 happening between the blades that allows for a nice clean cut. 0:19:04.160 --> 0:19:06.560 That is, they do this if you happen to be 0:19:06.640 --> 0:19:10.040 using the scissors in the proper hand. If a left 0:19:10.080 --> 0:19:14.639 hander tries to use right handed scissors with their left hand, 0:19:15.040 --> 0:19:17.440 they will find that the blades tend to create a 0:19:17.520 --> 0:19:20.919 space between them as they close, so they close up 0:19:20.960 --> 0:19:23.960 and down, but there's a space left and right that 0:19:24.040 --> 0:19:28.640 allows whatever you're cutting to bend between the blades, which 0:19:28.720 --> 0:19:31.680 usually means you don't tend to cut anything at all, 0:19:32.320 --> 0:19:34.600 or if you do cut, you do so in a 0:19:34.640 --> 0:19:37.400 way where you're maulding whatever it is you're trying to cut. 0:19:37.440 --> 0:19:40.000 I can't tell you how many times I ended up 0:19:40.320 --> 0:19:44.000 with what looked like shredded paper instead of a nice 0:19:44.000 --> 0:19:47.040 clean cut. The squeezing action with the left hand just 0:19:47.160 --> 0:19:49.800 creates a force along that full crumb that moves the 0:19:49.800 --> 0:19:53.040 blades apart rather than squeezing them together. Now, left handers 0:19:53.160 --> 0:19:56.639 can attempt to compensate for this by creating a different 0:19:56.680 --> 0:20:00.280 force with their fingers, essentially pushing their thumbs and index 0:20:00.320 --> 0:20:03.440 fingers in a way to create that pinching force. You're 0:20:03.520 --> 0:20:09.080 forcing the blades together. The boy howdy, that is not comfortable. 0:20:09.359 --> 0:20:12.800 It hurts. Moreover, the position of the blades means that 0:20:12.920 --> 0:20:15.920 the top blade is always on the right side. You 0:20:15.960 --> 0:20:17.760 can flip the blades over, but that means the top 0:20:17.800 --> 0:20:20.600 blade is still on the right side. This actually makes 0:20:20.640 --> 0:20:23.080 it really hard for left handers to see what they 0:20:23.080 --> 0:20:26.600 are cutting if they're trying to cut with their left hand, 0:20:27.119 --> 0:20:30.040 because the blade is in the way. Left handed scissors 0:20:30.280 --> 0:20:33.480 have the top blade on the left side rather than 0:20:33.520 --> 0:20:37.000 the right side. That There are so called left handed 0:20:37.000 --> 0:20:40.119 scissors that don't do this, but they are left handed 0:20:40.160 --> 0:20:42.320 only in the sense that they have handles that have 0:20:42.520 --> 0:20:46.199 contours that better fit the left hand. But without changing 0:20:46.200 --> 0:20:49.239 that blade orientation, you really haven't solved the problem. You 0:20:49.560 --> 0:20:51.760 still can't really see what you're cutting, and you're still 0:20:51.760 --> 0:20:55.000 going to be forcing those blades apart from each other. Now. 0:20:55.040 --> 0:20:58.760 Fun fact, I never learned to use left handed scissors 0:20:58.760 --> 0:21:01.280 because when I was going to school, my school just 0:21:01.320 --> 0:21:04.920 didn't have any. I would use right handed scissors, either 0:21:05.000 --> 0:21:07.200 trying desperately to get them to work with my left 0:21:07.240 --> 0:21:10.200 hand or just giving up and using my right hand, 0:21:10.280 --> 0:21:12.120 knowing that whatever I was going to cut was going 0:21:12.160 --> 0:21:15.439 to look awful because of my lack of fine motor 0:21:15.480 --> 0:21:19.600 skills with my non dominant hand. For another common tool, 0:21:20.000 --> 0:21:23.479 one much more advanced than a pair of scissors, let 0:21:23.640 --> 0:21:27.479 us consider the computer mouse. Now, your typical computer mouse 0:21:27.560 --> 0:21:30.560 tends to have at least two buttons, one on the 0:21:30.640 --> 0:21:33.960 left and one on the right. There are ones that don't, 0:21:34.920 --> 0:21:38.560 they're the single button mouse types, like the ones that 0:21:38.600 --> 0:21:40.639 are used with certain max that kind of thing. But 0:21:40.800 --> 0:21:43.840 your typical computer mouse has at least two buttons, a 0:21:43.920 --> 0:21:47.080 left click and a right click, and they tend to 0:21:47.200 --> 0:21:49.960 be contoured in such a way the mouse is that 0:21:50.040 --> 0:21:53.720 they have a nice fit with the right hand. They 0:21:53.720 --> 0:21:56.199 don't fit the left hand the same way. They're just 0:21:56.240 --> 0:22:00.000 not contoured that way. And most programs tend to incorporate 0:22:00.160 --> 0:22:05.199 mouse commands by shifting important functions for the keyboard to 0:22:05.240 --> 0:22:08.040 the left side of that keyboard, so that way you've 0:22:08.080 --> 0:22:10.280 got the mouse in your right hand and your left 0:22:10.320 --> 0:22:12.920 hand remains free on the left side of the keyboard 0:22:12.960 --> 0:22:16.640 to do whatever other functions you need to do to 0:22:16.720 --> 0:22:19.720 navigate the program. Computer games tend to be a good 0:22:19.720 --> 0:22:22.600 example of how this plays out in favor of right ees. 0:22:23.040 --> 0:22:26.719 So take a first person shooter game like Doom. The 0:22:26.760 --> 0:22:29.919 mouse controls your point of view or your aim in 0:22:29.960 --> 0:22:32.960 the game. You use your mouse to direct your line 0:22:33.000 --> 0:22:35.720 of sight and thus where you have your big zappy 0:22:35.800 --> 0:22:38.200 gun pointed at any given moment so you can shoot 0:22:38.240 --> 0:22:42.800 all those little demon critters. Your character's movement maps typically 0:22:42.840 --> 0:22:46.879 to the WAZA keys, the W A S D keys, 0:22:47.320 --> 0:22:50.480 W being forward, S being backward, and A and D 0:22:50.520 --> 0:22:54.560 typically being strafe left and strafe right, respectively. In a 0:22:54.600 --> 0:22:58.320 shooting game, you need to have precise aim to compete 0:22:58.400 --> 0:23:01.600 at really high levels. If you watch some pro e 0:23:01.760 --> 0:23:04.280 sports players and you really pay attention to how fast 0:23:04.359 --> 0:23:07.320 and precise they are with their aim, it's incredible, and 0:23:07.320 --> 0:23:10.880 it requires a highly developed fine motor skill set with 0:23:10.960 --> 0:23:14.560 whatever hand you're using to aim. In contrast, your movement 0:23:14.680 --> 0:23:18.480 in these style of games is important, but typically does 0:23:18.520 --> 0:23:22.200 not need the same level of precision as aiming, so 0:23:22.520 --> 0:23:27.080 offloading movement to the non dominant hand isn't a huge problem. 0:23:27.359 --> 0:23:31.160 Left handers have it harder. If they're using a traditional 0:23:31.320 --> 0:23:34.560 right handed set up. They're aiming with their non dominant 0:23:34.640 --> 0:23:38.199 hand and thus they tend to be less precise and 0:23:38.280 --> 0:23:40.960 less accurate. Now I know that's the case with me, 0:23:41.000 --> 0:23:44.159 and of course I'm also older, so my reaction times 0:23:44.160 --> 0:23:47.479 are slowing down too. I guess what I'm saying is 0:23:47.800 --> 0:23:51.479 you really don't want me to be on your Overwatch team. 0:23:51.520 --> 0:23:54.920 There are left handed versions of the computer mouse out there, 0:23:55.200 --> 0:23:58.080 and the fact that we've gone to USB connections rather 0:23:58.160 --> 0:24:01.919 than the old PS slash two ports that computers and 0:24:02.040 --> 0:24:05.399 stuff like keyboards and mice used to depend on. We 0:24:05.440 --> 0:24:08.399 don't use those anymore, which that usually means you actually 0:24:08.440 --> 0:24:11.639