As a 12 year old I sometimes played scales with pennies on my hands (not by my choice!) and it sure has paid dividends. I’ve been a Emacs user since the 70s and never had a tiny bit of rsi despite mostly using all sorts of physical non-“ergonomic” environments.

I’ve always been shocked by “wrist rests” because they encourage compression and an offset in the orientation of the carpal tunnel. Seems like the best “wrist rest”, if you need one at all, would be a small bed of nails.

Note: I’m male. The carpal tunnels of women narrow during pregnancy and don’t return to the pre-pregnancy internal diameter. As with many conditions specific to women (despite being the majority of hipumanity) this does not appear to have been studied much less explained. An example of why this may be true for me but not for everyone.

Also: pianists are not immune to rsi; while there are sadly many famous professional examples, programmers may also consider Bernie Greenberg.

Moving beyond the kbd: I noticed that my gf’s kids (in Palo Alto schools), were never taught how to use a pencil or pen and suffer fatigue and cramp, while my kid (german education) was thought how to hold and operate pens from grade 1 and though he by now types of course, still has no problem writing for long periods. In Palo Alto all the kids learned was how to make the shapes.