A keyboard is the tool of my trade at this point in my life. I spend so many hours touching one of these things that it's honestly embarrassing to think about. Over the course of the years I've had many keyboards. I've been on some sort of mechanical keyboard for over ten years, and I've converted to those goofy split keyboards for at least three years. I'm fully bought in and have found that like everything in life, higher quality comes with higher prices, so a nicer keyboard will most likely get pretty expensive. The keyboard I have at home is an Ergodox EZ which fully equipped as I like it to be runs an eye-watering $325. That's an untenable price for something that provides real ergonomic benefit to folks whose lives may be spent poking away at these devices. I got this keyboard when I was in the middle of being fully remote at my work and it sold itself. It's open source nature is a huge plus and the splitness helped my wrist strain significantly. I have broad shoulders and big hands and those factors made a split keyboard a home run. With the keyboard in hand I was typing away in bliss for a good while. That is until I got the bad news. I was told after years of assurance that my company was just fine with us working fully remote that that was no longer the case. Turns out owning real estate doesn't make sense with employees working remotely. A declaration was delivered from on high: start getting back into the office or start packing your things. So I begrudgingly needed to start heading back into the office. With my new trek into the flourescent hell of the office formalized I became increasingly cognizant of a glaring problem. The keyboards in the office were total and utter dogshit. I needed to figure something out, so I quickly bought a regular mechanical keyboard to hold me over while I figured out a solution to my newfound lack of ergonomics. I wasn't going to lug my home keyboard around so I started doing research. After learning how to solder recently, I was looking for methods to practice my new skill. A thought had also begun bouncing around in my head. I've grown tired with the constant stream of consumerism that we're pulled into. I can write about that in depth another time, but I had discovered something incredible. There are so many keyboards out there that are entirely open source, from the PCB design to the software running them. Without the need to just purchase something and get handed a product I was reliant on a company to make, I could take the production into my own hands. A makerspace exists in my area that had everything I needed to make one of these keyboards, so I joined it. I decided on a Redox Keyboard because it was almost the size of the Ergodox but was running modern microcontrollers. This keyboard is also entirely open source, so I just ordered the PCBs and electronics, picked out my keyswitches, and printed the case. All of the parts showed up, and I hunkered down for an evening of creation at the space's soldering station. I brought a laptop, turned on some music as I was the only person there, and got to soldering. For a very first soldering project, this was a revelation. Soldering is EASY. At least through hole stuff is, oh boy was this an easy project. Unfortunately, I did need to spend five hours doing it as I had so many things to solder, but some neck pain aside it was simple. After taking it home, flashing the firmware, and plugging it in, I pressed a button. IT WORKED. Everything worked first try! Doing all of this made me come to a realization. I'm a software developer. Every software developer should build their own keyboard. YOU SHOULD BUILD YOUR OWN KEYBOARD. Our lives consist of using these things to cast our arcane spells and make computers do our bidding. I feel like the process of building this has brought me so much closer to the tinkerer I want to be. In addition, I feel like this has given me back a little bit of freedom over my work. The entirety of our interaction with our work is a tug of war with those that want to extract the utmost value from us. Our employers will happily chew us up and spit us out in the name of profits. The least we can do is try to take care of our bodies in a radical attempt at self care. Ergonomics is not a joke and is something we should put active effort into as it will control our long term longevity in our careers. If we're being radical, let's be radical by our own terms. Building my keyboard made me feel like a Jedi crafting their own lightsaber. I have total control of how I interact with my computer now, and you should too. There's a billion different split ergonomic keyboards out there and you can find the one you want to build. If you're feeling especially adventurous, you can make your own keyboard layout and get it manufactured yourself. We have the ability to not just consume the handful of options laid out before us by those with an interest in selling us the cheapest thing they can for the highest price you can stomach. To be able to disconnect from that is pretty freeing. Free yourself, build your own keyboard.