Magic Keyboard

Work in tech long enough and you will meet engineers who care deeply about their keyboards.

The usual suspects are Realforce and HHKB. Electrostatic capacitive switches, they say. Topre 45g is perfection, they say. From there the path leads to split Ergodox boards, then hand-wired customs, then lubing individual switches. That is the rabbit hole.

HHKB even sells a blank model. Nothing printed on the keycaps. Only those whose bodies have memorized the layout can use it. A badge of honor. Realforce offers variable-weight and pressure-sensing variants. The depth of obsession is bottomless.

I use a Magic Keyboard. About as consumer-grade as it gets.

My first English-layout board was Microsoft's Natural Keyboard. That split-down-the-middle ergonomic design. I bought it purely for the look. A few transitions later, here I am.

Mechanical keyboards never agreed with me. The clatter bothers me. Some people find the click-clack satisfying. To me it is noise. I tried electrostatic capacitive too, but the deep key travel felt wrong. Apple's flat, clacky, shallow keyboards suit me best. I wonder sometimes where my pride as an engineer went. But a tool should fit the hand that uses it.

Because I never fell into the keyboard rabbit hole, my disposable income survived. Though I suspect it simply fell into a different hole.