Left/Right handness of our population? - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: retrolefty
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 07, 2018, 02:05:26 pm
content: While retired now, it occur to me that my life experience in electronics related work that there always seemed to me that I worked at places that had more then the normal 10% lefthandness population ratio than is normal. Yes I am a lefty, that is why I noticed.

author: CJay
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 07, 2018, 02:10:11 pm
content: Me too and I have also always felt there are more of us lefties in tech workplaces.Seem to remember there was a poll here a year or two ago

author: Howardlong
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 07, 2018, 02:12:47 pm
content: I self identify as trans handed, somethings I do left handed, like writing, other things I do right handed, like playing the guitar or using a tool like a soldering iron or screwdriver.

author: JPortici
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 07, 2018, 02:19:23 pm
content: another leftyaltough mouse and phone on the right hand. With tools and in sports i try to be ambidextrous

author: daqq
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 07, 2018, 02:35:44 pm
content: I too am left handed... and I know of several other people in the trade that are the same way. Weird

author: Rerouter
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 07, 2018, 02:56:02 pm
content: Left handed for writing, any hand for anything elseApart from writing I can use either hand for any task, e.g. for typing I can pick any combination of fingers from one or both hands and type like normal. same with any tool, or skill,Used to also be able to control computer mice with my feet, (many hours of copying files between win95 machines as a kid, and got bored)

author: JPortici
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 07, 2018, 04:13:53 pm
content: mm... didn't we have a poll some time in the past?

author: GreyWoolfe
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: December 07, 2018, 04:47:34 pm
content: My dearly departed older sister was the only lefty in the family. She could write equally well lefty or righty as she went to a Catholic High School and they didn't like leftys, cue the ruler. She could also write backwards and forwards at the same time with both hands. I always thought that was a neat trick.

author: edpalmer42
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 07, 2018, 05:49:51 pm
content: Left-handed for writing - a mix of left and/or right for other things.My dad was left-handed, but forced to write right-handed due to a Catholic schooling. Combine that with a lifetime of filling out multiple-sheet carbon forms (remember those?) and his penmanship was absolutely horrid.

author: CJay
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 07, 2018, 07:43:10 pm
content: We did have a poll...https://www.eevblog.com/forum/chat/are-you-lefthanded/25/

author: retrolefty
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 07, 2018, 07:51:28 pm
content: Started by yours truly no less.I need some new material.

author: The Soulman
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 07, 2018, 07:57:44 pm
content: Quote from: edpalmer42 on December 07, 2018, 05:49:51 pmWe can't blame the catholics for everything, there was a practical reason for right-hand writing, because when you write from left to right (like most if not all western country's)your left hand would smudge the ink, and also the windows in the class rooms where always on the left hand side to avoid shade on your writing.I started out in live as right handed but well past my puberty I've changed to bi-handed for practicality reasons.it is very handy to be able to use (power) tools in both hands, especially in odd or tight places.

author: richnormand
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: December 07, 2018, 08:09:05 pm
content: Quote from: GreyWoolfe on December 07, 2018, 04:47:34 pmInitially left handed until I got to school. Yep, the nuns did not like the devil's side (sinistra). Today everyone complains about my handwritingProbably why I fell in love with the early PalmPilot scrip.Being left-handed was an advantage for me in judo competitions as I would do the warm-up as a right-handed person and suddenly switch to a mirror attack in competition.Was your sister also dyslexic by any chance? I could do that easy when I was younger (write backwards and forwards at the same time with both hands).Today I still retain the ability to read a documents on someone's desk while sitting in front of it (ie: upside down) any visualizing double sided pc boards with the circuit schematics while troubleshooting..I do find it a bit harder as I am getting older though.Scientific American had an article years ago claiming left handed people and dyslexic people tended to have better marks at university and also favoring STEM. I'll try to find the reference.By the way, my daughter is also left handed and I was happy to find the school had left handed scissors and such.

author: jaromir
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: December 07, 2018, 08:10:09 pm
content: Interesting how much lefties are out there.On the other hand (pun intended) - in my work team of 11 people, there is 0% of lefties.

author: Zero999
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 08, 2018, 12:07:22 am
content: Quote from: Howardlong on December 07, 2018, 02:12:47 pmMe too.At the moment I've broken my left thumb which is in a splint, so I'm really missing my left hand. I can still do most things, but it's a struggle, especially soldering.

author: duak
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 08, 2018, 05:06:55 am
content: I'm right handed except when being klutzy, then I'm ambidextrous - equally bad with both.One place I worked had four lefties out of sixteen employees. Definitely higher than the at large average. They are some of the most inventive and intelligent people I've ever had the good fortune to work with. The percentage dropped as the company got larger and maybe less exceptional?

author: beanflying
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 08, 2018, 05:26:29 am
content: As we are now allowed to be open and Lefty in public we are growing slowly in number from the established 10%......Similar to other genetic dispositional issues Lefty 'conversion' was tried on me from a very young age and the spoon that my Mother was instructed to 'make me use my right hand' by the Maternal Health Nurse kept going back in the Left hand. Left Hand, Left Foot, Colourblind (still yet to electrocute me or any others)To this day Soup or Desert Spoons and more importantly the Soldering Iron goes in the Left Hand

author: beanflying
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 08, 2018, 06:22:24 am
content: Mmm Strangely I use my Right hand for the mouse maybe I am a bit Ambi

author: CatalinaWOW
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 08, 2018, 06:39:04 am
content: While there may be more lefties in our profession than the general population, I sure haven't seen anything like what the poll turned up. Clearly the sampling caused something out of whack. I see maybe as much as a quarter.I observe that I am becoming more ambi as I get older. It isn't necessarily a good thing. I am right dominant, and coordination of the right hand is dropping while the left seems to be about constant. My penmanship left handed was always legible, but bad. The right hand is joining that. When eating I switch sides depending on elbow room. But the right hand is losing ground there too. Tool use has always been whichever hand can reach the problem and that seems to be holding constant.

author: TerraHertz
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 09, 2018, 11:13:02 pm
content: Let me tell a personal anecdote. Feel free to dismiss both this and my conclusion as statistically irrelevant.When my son was a baby, like all babies there came a time when he started reaching for and grabbing things put in front of him. He was doing this invariably with his right arm and hand. Which I considered a good thing, since being a realist I accept that left-handedness would be a handicap to anyone wanting to use tools. Since most are designed for right-handers.Then one of his scheduled immunization shots came due. We took him to the local clinic, I was there when the lady gave him the shot. In his upper right arm.He never, and I mean NEVER used his right arm to reach for things and grab them, ever again. It was extremely, glaringly obvious. From that day he grew up left handed. His handwriting is typical left handed (a handicap in itself) and he's awkward with tools.It turns out there's a general tendency for medical people to give injections in the right arm, to babies (who can't express any preference.) More convenient for the doctors, since they are predominantly right-handed.There has been a dramatic increase in left-handedness in Western countries over the last 50+years.From that experience I would bet it's related to immunizations being given to babies in their right arm, at a time critical to formation of left-right brain wiring. And the effect becomes permanent.Whether it's just a result of avoidance of using a sore arm during that critical period, or perhaps more serious local nerve damage (don't dismiss that, there's the whole issue of thimerosal in vaccines, a preservative/adjuvant based on mercury, which is unarguably a neurotoxin), I can't say.But then there's things like this:http://scitechconnect.elsevier.com/rates-of-left-handedness-downs-and-ups/(Graph attached below.)Would you trust that graph? I don't. I'd suspect it's formatted to hide that the last bar is a lie, and recent/current left-handedness numbers are much higher than 12%. But we can't be showing precipitous rises now can we, or people might wonder about causes.

author: beanflying
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 09, 2018, 11:30:50 pm
content: I agree we are on the rise per head of population. There is still plenty of reasons that number is lower than it probably should be too be it religious or cultural or just forced during early growth by families.ETA for the Leftie revolution is 3052But until then just sit quietly and wait....

author: duak
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 10, 2018, 01:17:09 am
content: It's neither here nor there, but three of the previous four US presidents are or were left-handed.A childhood chum's mother was left handed and she told us of having her left arm tied behind her back when she was in school in 1940's and 1950's Canada. I don't recall her being part of a particular religion that saw it as a bad attribute so I wonder if it was societal. I recall something about her living in a primarily Icelandic community on the prairies. I think this was also before mass vaccinations, certainly before polio vaccine.

author: Rerouter
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 10, 2018, 08:42:36 am
content: In reality, If so many people didn't try and force left handers in to right handers, there wouldn't be so many almost ambidexterous left handers out there,Its really easy to win batting sports as a left handed child, because few pitchers have practiced for them

author: CJay
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 10, 2018, 12:16:29 pm
content: Quote from: duak on December 10, 2018, 01:17:09 amIt's not uncommon, my partner's father is ambidextrous because teachers were vicious in their hatred for lefties, my own handwriting is terrible because none of my teachers had any idea how a leftie should be taught to write, I still can't use a fountain pen easily as much as I'd like to be able to.

author: Tom45
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: December 10, 2018, 07:22:45 pm
content: I learned to write in the early 50s and don't remember any teacher bias against me because I used my left hand to write. It was more a matter of them ignoring me, probably because they didn't know how to teach writing technique to a lefty.That was in the fountain pen era, so learning to write without smearing the ink with my hand was a matter of trial and error.I think lefties are more adept with their non dominant hand just because so much is geared towards right handed people. So we get practice using both hands throughout life because we pretty much have to.

author: JoeO
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: December 11, 2018, 03:14:27 am
content: My grandmother was from the old country, eastern Europe. She was forced to learn to write as a righty because lefthandedness was thought to be a sign that you were possessed by the devil.

author: basinstreetdesign
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: December 11, 2018, 05:54:25 am
content: I'm a righty. But I can well believe that there are more lefties amongst the intelligentsia than the general population. I also believe that lefties tend to be, on the average, a little more intelligent (10%?) than the general population. I get this from direct observation and have no official studies to quote. I also note that those who are involved in science and/or technology at a professional level also tend to be musical to some degree.I myself play drums from time to time which is good encouragement to simultaneous two-handed dexterity. Coincidence?

author: beanflying
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 11, 2018, 06:01:28 am
content: Quote from: Tom45 on December 10, 2018, 07:22:45 pmFor some bizarre reason in the 1970's in the 4th Grade we were 'forced' to buy and use nib pens, the difference in my hand writing before and after is HUGE as I adopted the overhand cramped non smudge technique.The other bane of my earlier life used to be cheque, receipt or docket books in particular the triplicate ones** Not me in the photo

author: richnormand
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: December 11, 2018, 07:44:48 pm
content: Quote from: basinstreetdesign on December 11, 2018, 05:54:25 amNot sure if this is directly related to intelligence per se. My guess is that lefties and dyslexic folks have to try harder from a young age in a society made for right handed folks and during school and by the time they reach university or college they have an established work habits and perseverance better than other folks.You can also see that aspect to people with good memories that got it easy until they hit first year of university where hard work and understanding of the concepts is all of the sudden relevant.Dyslexic also tend to have good 3D and spatial visualization. Skills that are good for machining, topology, electronics and several STEM fields.

author: JPortici
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 13, 2018, 11:16:24 am
content: Quote from: CJay on December 07, 2018, 07:43:10 pmForgot how shitty the forum looks like on mobile. God bless tapatalk

author: InductorbackEMF
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: December 13, 2018, 01:04:27 pm
content: As left as left can be.Alex.