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As a palm reader (in a previous life) I noticed that about 1 in 4 people were left handed. As for ambidextrous, I suspect that a number of people are describing themselves as ambidextrous when perhaps they are just multiskilled. It's unusual to be as capable as Mark (above). I would be interested to know, though, Mark, can you write as well right handed as you do left handed? Can you readily swap your knife and fork over when eating? And what about drawing and other fine motor skills? Truly ambidextrous people can readily swap left for right with little or no difference in skill level. The rest of us have left handed and right handed skills. I am a right hander when it comes to fine motor skills and a left hander when it comes to gross motor skills.
How would you rate yourself with this way of looking at it, Mark?
Douglas Jensen
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Honestly I do have my preferences depending on the task. But I've found that it isn't too difficult to switch. I usually eat left-handed, but when I have my one-year-old in my lap in my left arm I don't really have a problem using my right hand to eat. But I am more comfortable with my left. When I play basketball I shoot right handed, but when a defender comes up to block me (I'm not very tall, so this happens often) I switch over to my left hand mid-shot. In jr. high softball I would sometimes switch hit. But most of the time I bat right. When I write, I'm normally left-handed. But my right hand is almost as sloppy as my left  .
As you put it, most of my gross motor skills (athletics), are right-handed and fine motor skills (writing, eating) are left-handed. Some things are because that's just the way I've always done it (writing, throwing), others are because I've had to adapt. (Scissors, mouse - both right).
With just about everything I am much more comfortable with my dominent side, and using the other hand feels awkward. But I've learned with very little practice I can become almost as proficient as the dominant hand. So I'd say it usually comes down to practice.
So am I officially ambidextrous? I don't know for a fact, but I hope that answers the question for you.
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Point well made. I was just referred to an online dictionary and it would appear that you do fit the ambidextrous mould.
More's the pity for us mere mortals. 
Douglas Jensen
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Dougals Jensen wrote: As a palm reader (in a previous life) I noticed that about 1 in 4 people were left handed.
I don't have the source on me but I always heard it was 11% of the population that was left-handed, from some 1980s survey. Not sure how accurate it was or even if the number is still the same, but 25% kinda strikes me as high.
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I normally say pre-dominantly right handed. I use (or rather can use) both hands for all tasks, and both feet for both tasks. But I find when using my hands, I have better control with my right hand. My hand-writing is neater with the left but faster with the right.
My left leg is stronger than my right and I used that to my advantage in Karate/Kick-boxing/tae-kwon-do when people thought I was right footed. 
Let's make things simpler than possible.
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Due to pains in my right hand, from continuous mouse usage, I started to use the left one instead.
It took about a month of tedious, concentrated effort (at work) to get it up to speed but now, three years later, I can switch between the two without thinking. I might often use either hand and not remember which I was using if, for instance, I do some work at a desk which is not configured the same as my desk.
I did this for two reasons and am very glad for having persevered during the initial month: 1. I play the drums and being ambidextrous is an advantage and, 2. I was afraid of getting RSI.
"And when I have understanding of computers, I shall be the Supreme Being!"
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I write better righty but that is because of practice. With everything else I can perform just as well lefty, something better.
As a bonus I can write one thing with my right hand while right the same thing in reverse with my left hand. That is pretty cool.
Need a C# Consultant? I'm available.
Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know. -- Ernest Hemingway
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Ennis Ray Lynch, Jr. wrote: As a bonus I can write one thing with my right hand while right the same thing in reverse with my left hand. That is pretty cool.
That's quite a common phenomenon, even people who are totally inept at mirror writing or writing with their left hand are supposed to have improved success mirror writing by using their left hand while writing with the right.
It is cool though
Russell
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Initially documented by Leonardo da Vinci. He was a master at it. And he is frequently described as ambidextrous.
Douglas Jensen
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I am mostly left handed but I Bat Right handed playing Ball and I do Write left handed but I can using either but use my left most of the time. Was Da Vinci a writer? I thought he painted.They say that left handed people use more brain power than Righties because normally we use just a small portion of our brain but because we are left handed the other side of the brain gets used as well. Is that truth or fiction I don't really know.
R E Sabean
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Da Vinci was a real Rennaisance man - painter, sculptor, designer - he even made the world's first audio recording! A copy still exists today where you can hear his voice. Cool huh? Above all he was a scientist and an engineer. As such his writing skills couldn't have been too shabby.
Left brain vs right brain and whether Louis uses more brain than Ringo. I suspect that one's a furphy. We actually use more of our brain than has previously been accepted. The old "10%" rule has been debunked. As for left vs right, hopefully by the time we've all matured and been educated we've begun to balance out how much of each hemisphere we use. Needless to say, no normal person (that is normal grownth and development) uses just one side of their brain. Many functions rely on different components. Many creative arts people - left and right handed - use significantly more of the right brain than do many administrative and desk based workers.
By the same token, a mechanic or mechanical engineer is going to use both sides of the brain as they drift between logic and mental visualisation.
From what you describe, your fine motor skills seem to be in your left hand/right brain, and your gross motor skills seem to be in your right hand/left brain. A nice balance.
Douglas Jensen
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I chose ambidextrous, even though I'm primarily right-handed. I use the mouse exclusively left-handed, because all the keyboards have the number pad (and arrow keys)on the right side of the keyboard. By using the mouse left-handed, it frees up the right hand for speedy number entry. I learned this years ago, when I was still a mechanical design engineer and had to design in CAD all day. It turned out to be much more efficient once my left hand got the hang of the mouse thingy. Now, if I have to use the mouse right-handed, I struggle a little bit.
Though I still use a tablet right-handed.
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Me too, but for another reason.
When you sit in front of the keyboard you normally have the space key right in front of you. With the numeric keypad on the right side, the keyboard takes up more space to your right than your left so if the mouse is on the right side of the keyboard your right arm has to be more angled out from your body than the left arm if the mouse is used with the left hand on the left side of the keyboard.
A couple of years ago I got a "tennis elbow" (or rather "mouse elbow") which forced me to either go on sick leave a couple of weeks or try to use the mouse with the left hand instead. After a little struggling with the left and right mouse clicks, I found that it worked best if the keys where reversed (so the left click is always done with the index finger, which is the right button when using the left hand). Then it took surprisingly little practice to get up to speed and since then I have always used the mouse with the left hand when I am at work (which is where I use a computer the most) and have never felt any discomfort in my left arm at all. At home I still use the mouse on the right side and if I sit there for a while it doesn't take to loong before I get that stinging feeling in my right arm again.
/Ruben
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It would be interesting to cross-reference these statistics with language and technology preferences. For example:
- VB.NET vs C#
- Winforms vs Webforms
- Inline query vs stored procedure
Or maybe not. We don't want to start a war.
Michael L Perry
http://adventuresinsoftware.com
http://updatecontrols.net
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Michael L Perry wrote: It would be interesting to cross-reference these statistics with language and technology preferences.
Yeah, I need to update my profile:
Originally right handed C++ developer, now writes C#/VB .NET code with both hands, holding tea cup with left hand, right foot is reserved for but-kicking only.
modified on Tuesday, January 08, 2008 11:47:11 AM
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Do you feel more at ease using your right foot or left foot?
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Actually, a physician once told me that this question is much more suitable to understand if a person is left handed or right handed. Hands get easily conditioned in schools, while nobody cares about the feet. Since I used more my left foot (while playing soccer, for example) he told me I was left handed and probably corrected early in school.
Luca
The Price of Freedom is Eternal Vigilance. -- Wing Commander IV
En Það Besta Sem Guð Hefur Skapað, Er Nýr Dagur.
(But the best thing God has created, is a New Day.)
-- Sigur Ròs - Viðrar vel til loftárása
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This is interesting in that I (as mentioned in another post) am pre-dominantly right handed. When it comes to the feet however, I found that I have more strength when kicking (karate/tae-kwon-do/kick boxing) with my left leg than with my right leg. The only exception to this is jump kicks because I find it more comfortable to jump off my left leg.
My sensei always told me to train my right leg more than my left and never wanted to see me use my left leg in training so my right leg is almost as good. Looking at the kicks, one cannot tell the difference, but those I kicked always complained more with the left leg.
For things like soccer, rugby etc. I was never good at controlling round objects. I was a goal-keeper for that reason. I hardly missed the ball with my feet but could not direct it.
Let's make things simpler than possible.
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I was left handed until I went to school, where the idiot teachers forced left-handed children to write with their right hand.
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You had a lucky escape from inky left hand hell then. Writing left handed is the most sure fire way to get fresh ink on your writing hand, even with biros.
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... unless you don't write in reverse order (!)
Big Leonardo da Vinci!
2 bugs found.
> recompile ...
65534 bugs found.
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There is also a belief that left handed persons might have a more dominant control from right part of the brain and vice-versa. Somewhere have read but not sure of the authenticity or it might just be another hearsay.
Any clues?
Vasudevan Deepak Kumar
Personal Homepage
Tech Gossips
A pessimist sees only the dark side of the clouds, and mopes; a philosopher sees both sides, and shrugs; an optimist doesn't see the clouds at all - he's walking on them. --Leonard Louis Levinson
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Vasudevan Deepak K wrote: Any clues?
If the left half of the brain controls the right hand and vice versa, then only left-handed people are in their right mind.
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but 2 exceptions for me: my mouse is at the right of the keyboard, and I play guitar as a right-handed person...
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