This is awkwards but… I tend to use my left pinky to press any key between ~ and 4, while from 5 to backspace I pretty much use any finger aligned with that column.
Also, when I’m under some tension/anxiety/stress, whenever I need to use the right ctrl,shift or altgr, my brain invites my left hand to do it rather than the right one. Since when it happens it visually looks like a tick, it’s extremely uncomfortable if you’re in a public place (hurray for self-quarantine!).
You ever see a new keyset at the beginning of a group buy and say to yourself, “neat but I don’t need it. That’s definitely one I’ll pass on.”
But then on the final day you buy it and you’re like…
oh boy, I feel personally attacked here.
Or, in the same line of thinking… a keyset that you see and think, “meh, I don’t need that. It’s not very interesting.” But then extras are in stock and you buy every kit. SMDH
Literally me on Saturday ordering GMK Civilizations…
Sleeves 
So I think my ambivalence towards Topre switches is kinda irrational.
Objectively, they’re my perfect switch, even right out of the box without any modification. Soundtrack, tactility, smoothness, responsiveness, consistency—they’re incredible. Plus I’m a sucker for high quality PBT keycaps and Topre’s OEM profile. On paper, there’s just so much to like.
On the other hand Topre’s near perfection makes them a little boring for me. After a few days using a Topre keyboard, I invariably go back to one of my MX customs. Why?
There’s something weirdly endearing and appealing about the imperfection of MX-based switches. Sure with the right modification and coaxing MX-based switches can be incredible and on-par or objectively better than Topre, but it requires some know-how and a lot of work. MX switches also tend to have more quirks, nuances and personality. Ultimately I guess that makes them more interesting and fun. The other thing about MX switches is that they get WAY better with age and use. There’s something profoundly satisfying about that.
I super get this. MX-based switches are such a deep well for modification and improvement that they give me a lovely rabbit hole down which I can continually tumble.
Of course, this might just be my perception; it certainly seems possible that there could be a similarly-deep well for Topre, or EC switches at large, that I simply have yet to find! Maybe there’s a whole vibrant community to be found (or to build) of modders with clever, interesting ways of achieving radically different pushfeels from EC switch mechanisms!
Good point. I could be totally underestimating the modding potential of Topre.
“You got that wabi-sabi, Bobby.”
I have a fascination (perhaps a fetish) for a e s t h e t i c keyboards that don’t really meet my needs from an input device, or layouts that are no good for me.
I’ve tried 40% boards* (I really wanted to love my zlant) but concluded that I really can’t get past symbols and numbers being hard to type. As a UX guy and designer, I really can’t in good conscience endorse any interaction that has (what feels to me) unnecessary friction. If I’m in the zone writing code in vim, I don’t want to have to think about how to type a forward slash or hashmark/poundsign; it makes me slower and more irritated, not faster like some 40s aficionados claim.
And yet, I just bought a rackmount minivan clone (knuckhull case with a ketch pcb). Will I ever learn?
* inb4 the 40%/more% holy war — even if I started it XD
Just put it on backspace and have backspace on layer
It’s one of those “is it worth the time?” Things. I personally found tiny boards so intriguing that I took that time and am much more efficient on them now than anything else. But… I don’t develop software. I can see how having a typing-dependent job could be a big obstacle. (I know devs that use 40s blah blah blah).
It sounds like you’re mid conversion 
Classic 
I dunno how I missed this, but I actually use left shift for all shifting scenarios
That’s INSANITY!!! 🫠
I, too, am terribly imbalanced. Left hand space, left hand shift.
I have a theory (it’s generous to call it that. It’s probably a bogus narrative about myself) that typists will generally be better about using both shifts, while coders will tend towards left shift.
Reason being, in every day typing there’s not a ton of need for much of the right-pinky’s domain, so utilizing it for shift and allowing the other 9 to maintain workflow makes sense.
For coding, right pinky is occupied nearly every line, often multiple times, between the 3 different flavors of brackets, underscores, compare statements, colon and semi, quotes, etc. That pinky becomes a major contributor, and much of it is shifted work.
For my work flow, I’m all left shift, and that just carries over into everyday typing.
I use almost exclusive right shift for caps, and left shift for cut, copy, and paste 