Mechanical Keyboards

Thanks! No, not at all. I have been using boards this small daily for almost 6 years now.

Basically all keys from a full-size keyboard are on my keymap, just not on the base layer. Most keys I can reach by pressing 2 keys, which is equal to typing an uppercase key.

For example on the split spacebars, the left bar does space when pressed shortly, and switches to a layer with numbers and symbols when pressed. The right bar would do enter / switch to navigation layer where there is arrows. Another key thing (no pun indended) is to use whats called home-row modifiers. That basically means gui, shift, alt and control are where your fingers rest (e.g. left hand A, S, D, F).

The main benefit over a full-size board for me is that I don't have to move my fingers more than one row up/down (and index fingers one row in ofc). I have also fun tinkering with layouts and like the small form factor. Getting used to the layout took around one or two weeks - I already had a bigger keyboard with QMK where I added the smaller keymap so I could switch while learning.