Designing a 36-key custom keyboard layout (2021)

A guide to designing a 36‑key keyboard lit up the comment section like a RGB rave, and the crowd split into camps fast. The article says fewer keys can be more comfortable if you use “layers” — like secret floors you access by holding a key — and name‑checks the intense Miryoku setup with six layers and “home row mods” (letters that turn into Shift/Ctrl when held). Cue the drama.

The minimalists flexed hard. One fan bragged they type only on tiny “40%” boards and started with classics like the HHKB and the Minivan. Another pushed it further, calling 34 keys the real sweet spot and roasting “thumb yoga” layers, while plugging Callum‑style mods as a saner alternative. Meanwhile, a maximalist showed up like a boss battle: forget tiny boards, give me function keys, macros on every button, and maybe a whole second keyboard — if only their KVM (the gadget that lets you switch one keyboard between computers) could cope.

Then came the nostalgia wave: one user stockpiles old Logitech G15s like they’re prepping for the keyboard apocalypse. Others tossed shade at “algorithmic” layout designers, arguing human‑designed feels better than machine‑optimized. The memes wrote themselves: “thumb yoga,” “piano-finger Twister,” and “pocket keyboard vs macro pad hoarder.” In short: fewer keys, bigger opinions.