A personal reflection on the neuropsychology concept of 'tool embodiment' — the idea that frequently used tools become integrated into our brain's body schema. Prompted by a broken trackball forcing a switch to a regular mouse for audio editing, the author experienced firsthand how deeply ingrained motor memory for a specific tool can be, costing an extra hour of work. The piece touches on the academic debate around tool embodiment and draws parallels to switching keyboards or editors like emacs vs vim.
Sort: