Is it worth it to ask "is it worth it to learn vim?"?

There are a few big unsolved problems in computer science. Probably the most

computer science. Probably the most famous is P equals NP. Whether or not that's true, I think that one's easy because you can just set N equal to one and then clearly it's true. The other

big question is, is Vim worth it to learn? This question I have a lot of

learn? This question I have a lot of problems with personally because my livelihood depends on Vim tutorials somewhat. Well, I went off the rails

somewhat. Well, I went off the rails recently, but it used to depend on Vim tutorials. So, I don't like when people

tutorials. So, I don't like when people ask that question cuz then maybe my viewers will flow away and everything will dry up like a phantom oasis. Mirage

of an oasis. That's the word I was looking for. Um, but yeah, I'm going to

looking for. Um, but yeah, I'm going to try to answer that today. I think first of all, the term worth it is a little bit weird. It's like

bit weird. It's like to quantify things as being worth it. I

guess you're asking like is it worth my time? if I put in this amount of time,

time? if I put in this amount of time, am I gonna get this thing out that improves my existence in some way? And

um I don't know the the problem with that in my opinion is it's like a dangerous slippery slope where you start asking is any like you you ask all these questions like is this worth it? Is this

worth it? Is this worth it? I just want my time to be spent most efficiently, which is reasonable enough. Like we're

all obsessed with efficiency. But if you do that and you just go on YouTube and you find people's opinions about what's worth it all day, you can actually just waste a lot more time than you would

have just starting learning the thing.

Which is really funny as well for Vim.

Like people watching a video, is Vim worth it? I would say if you spend 20

worth it? I would say if you spend 20 minutes doing Vim tutor, you already have basically learned Vim. And it's

like if you're going to watch a 20-minut 20-minute video about learning Vim or not, it's like it's kind of ridiculous, honestly.

And worth it is it's a bad attitude because it just carries to a lot of other things in computer science. Like you get a lot of people

science. Like you get a lot of people asking is it worth it to learn React? Is

it worth it to learn this and this and this? And then there's a whole culture

this? And then there's a whole culture of making videos about what's worth it and like what's what's the meta framework? Um not meta the company and

framework? Um not meta the company and not meta like it's both server side and client side. I could have picked a

client side. I could have picked a better word, but what's the framework that's being hired? what's the framework where there are jobs, there's job demand. I don't know. You get what I'm

demand. I don't know. You get what I'm trying to say. Uh but yeah, I think it's just weird to ask is it worth it all day? It creates this whole economy of

day? It creates this whole economy of worth it videos instead of actually just learning something. And then as soon as

learning something. And then as soon as you know, as soon as you actually know a technology, as soon as you learn Vim, you can tell for yourself whether or not it's worth it or whether or not other things are worth it. And that's a very

important skill to have so you don't spend your entire day watching videos about it. For instance, like if you

about it. For instance, like if you learn Vim um really well, then you're qualified to say whether Helix or whether Emacs or

whether Cocoon is worth it much better than someone who's coming from VS Code.

Still probably not all that quantified qualified and I would just honestly I would just go and try it if you are interested and not like worry about is it worth it. But yeah, the other side of

the argument that I don't like is worth it kind of implies like you're exchanging your time, right, for a skill. But there are only so many

skill. But there are only so many activities you can do in life. And to

split them into two very broad categories. There's like work, which is

categories. There's like work, which is maybe like programming and studying and and improving your abilities to churn out capitalist things that can be sold for money. And then there's like leisure

for money. And then there's like leisure where you're just like wasting your time basically with useless human desires and like terrible family and friend connections and stuff like that, you know, that's like it's a total waste of

time and eventually we'll have like behavioral therapy to correct for. But

for now is like a big chunk of how a lot of people including me unfortunately spend our time.

And if Vim, so if if you have like eight hours of the day to learn learn for programming and you're going to spend a chunk of that learning Vim, it's much different than like if you if your

leisure activity is learning Vim, which it is for me and it is for a lot of other people who like are Linux rising freaks, you know, or people who customize operating systems and and dot

files all day for fun. It's like

the worth it question, I guess, applies most in like a corporate context where you're going to learn Vim like during the workday and then after you get home to your like unoptimal wife and kids,

you're going to stop like learning. But

if Vim for you is fun, if that's like your pastime as opposed to watching movies or whatever other activity that's

unoptimal, then it's just like such a a useless moot question because it's like a it's a it's not it's not

time that you would spend on anything else. I just don't get that exactly.

else. I just don't get that exactly.

Yeah. I also I recently I was getting all existential and philosophical and I stopped talking about Vim for a while which I think is a big mistake. Um and

the reason I stopped is I got freaked out by the idea of optimizing optimizing meta optimizing. Like you have a Vim

meta optimizing. Like you have a Vim config that you edit so you can edit code faster and then you're like you get so carried away if your job as a YouTuber to talk about Vim.

I'm very I'm incentivized to like keep improving my Vim workflow. So it's like a workflow improving itself which feels like well what's the point now like if

I'm not really coding. First of all I was coding but second of all that's kind of the nature of everything in life.

Like Vim is a lot more like real life than you might think. Like

might think. Like what's an activity that I'm trying to think that just feeds into itself endlessly, you know, like oh fashion is a great one or like clothing

cuz I was with my mom and sister and my sister loves to go to thrift shops which is like I'd literally rather die but um luckily I found zen so I was a little more able to handle that. It was still

really hard. But yeah, I was in this

really hard. But yeah, I was in this thrift shop and I was like, "So, people go to thrift shops so that they can or clothing dispensaries, clothing

dealerships, whatever, so they can get clothes and slap them on so that they can do what? Like go back out to more clothing stores. It's like a like you're

clothing stores. It's like a like you're you're making your appearance better so that you can go appear more but like part of part of your appearances in

public are at places where you're improving your appearance. You know,

it's like it's like a self cyclical in the same way that like you use Vim to code, but you also use Vim to edit your Vim RC. It's like an endless

Vim RC. It's like an endless self-improvement loop. And the rest of

self-improvement loop. And the rest of life is like that, too. It's like you buy a new car. Why? you can be more comfortable going to your job so you can get more money so you can buy a nicer car. It's like just an endless treadmill

car. It's like just an endless treadmill of improvement. And that made me like

of improvement. And that made me like kind of I was like uh what's what's the point of it all? It's so uh it's just an endless loop.

But you have to kind of enjoy the process and not like any results. You

can't have like a gaining idea.

According to Buddhism, you can't have you can't do things for the sake of getting something out of it, or else you're going to be kind of miserable.

You life will have its ups and downs, but it's much more stable and much more tranquil to do things for their own sake rather than to do things to get something. And that's I think a problem

something. And that's I think a problem with uh with Vim and programming in general. I'm trying to maybe I'll make a

general. I'm trying to maybe I'll make a whole video on this eventually, but one thing that's a Buddhist idea is like you shouldn't have thoughts in your mind

of other things while you're doing an activity, which I absolutely agree with.

Like if you're learning Vim and in in your head it's all like I'm going to I'm doing this so I can be faster and better than other developers. I'm doing this so I have this supreme vision of me being

um like really fast, really smooth. And

then you have this mental ideal. This uh

I guess it's an ideal is the best way to look at it. Like this mental picture of a supremely good and perfect scenario where you're just flowing through code and you know all everything about Vim.

The problem with having those gaining ideas, those ideas of like perfection and same thing with any other programming language. I'm going to learn

programming language. I'm going to learn uh I don't know Java and I'm going to be I'm going to optimize all the garbage collection cycles and I'm going to make the best app ever. like you're starting out with the idea that you're going to

be very successful is problematic because it kind of corrupts the practice of doing the thing for its own sake and

it makes it so that you'll constantly be kind of disappointed because your ideal will be really far from reality. You

know, it's hard to enjoy using like learning Vim when you're like struggling and flopping all around and you're just like slapping yourself from file to file, from buffer to buffer super

awkwardly like a fish that's dead on land or flopping around on land. It's

still alive. And um you'll be really disappointed because you have this vision, oh that guy on YouTube, he was flying through stuff. Uh and I'm not saying this is vacuously true. I found

it very true for me or like when I start a project, I have visions of like, oh my god, this project will be so successful.

And I'm sure lots of people can relate to this. Like you imagine, oh, this is

to this. Like you imagine, oh, this is going to be an open-source triumph. I'm

going to like get so much career brownie points for doing this thing. I'm going

to I'm going to get so much credit for this. This project is going to be so

this. This project is going to be so intricate and and well-designed. You

have all these like ideas about the project. And then inevitably when it

project. And then inevitably when it takes you like a long time to realize those things, like you can't just have this great open source project within like two hours of work. It's going to

take you months of meticulous planning and like ups and downs and different amounts of productivity and different weeks. And it's like realistically that

weeks. And it's like realistically that will never be the case that you'll you'll be like, "Oh, I'm going to I'm going to be a Vim master." And then like a day later you're just a god. It's like

a long slow grind. So it's important to lose this idea of is it worth it? Is it

is this ideal that I have in my mind going to be rendered real and like is this going to become reality quickly quickly enough for me to be satisfied

with it. It's kind of a similar um thing

with it. It's kind of a similar um thing to it's like asking if a diet is worth it or if like working out is calisthenics worth it. And you can you can see like guys that are super

shredded and jacked from doing calisthenics.

It's like yes, it's going to take a lot of work though. It's it's kind of like when you're watching a video, is Vim worth it?

You're basically trying to comfort your brain into thinking, "Oh, this ideal that I have in my mind, being a super fast, godly programmer, it's

going to be easy or it's going to be hard and I shouldn't do it." You're

waiting for someone else to tell you how long it's going to take and how hard it's going to be. And once you get that answer, you think you're going to make a decision one way or another. like, okay,

I'm going to dismiss Vim outright or, okay, I'm going to go all in on Vim. But

it's like this sneaky form of procrastination, I think, where you are just instead of actually starting, you're just like trying to

find patterns of other people doing things before to justify your own actions. I don't know. And it's

it's like I think it's an insidious form of procrastination because it feels like doing work. It feels like you're gaining

doing work. It feels like you're gaining information, but if you watch a video that's just should you learn Zigg, should you should you do this, should you do that, it's like so

it's got very little substance actually that you can remember and take with you and you often forget what the message was in the end cuz so many of these

people just have like they kind of say videos I've seen at least of whether or not Vim is worth it. It's kind of like an opaque up in the air answer. It's

like it's worth it in these these these cases if you want to do this this this this. It's not worth it in this this

this. It's not worth it in this this this and it's like you often forget and then you end up watching more of them and it's like if you had just done it in the beginning it would have been really easy. Uh but I don't know maybe there

easy. Uh but I don't know maybe there maybe there is a reason for having videos so that you can decide what's worth it and what's not. It it all depends on

what you're trying to do, I guess. But

for the most part, yeah, I guess there's no real thesis to this video. I didn't

write a script.