I stand for the Constitution, for due process, and for community that takes care of each other. Hope is a discipline.

To learn Vim, practice smooth, iterative deepening

D. Ben Knoble on 15 Mar 2025 in Blog

You already know to run vimtutor and read :help. Here’s why:

Smooth, iterative deepening means that you can get started with very basic maneuvers: Insert mode, arrow keys, ZZ. Give motions and Normal mode a try. As you find places to improve or change the editor, you can do so with advanced :help topics.
As Primeagen says¹ around the 1h30 mark, Vim isn’t hard: it’s just different. We have preconceived notions of programming and editors that Vim doesn’t fit into. The first time you learned what a file is or how a compiler creates an executable was equally foreign—you just don’t remember that. I frankly agree that modern IDEs are more confusing and distracting with all the window cruft they bolt on.
Vim is ultimately a tinkerer’s tool (in addition to being a ubiquitous Vi): learn it or don’t, but don’t expect a completely out-of-the-box experience. Tinker!

Oh, and don’t use a distro if you can avoid it. Prime agrees.

Notes

I still agree with this take, but as of late 2026 I feel compelled to notify you that ThePrimeagen is a core developer for the fascist Omarchy project. ↩

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