that's the whole point. it was designed for limited terminals and high latency, very slow serial links. that means when you learn it and all of its shortcuts and you have a fast and modern terminal, you are able to edit at ludicrous speed.
it's like training at altitude or running with weight belts for editing text.
I never ever got this argument for Vim.
I don't spend most of my time slinging around huge chunks of text or repeating commands like they do in YouTube videos where Vim pros flex their skills (to extend the fitness metaphor).
I spend most of my time thinking about code design, reading documentation, writing plans, discussing stuff with my colleagues—editing, writing code is maybe 30 – 40% of my time, at best. I also code fairly slowly anyway.
Funnily enough I think I'm decent enough with a good touch pad, so I can avoid the whole 'click-drag' dance when I have to use a mouse.
That being said, I do consider myself too stupid to use Vim beyond the simplest commands—I know how to change modes, save, and exit.
ahh yes, the central brooklyn coffee shop as existential bus stop school of computering. "oh, you're 38 too, well then what are you doing with your existential crises?" "well, when i'm not working on my book, i like to think about code design and discuss stuff with my colleagues while listening to instrumental remixes of 90s punk and indie rock classics. my preferred languages are ocaml, erlang and ruby, but usually i tend towards microsoft visual foxpro for professional efforts."
I'm in my 20s, find coffee shops extremely overpriced, have never set foot in New York City, don't listen to much music at all (and if I do, it's classical and Baroque from the 1700s), and usually write in C# or C++ (both in Visual Studio).
I mean, maybe 5% faster. Sure. Maybe. But at what price? _At what price, I ask you??_
Definitely worth it.
With Vim, I don’t think the commands are quite as intuitive (this might be a skill issue of mine), but I do think I am faster without a mouse because of fewer movements required (having to grab my mouse, move it to where I want, click and then move it back to the keyboard vs. just typing a few letters).
In Vim, I enjoy the process of text editing itself (in addition to any joy derived from the substance of the text edited).
