Slow emacs start times are very solvable with some smart lisping. Basically, don't '(require)' anything directly, instead make it load lazily when you invoke a

Slow emacs start times are very solvable with some smart lisping. Basically, don't '(require)' anything directly, instead make it load lazily when you invoke a particular mode. So set up lots of hooks. Moving your settings into the Customize system lets you do a lot of this for free. After I converted my 10+ year old .emacs into customize and lazy hooks it sped up from roughly 8 to 10 seconds to under a second. And I also use emacsclient, which make it just instant.