Ah, fair enough. Generally, you want to stay out of insert mode as much as possible (memorize most of the movement commands and use them), use splits liberally

Ah, fair enough. Generally, you want to stay out of insert mode as much as possible (memorize most of the movement commands and use them), use splits liberally (if you have a big monitor) and use generic awesome plugins such as: NERDTree, surround.vim, snipmate, taglist.vim, etc. Use a complete mode that works with your language of choice or a third-party one that gives more. Omnicomplete is a good place to start and it's built in. Check out the vim sub-reddit, vimcasts.org, and the Daily Vim blog. There is a wealth of information in those places. Shoot me an email (see profile) if you want more specific guidance. I initially planned to type stuff out here but remembered how awful the formatting is.