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It's a wonderful example of selection bias. Basically, vim/emacs is likely to select for people who are "good at computers" and reject everyone else. These peop
by m0zg 8y ago
It's a wonderful example of selection bias. Basically, vim/emacs is likely to select for people who are "good at computers" and reject everyone else. These people, in turn, are more likely than average to be excellent programmers. But I wouldn't necessarily draw the arrow of causation in this case. Not only does this not mean that IDE users are worse, it also doesn't mean that there are fewer great programmers among them in absolute terms (even though percentage wise, that's probably the case).
Full disclosure: I'm a vim user.
- class4behavior 8y agoThere is no selection bias because no selection has been done. It's up to you how you interpret the aggregated anecdotes. Such queries are meant to discover notable impact, based on which you might invest in a proper evaluation.
- m0zg 8y agoBut there is selection. Most "normal" programmers can't even _exit_ Vim, let alone use it with any degree of proficiency.
- marton78 8y agoThis is not an example for selection bias, but rather that correlation does not imply causation.