Depending on the problem / project both of them could be right. I also use intellij for big projects but I prefer emacs/vim for little scripting stuff or tiny

Depending on the problem / project both of them could be right. I also use intellij for big projects but I prefer emacs/vim for little scripting stuff or tiny programs. IDEs help navigate and refactor big stuff while editors have less overhead and force you to use your brain a bit more.