A bunch of the better defaults mentioned are already handled by vim since v8(:h defaults.vim), but beyond that using Tim Pope's vim-sensible¹ feels like it may

A bunch of the better defaults mentioned are already handled by vim since v8(:h defaults.vim), but beyond that using Tim Pope's vim-sensible¹ feels like it may be a better starting point. The repo's issues also contain some real gold on the reasoning behind why some settings are useful as defaults and why others are probably less so. In the spirit of that reddit thread, my only tip is to have a few full runs at vimtutor and then simply buy both of Drew Neil's excellent books²³. Structured learning from domain experts, not piecemeal randomness from our fellow internet commenters. Drew's free vimcasts⁴ are great too, and give a taste of the quality you'll find in his books. JNRowe leans back to chew on some piecemeal randomness ¹ https://github.com/tpope/vim-sensible https://github.com/tpope/vim-sensible ² https://pragprog.com/book/dnvim2/practical-vim-second-edition https://pragprog.com/book/dnvim2/practical-vim-second-editio... ³ https://pragprog.com/book/modvim/modern-vim https://pragprog.com/book/modvim/modern-vim ⁴ http://vimcasts.org/episodes http://vimcasts.org/episodes