"There's only so many things one can usefully commit to memory" That's similar to not learning English because the dictionary is too large to memorize. As jva

"There's only so many things one can usefully commit to memory" That's similar to not learning English because the dictionary is too large to memorize. As jvanenk says elsewhere in here, it's muscle memory, not memorization. You don't "remember" how to walk or use a pencil, you just think about the goal (move body over there, write sonnet) and muscle memory takes care of the details. Most vimmers have had the experience of someone watching over their shoulder and they say "wait, how did you do that." And then you have to pause and think it through, because you yourself don't know anymore, it's just in you. It would be ludicrous to try to learn all of vim, and it's absolutely unnecessary for using vim (or any other fine grained editor) effectively. You learn what's useful to you at the moment. If you do anything a lot that irritates you, there's almost certainly something in vim (or any other power editor) that will reduce it down to a keystroke or three. I'm not saying you should learn and use vim, only that your objection (too much to learn) is misplaced.