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I wish I could learn using Emacs. With Vi I make already baby steps.

sph 4y ago
It's like learning to ride a bike. It's scary at first, but you once it clicks you will forever know how to ride a bike. And bikes and Emacs both will still be around in 30 years. Would you rather spend the next weekend learning Emacs, or a React library no one will ever use again in 6 months?
iLemming 4y ago
This is what I did, years back. I created a single Org-Mode file called tasks.org. I didn't know anything about Org-Mode and in general, was a total noob in Emacs. Whenever I had a question or felt like whatever I'm doing is taking too long or does require repetition, or simply annoyed me for any reason, I would add a new item to that list. Slowly I learned Org-Capture, which allowed me to add items to the list much faster and without switching contexts. My list kept growing, and that forced me to learn more efficient ways of finding stuff - e.g., Org-Agenda, scheduling, deadlines, etc. Some items, over time, have become irrelevant so I learned how to archive them. Some problems required basic knowledge of Emacs-Lisp, so I started using Org-Babel to have source blocks where I would write and play around with tiny (and sometimes bigger) elisp snippets. That lead me to the discovery of indirect buffers and I realized how amazing they are. That single .org file had become a very important part of my life. I started using it for other things, not just to learn Emacs and Org-Mode. By the time I discovered Org-Roam and jumped into Zettelkasten, I was doing pretty much almost everything I do on the computer, in Emacs. Today I write code, check email, browse articles and blogposts, manage all my files, read books, extract subtitles from videos (to take notes), and keep my personal journal - I do all that in Emacs. And it all started with a simple .org file. Eventually, this approach become my personal philosophy, my absolute recipe for any problem in my life - If you need to solve something, start with a simple list.

sph 4y ago

It's like learning to ride a bike. It's scary at first, but you once it clicks you will forever know how to ride a bike. And bikes and Emacs both will still be around in 30 years. Would you rather spend the next weekend learning Emacs, or a React library no one will ever use again in 6 months?

iLemming 4y ago

This is what I did, years back. I created a single Org-Mode file called tasks.org. I didn't know anything about Org-Mode and in general, was a total noob in Emacs. Whenever I had a question or felt like whatever I'm doing is taking too long or does require repetition, or simply annoyed me for any reason, I would add a new item to that list. Slowly I learned Org-Capture, which allowed me to add items to the list much faster and without switching contexts. My list kept growing, and that forced me to learn more efficient ways of finding stuff - e.g., Org-Agenda, scheduling, deadlines, etc. Some items, over time, have become irrelevant so I learned how to archive them. Some problems required basic knowledge of Emacs-Lisp, so I started using Org-Babel to have source blocks where I would write and play around with tiny (and sometimes bigger) elisp snippets. That lead me to the discovery of indirect buffers and I realized how amazing they are. That single .org file had become a very important part of my life. I started using it for other things, not just to learn Emacs and Org-Mode. By the time I discovered Org-Roam and jumped into Zettelkasten, I was doing pretty much almost everything I do on the computer, in Emacs. Today I write code, check email, browse articles and blogposts, manage all my files, read books, extract subtitles from videos (to take notes), and keep my personal journal - I do all that in Emacs. And it all started with a simple .org file. Eventually, this approach become my personal philosophy, my absolute recipe for any problem in my life - If you need to solve something, start with a simple list.