Most people I've talked to who've gotten into vim have gone through the exact opposite flow: 1. Tried vim in college, only ever used insert mode + <esc>:wq 2.

Most people I've talked to who've gotten into vim have gone through the exact opposite flow: 1. Tried vim in college, only ever used insert mode + <esc>:wq 2. Discovered Textmate or similar and loved it; only used vim for the occasional remote editing 3. Tried to get into vim on the advice of friends, but always ended up reverting to using it like notepad in insert mode because it was easier than looking up the command they needed. 4. Went whole-hog into vim one day, turning off arrow keys, and immersing themselves in it. After a few days, they were as productive as they were in textedit, and after a few weeks they had drunk the kook-aid and were more productive than previous editors. So, while I don't condone badgering a guy to learn this way so much that he writes an angry post, I would argue that going all-in on Vim is the best way to learn it for most people I've talked to (myself included).