I think it means that there is a lot of stuff you need to learn all at once, upfront, before you can really use vi effectively. It's in contrast to being able t

I think it means that there is a lot of stuff you need to learn all at once, upfront, before you can really use vi effectively. It's in contrast to being able to just learn a few basics and pick it up gradually. The steepness of the learning curve doesn't have anything to do with how long it takes overall.