---
title: "Modal editing"
date: 2022-08-29T10:10:31-07:00
replyURI: "https://pleroma.envs.net/notice/A5tSamde5VqGQOaf0y"
replyTitle: "I honestly don’t have a problem with disliking Vim"
replyType: "SocialMediaPosting"
replyAuthor: "Seirdy"
replyAuthorURI: "https://seirdy.one/"
---
Since these are being boosted again, I wanted to say that my views have changed. I do not recommend most people learn Vim (well, sysadmins should know basic insert, write, quit, and undo).

I think that modal editing is a niche. It's fine for people like me: I can barely keep a train of thought going and I constantly forget what I was thinking (It's a huge problem I have and I didn't realize this until recently; it's why I constantly need to write things down). For people like me, time is not fungible and spending a long time learning something non-intuitive just to save a few milliseconds later makes sense, since failure to get an idea down ASAP could kill the idea.

For most people, [@zensaiyuki](https://mastodon.social/@zensaiyuki) was right. Modality should not be a tool we reach for outside of specialized circumstances. It has its place but it's overrated.