how vim broke my brain (and why you should try it)

Posted on 00Y03

hhhhjjjkkklllllhhlhjkkkjjjj5wxxd5jxkkkkk:wq

No, my dog did not walk across my keyboard. That was me, in my first few hours of Vim, desperately trying to escape a blank Neovim buffer.

the before times

I started programming in 7th grade. Like most beginners, my setup was VS Code, a mouse, and the arrow keys. It worked, but something always felt off.

Every time I needed to edit code a few lines away, I would:

  1. Lift my hand off the keyboard
  2. Hunt for the mouse
  3. Drag the cursor to exactly the right spot (usually missing the first time)
  4. Click
  5. Put my hand back on the keyboard
  6. Repeat 47 times per coding session

It was exhausting. I felt like I was doing finger gymnastics just to write a for-loop.

My dad, on the other hand, was a different species of programmer. I’d watch him hammer away for hours with this constant clack-clack-clack from his absurdly loud mechanical keyboard, never touching a mouse. One day I asked what editor he used.

His exact words that would change my life, delivered with the smug satisfaction only a true programmer can muster, were:

"I use Vim, btw."

the youtube rabbit hole

Fast forward a couple of years. I was deep into programmer YouTube, from Fireship’s 100-second videos to ThePrimeagen flying around his editor like he’s possessed by the ghost of Ken Thompson. Every other video I saw mentioned Vim. The memes were relentless:

  • “Only real programmers use Vim”
  • “There are two types of developers: those who use Vim and those who will…eventually”
  • The eternal “HOW DO I EXIT VIM???” panic

Eventually the peer pressure won. I installed Neovim, cracked my knuckles, and typed the fateful command:

nvim

the trauma

My screen went blank. Nothing worked.

  • Arrow keys? Dead.
  • WASD? Nothing.
  • Random smashing of every key I could reach? Still nothing.

I was trapped. I legitimately restarted my computer because I could not figure out how to quit. (Yes, I know now it’s :qa! or ZZ or a multitude of other commands. No, I did not know that then.)

the breakthrough

After recovering from the PTSD, I actually started learning.

Turns out in Vim, the “arrow keys” are hjkl:

  • h –> left
  • j –> down
  • k –> up
  • l –> right

It felt wrong, like trying to play piano with my elbows. My muscle memory screamed in protest.

But then…something clicked.

I learned you could prefix motions with numbers: 5j goes down 5 lines, 10k goes up 10. I learned the basic modes: Normal (used to move around), Insert (used to type), and Visual (used to select text). I discovered macros (record a sequence once, replay it forever with @). I even found netrw, Vim’s built-in file explorer. So many other motions made it extremely easy and fast to navigate a file.

Within a week I caught myself trying to 5j6w my way through Google Docs for a school essay.

Everything felt…creamy. (You’ll only understand that word if you’ve experienced the same brain rewrite.)

Suddenly I was not fighting my tools anymore. My hands and brain were finally speaking the same language. I could think –> type –> execute at something close to the speed of thought.

the real lesson

Here’s the thing most Vim evangelists get wrong:

You don’t have to use Vim or Neovim to benefit from Vim.

The motions are the superpower. Almost every major editor and IDE has Vim keybinding plugins:

Start there. Fall in love with the motions in an editor you already know. Then, if you want to go deeper, dip your toes into actual Neovim.

Helpful resources if you’re curious:

  • kickstart.nvim: great starter config. It is not a distro, but rather teaches you how to make your own configuration
  • ThePrimeagen’s “Vim As Your Editor” series: very beginner-friendly and in-depth tutorials for the vim motions
  • My neovim config (found in my .config)

Final Thoughts

You don’t have to marry Vim. You don’t even have to date it exclusively.

Just take it out for a week, and see if the sparks fly.

Even if you break up afterward, you’ll walk away with better editing skills in whatever tool you actually use.

Vim broke my brain, and I’m better for it.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go dd the memory of ever using a mouse again.

:wq

This post was adapted from a rhetoric assignment I wrote for AP English Language and Composition in my junior year of high school.

Updated on 00Y12