Nate Meyvis

Relatedly, Vim keybindings in a more recent IDE is, I suspect, a good happy medium for a lot of people. And, as with the point above, this is something that you might feel pressure not to do if you're learning Vim and (thus) reading lots of documentation from Vim purists. [6/N]

Also, this isn't at all original to me, but it's quite striking: thinking in terms of a distinction between command and insert mode has changed, for the better, the way I think about writing (and not just writing code). [7/N]

Alternatively phrased: If you're a writer, it's nice to make more explicit to yourself how much metaphysics is encoded in traditional methods of word processing. [8/N]

Finally, the case of writing software (IDEs and so on) is a neat case study in technological progress. I'd love to read more about it if anyone has suggestions. [9/9]

I didn’t understand 3/4 of this, but the last point about writing and the word processor seems absurdly ridiculous important.

So, I've been mulling this over for a while. If I were to expand on the thing you highlighted specifically, I'd say: Why, exactly, does the average person use Word instead of writing freehand? (1) There's the advantages of a computer: saving, sharing, etc. [1/N]

(2) Many people can type faster than they can write. (3) There are certain superpowers you get. I think a lot of people overrate (2) and underrate (3). I'm specifically thinking of copy/paste and find[/replace]. [2/N]

It's a remarkable thing, when you think about it: you can put text into a magical area where you can retrieve it later. You can edit a bunch of things at once. These are intuitive enough to be popular but require thinking of the program not just as a virtual tablet. [3/N]