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by lucky_cloud 3339 days ago
It's not about elitism, it's about using the tool you've chosen efficiently.

If I used the IDEs you use, and you suggested to me a way of using them more efficiently, I wouldn't accuse you of elitism. I'd thank you for showing me something new and improving the way I work.

Have you ever witnessed somebody using a mouse to move between form fields? My bet is you at least thought about telling them they can use the tab key. You probably wouldn't expect them to come back with some comment about the subtle elitism behind using the tab key.

2 comments

If I told them they didn't really know how to use a browser because... they didn't know to use tab to move between fields... I wouldn't be surprised in the slightest if they came back with some comment about the subtle elitism
Ha, fair enough. But that really only shows that my example wasn't great.

If you eat soup with a fork, you don't know how to use silverware. If you drive nails with a ball-peen hammer, you don't know how to use hammers. That's not hammer or silverware elitism.

IMO, using a mouse in vim shows that you don't know vim. You can still get the job done, but why not commit to using the tool as intended?

Have you used a PDF form where the order of the fields is wrong so Tab moves all over the place? I sure have. There is no silver bullet.