[aiham]

How do they escape input mode?

[DandyDev]

By mapping escape to the otherwise useless caps lock key

[gilnaa]

Well, due to a bug in a specific version of vi, holding the space-bar for a few seconds causes the laptop to overheat. I bought an external thermometer that connects via USB, and I have a daemon that monitors it to notice the overheating and send the ESC key to the application.

[reificator]

Look. I thought it was funny too, but at least put a link so you're not just stealing the joke.

https://xkcd.com/1172/

[prewett]

Ctrl-[

[oftenwrong]

There are many ways:

http://vim.wikia.com/wiki/Avoid_the_escape_key

[fokinsean]

I remap the sequence 'j-k' to esc. It provides really fast exiting of insert mode and leaves you on the home row to navigate after.

[nothrabannosir]

C-c. Easier for some reason.

[sushibowl]

Ctrl+c is technically not quite the same as Esc: it doesn't trigger InsertLeave autocmds, and doesn't finish abbreviations. But as long as you don't have those you'll be fine.