[mettamage]

> but many of us hardcore Vi/Emacs users have had this knowledge imparted to us from a mentor. Thats probably why the use of Vi/Emacs is much higher in established tech environments (universities, big dotcoms), where there tends to be a tradition of mentorship than it is elsewhere

My mentor was vimtutor.

Seriously, learning basic vim takes 30 to 60 minutes with vimtutor.