[roel_v]

Vi is like touch typing or driving a stick shift, it needs to be muscle memory to get full benefit from it, but it takes a while to learn and a long time to really sink in. Learning touch typing was worth the effort for me; I'm not sure at this point if all the time I spend 'learning' (i.e, mucking about with) Vi will be worth it purely in time saved. However I do love the ease and speed with which I can edit now, so for the comfort of editing, and for me, it was worth it, I think.

[billybob]

Touch typing is a great analogy. I was a pretty good hunt-and-peck typer in 6th grade; I would even do 2-3 finger "rolls" across keys to type faster.

Learning to touch-type was frustrating at first: I knew I could go faster with my usual methods. But with perseverance, I became much faster with touch typing than I ever was before.

Vim is the same way. At first, it feels terrible to have to use these awkward keystrokes instead of the GUI editor commands you're used to. But eventually, with muscle memory and intentional practice, editing in Vim becomes very fast and efficient.