[Silica6149]

I think they were speaking from a total beginner's perspective, and how to get them up to speed as fast as possible.

I felt the same way when first learning vim, since it was completely different from the code editors I'd used in the past, it was strange not being able to use the mouse in the way I was used to.

[delusional]

I get that, but that strangeness is what pushes you to learn. I find that if I can do something suboptimal, but familiar, it takes way longer for me to change my habits because my subconscious keeps thinking in terms of the familiar.

I find it much more useful to remove the ability to even do the wrong thing, than to simply try and will myself to do the right one.

[chongli]

I get that, but that strangeness is what pushes you to learn.

Yes, exactly. This is analogous to travelling to another country and hoping to learn the local language by immersion. If you then meet people that speak your language you run the risk of only hanging out with your little expat group and never immersing yourself in the local culture. You can end up spending years there and never learning the language.

[Silica6149]

Oh yes, when I was trying to fully learn vim, I had the mentality that I could just practice it for 10 minutes a day and be able to use it while editing code.

The remaining time I would edit code like normal with vscode, so it turned out that I wasn't really able to pick up vim and use it well.

It wasn't until I switched to a different keyboard layout that I decided to move over to vim cold turkey, and was actually able to learn vim and retain it.

[superdisk]

I agree. When I started at my first internship, one of the developers (and now a close friend) put layers of tape over the arrow keys so I couldn't use them. Took a week of pain and then I never went back.