[symmetricsaurus]

I disagree with this. You're not normally in insert mode when using vim, you're in normal mode (the one vim starts in).

This means that it really is / for searching, 1G to go to the top of the file, w to go one word forward, f( to go to the next opening paren, and ci" to change everything inside the current "..." etc.

What this also means is that when inserting text you start by pressing i, type the text you want to insert and then immediately press ESC (or CTRL+[) to go back to normal mode.

The reason is that everything that is not directly inserting text is much quicker and faster to do in normal mode compared to insert mode once you learn a few of the commands.

I probably only spend a few percent of my vim-time in insert mode, most of it is spent in normal mode.