I love Vim, I really do. Having used Vim for about 12 years or so, I feel really comfortable with it. Remarkably, I keep learning new things about it, but it’s easy to get sucked down the rabbit hole. I’ve written a couple of my own plug-ins (most notably my Quicktask task management tool) and I’ve customized the thing to death.

It’s easy to get carried away, though, especially as a beginner. I ran across this article by Alex Young today, which I completely agree with. Check it out: Stop the Vim Configuration Madness. Alex points out that newcomers to Vim are drawn in by its extensive capacity to be customized and overlook the process of building up muscle memory for the myriad of movement commands and Vim grammar that make it so awesome.

In a similar vein, Ian Langworth looks back on 11 years with Vim and points out some of his favorite configuration tricks and plug-ins in his article Vim After 11 Years.

In conclusion: Vim. Live it.