> Is learning emacs worth it?<p>Yes.<p>Especially now that you know vim. Using evil mode, in combination with leader keys (see Doom Emacs or Spacemacs) resolves the RSI issues that have caused emacs users so much trouble in the past.<p>A lot of folks will tell you that learning and using emacs will not make you a better programmer. I disagree - it will certainly make you a better programmer if you put the time into learning it.<p>Why? Not because it's magic or will make you more productive than using something like VS Code. It is not magic, and it won't make you noticeably more productive than someone using VS Code.<p>The reason emacs will make you a better programmer is that it really pushes you out of the "consumer" mindset and into the "creator" mindset.<p>When using something like VS Code, if something doesn't work the way you like, your first instinct is to look for an opaque plugin written by someone else. Or, not finding a suitable plugin, you just get frustrated and bend your work flow into what the good folks at Microsoft think it ought to be. In this scenario, you're a passive consumer, waiting for microsoft or others to solve your problems.<p>In emacs by contrast, the functions and documentation of the <i>entire program</i> are at your fingertips. You can read through the entire code base, change anything you like, or build new features that integrate seamlessly with the rest of the program. While this may seem like an academic point for nerds, it really isn't. What it means is that when something doesn't work the way you like, over time your first instinct is to read the documentation of whatever you're dealing with then code some new fix or feature.<p>This by itself is not a huge advantage. But what is a huge advantage is developing that creator mindset where your first instinct is to dive into the code and improvement rather than googling for some new feature that you hope someone somewhere built.<p>Emacs is certainly not the only way to develop this mindset, but it is a really good way and one I'd recommended.