Now that the semester is over, I am finally in the mood to risk using the text editor Vim for various tasks that are important to me, and so to have a chance to learn the thing for real.
Vim enthusiasts often mention the lack of hand movement as one of the attractions of this tool. I am not attracted by that, though. I prefer a certain amount of bodily entropy when studying, and the arm movements of typing are part of that. And I value the kind of memory that comes from involving my body in thinking. That is why I use standing desks (various home-made ones — I'm unwilling to pay the exorbitant prices demanded in the marketplace). That is why I still use paper books, whose physical shape serves as a guide to my recollection of what I've read. The minimal hand- and arm-movements needed for Vim are helpful to touch-typing, but I don't place great store by them in themselves.
What I am really enjoying about Vim today is the need to think, even to calculate a little before doing anything other than actually typing text. It reminds me of learning to use a scythe when I was about 14. Naturally, my inclination was just to slash at the grass. But an adult watching me, one Pierce Skinner, came over and suggested that I pause for half a second before each swing of the scythe, to consider what I was about to do. My scything improved enormously and the act of fore-thinking felt very good. I am experiencing something similar right now with Vim and enjoying it.
I see Pierce Skinner is now a practicing clinical psychologist in New Jersey.