From my experience the only big changes I’d say I made overtime are:
Font size bumped up
Switched to neovim from visual studio, which took like a year to relearn my entire workflow (100% worth it though)
Switched from multiscreen setup to one single big screen (largely due to #2 above no longer needing a second screen, tmux+harpoon+telescope+fzf goes brrrr)
Switched to a standing desk with a treadmill, because I became able to afford a larger living space where I can fit such a setup.
If I were to do this meme though it’d mostly be #1, there just came a day when I had to pop open my settings and ++ the font size a couple times, that’s how I knew I was getting old.
Try starting with LazyVim! It has a great selection of plugins pre-set, and it all works out of the box. It’s a great way to get started, and then you can add/remove plugins later on. Also, it’s keymap-shortcut page is great for the first week or so of learning the commands.
I disagree with this recommendation, the maintainer closed a breaking issue (default syntax highlighting breaks on clean install) saying “workaround exists”. That’s a red flag ime.
I try and start using it for basic tasks, like note taking, to get used to its interface and basic commands like :w and :q, as well as switching between insert and cmd mode.
Once you are familiar with switching between modes, copying, pasting, etc, then you probably will wanna Starr learning it’s lua api and how to load in some QoL plugins. Basic stuff like treesitter, telescope, and nvim-tree are good places to start.
Once you feel comfortable with swapping between files with telescope and configuring plugins, I’d deep dive into getting an LSP up and running for your language of choice so you can actually code.
In the interim I’d recommend getting comfy with using tmux in your terminal, try and open new tmux tabs to do units of work instead of constantly cding around.
I like to keep 4 tmux tabs open for a project:
nvim
lazygit
secrets file open in nvim (usually my secrets file is in another dir so it doesn’t check into git)
The videos by TJ DeVries seem like probably the best starting point there is. He’s a contributor, has built a setup script that’s meant to be minimalistic and configurable, and has tons and tons of info about running through all of it yourself.
Yup, I usually have it set to the slowest setting when typing.
I find I work much better and can think clearer while walking, as it keeps the blood flowing and makes me feel more awake and engaged.
If I have a tough problem I’m trying to work through I turn the speed up to a faster pace and sorta just work through it in my head while speed walking, often this helps a lot!
During meetings when I’m bored I also turn the speed up a bit.
I often get around 10k to 12k steps in a day now.
Note I don’t stay on the treadmill all day long, I usually clock a good 4 hours on it though.
Then I take a break and chill on the couch with my work laptop, usually I leave my more “chill” tasks like writing my tests for this part, and throw on some Netflix while I churn all my tests out.
Highly recommend it, I’ve lost a good 15ish lbs now in the past year since I started doing it, and I just generally feel a lot better, less depressed, less anxious :)
I have heard of jupyter but am not familiar with its nuances.
But doing python dev with neovim is very doable, it uses the same LSP I think.
I personally have a dedicated dev machine running debian that has everything on it, including nvim configured.
I SSH into my dev box from other machines to do work, because neovim is a TUI it “just works” over SSH inside the terminal itself, which is what I like about it.
It feels good to just
SSH into my box
tmuxinator my-project-name
And boom, 4 tmux tabs pop open ready to go in the terminal:
nvim (pointing at the project dir)
lazygit already open
nvim (pointing at my secrets.json file elsewhere)
an extra general console window opened to project root
And I can just deep dive into working asap in just those 2 steps, it feels very smooth.
I often can even just do tmux a (short for attach) to just straight re-open whatever session I last had open in tmux, instantly jumping right back into where I left off.
From my experience the only big changes I’d say I made overtime are:
Font size bumped up
Switched to neovim from visual studio, which took like a year to relearn my entire workflow (100% worth it though)
Switched from multiscreen setup to one single big screen (largely due to #2 above no longer needing a second screen, tmux+harpoon+telescope+fzf goes brrrr)
Switched to a standing desk with a treadmill, because I became able to afford a larger living space where I can fit such a setup.
If I were to do this meme though it’d mostly be #1, there just came a day when I had to pop open my settings and ++ the font size a couple times, that’s how I knew I was getting old.
Switching to Neovim is on my to-do list. What do you recommend as a good way to get up to speed?
Try starting with LazyVim! It has a great selection of plugins pre-set, and it all works out of the box. It’s a great way to get started, and then you can add/remove plugins later on. Also, it’s keymap-shortcut page is great for the first week or so of learning the commands.
I disagree with this recommendation, the maintainer closed a breaking issue (default syntax highlighting breaks on clean install) saying “workaround exists”. That’s a red flag ime.
Or kick start has been my fav. Uses lazyvim
I try and start using it for basic tasks, like note taking, to get used to its interface and basic commands like
:wand:q, as well as switching between insert and cmd mode.Once you are familiar with switching between modes, copying, pasting, etc, then you probably will wanna Starr learning it’s lua api and how to load in some QoL plugins. Basic stuff like treesitter, telescope, and nvim-tree are good places to start.
Once you feel comfortable with swapping between files with telescope and configuring plugins, I’d deep dive into getting an LSP up and running for your language of choice so you can actually code.
In the interim I’d recommend getting comfy with using tmux in your terminal, try and open new tmux tabs to do units of work instead of constantly
cding around.I like to keep 4 tmux tabs open for a project:
The videos by TJ DeVries seem like probably the best starting point there is. He’s a contributor, has built a setup script that’s meant to be minimalistic and configurable, and has tons and tons of info about running through all of it yourself.
You watch Primeagen?
The harpoonagen
Explain (4) a bit more. Do you type and walk?
Yup, I usually have it set to the slowest setting when typing.
I find I work much better and can think clearer while walking, as it keeps the blood flowing and makes me feel more awake and engaged.
If I have a tough problem I’m trying to work through I turn the speed up to a faster pace and sorta just work through it in my head while speed walking, often this helps a lot!
During meetings when I’m bored I also turn the speed up a bit.
I often get around 10k to 12k steps in a day now.
Note I don’t stay on the treadmill all day long, I usually clock a good 4 hours on it though.
Then I take a break and chill on the couch with my work laptop, usually I leave my more “chill” tasks like writing my tests for this part, and throw on some Netflix while I churn all my tests out.
Highly recommend it, I’ve lost a good 15ish lbs now in the past year since I started doing it, and I just generally feel a lot better, less depressed, less anxious :)
Wow, that’s crazy! Great it’s working for you
I completely understand walking to free up the mind but somehow that doesn’t fit with working at all… Yeah, I can’t reconcile it either
Often people are surprised that I can walk and type but honestly I haven’t found it impacts my wpm at all.
Man I so want to get a treadmill standing desk
Yes! I noticed if it’s faster than 2.5mph, I struggle to type.
Slow it’s usually pretty low.
Yep that’s the idea.
I’ve been loving telescope and fzf with nvim, but never really got harpoon.
Isn’t it basically just a recents list? I find it easier normally to just type the first couple letters of the file name with fuzzy find
Harpoon is pretty much just tabs, but, without the actual visual ui of tabs, from my experience.
You pin a specific buffer, and can jump back to it, but unlike normal markers it persists between sessions and has a couple other nuances to it.
It pretty much works like tabs do though.
Don’t you have to set the harpoon marks manually? And actually now that I say that isn’t it just a tui on marks?
By visual studio do you mean VS Code?
I use VS Code to program python in a Jupyter notebook, can neovim work for that?
Neovim can be used for anything you want! it’s a great experience if you’re willing to take the time and learn it
I have heard of jupyter but am not familiar with its nuances.
But doing python dev with neovim is very doable, it uses the same LSP I think.
I personally have a dedicated dev machine running debian that has everything on it, including nvim configured.
I SSH into my dev box from other machines to do work, because neovim is a TUI it “just works” over SSH inside the terminal itself, which is what I like about it.
It feels good to just
tmuxinator my-project-nameAnd boom, 4 tmux tabs pop open ready to go in the terminal:
And I can just deep dive into working asap in just those 2 steps, it feels very smooth.
I often can even just do
tmux a(short for attach) to just straight re-open whatever session I last had open in tmux, instantly jumping right back into where I left off.