Vim VS The second machine age

• Efficiency
  Once learned, Vim can significantly speed up text editing with its modal editing, keyboard shortcuts, and commands that allow for quick navigation and manipulation of text.
• Lightweight
  Vim is a very lightweight editor, consuming minimal system resources, making it highly performant even on systems with lower specifications.
• Customizability
  Vim is highly configurable and extensible through plugins and user-defined settings, allowing users to tailor the editor to their specific needs.
• Ubiquity
  Vim is available on almost every Unix-like system and even on Windows, making it a ubiquitous tool that you can rely on being available in most environments.
• Support for Multiple Programming Languages
  Vim supports a wide range of programming languages out of the box and offers syntax highlighting, which can be enhanced through plugins.
• Powerful Search and Replace
  Vim offers robust searching and replacing functionalities, including support for regular expressions, which can be a powerful tool for developers.

Possible disadvantages

• Steep Learning Curve
  Vim's modal editing and extensive set of commands can be daunting for new users, requiring significant time and effort to master.
• Minimal Default Config
  The default configuration of Vim is quite minimalistic, which may necessitate additional setup and customization to meet modern development needs.
• Limited GUI
  Vim primarily operates in a terminal, and while there are graphical variants like GVim, they are not as feature-rich or user-friendly as modern GUI editors.
• Plugin Management
  While Vim is highly extensible, managing and configuring plugins can be cumbersome compared to more modern editors that offer integrated plugin management.
• Inconsistent Behavior Across Platforms
  There may be inconsistencies in behavior or available features of Vim across different operating systems, which can complicate its use in certain environments.
• Lack of Integrated Modern Features
  Vim lacks some modern IDE features like integrated debugging, advanced code introspection, and refined autocompletion, which often require third-party plugins to achieve.

• Comprehensive overview of technological progress
  The book provides an excellent and well-researched overview of how digital technologies, artificial intelligence, and automation are transforming the economy and society, making complex topics accessible to a broad audience.
• Data-driven arguments
  Brynjolfsson and McAfee support their claims with substantial data, economic research, and real-world examples, lending credibility and depth to their analysis of how technology is reshaping industries and labor markets.
• Balanced optimism
  The authors strike a thoughtful balance between techno-optimism and awareness of challenges, acknowledging the tremendous potential of new technologies while also addressing concerns like inequality and job displacement.
• Actionable policy recommendations
  The book goes beyond simply describing trends by offering concrete policy suggestions for education, entrepreneurship, and governance to help society adapt to rapid technological change.
• Engaging and accessible writing style
  Despite dealing with complex economic and technological concepts, the book is written in a clear, engaging manner that makes it suitable for both experts and general readers interested in the future of work and technology.

Possible disadvantages

• US-centric perspective
  The analysis and examples are heavily focused on the United States economy, which limits the book's applicability and relevance for readers in other countries or those interested in a more global perspective on technological disruption.
• Overly optimistic about technology's benefits
  Some critics argue that despite attempting balance, the authors lean too heavily toward techno-optimism and underestimate the severity of job losses, wage stagnation, and inequality caused by automation and AI.
• Policy recommendations lack depth
  While the book offers policy suggestions, many are relatively surface-level and don't fully address the structural and political challenges of implementing such reforms in practice.
• Quickly dated examples
  Given the rapid pace of technological change, some of the specific examples and statistics cited in the book (published in 2014) have already become outdated, reducing the shelf life of certain arguments.
• Limited discussion of social and psychological impacts
  The book focuses primarily on economic metrics and productivity but gives relatively little attention to the broader social, psychological, and cultural consequences of living in an increasingly automated world.

What Vim Is and Why You Should Learn It

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The Second Machine Age - Book Review

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• regular Vim has lua?!

  Lua is quite small, encouraging distros to include it. The ubuntu gvim has, and the gvim AppImage linked from vim.org does. The default Makefile from github is set up to not include it, but you can uncomment one line there to get it. Source: over 3 years ago

• is there a way to make highlighted text persistent after quit when using something like [match Search /\%'.line('.').'l/] ?

  I've not used vimwiki locally (tho I'm old enough to remember the Vim wiki on vim.org :), but I think what you are wanting to do is extend vimwiki's syntax file. I presume it installs one at $VIMRUNTIM/syntax or or ~/.vim/syntax. If... Source: almost 4 years ago

• vim.org - Is there a reason for this 1800s-esque design?

  Vim.org has 242k total visitors, tailwindcss.com has 4.4m, planetscale.com has 412k, jpl.nasa.gov has 2.6m, all built with Tailwind, all several years younger than Vim's website. Unnecessary comparison, unnecessary defence. It's a... Source: almost 4 years ago

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Tracking The second machine age since May 2026.