When I started dabbling with code again, I downloaded VSCode. It was lovely, nice and fast, and did just what I needed it to do.

Fast forward a few years, GitHub Copilot had landed, ChatGPT was in full force, and AI code editors were making everyone lose their mind. I jumped in and it was pretty cool. I was using it mostly to understand things better.

Now we fast forward another year, and I have been using Cursor. One day I sat down, and I just felt sick of the whole setup. I think the whirlwind of AI code editing came so fast, and I jumped on just to see what I could do and help my learning, but I ended up getting a bit swept up and found myself sitting there, writing more to whatever LLM is best, than I was actually writing code.

Now we get to present time, and I spotted a YouTube video for "LazyVim". After taking a look, I downloaded it and I was hooked pretty much instantly. The short of it, is that it is a preset configuration of NeoVim, with a bunch of great QoL features bolted in. If you are interested, I suggest taking a look.

I am the type of person who loves of gamify their learning and doing, so adding a useless level of complexity was great for me. It was also just a really pleasant way to write code. If you just potter around with arrow keys, you're set, but I found a lot of fun in learning "motions" and getting more comfortable.

One of the welcomed side effects was that for once, there aren't 5 different AI features shoved in your face.

So with this new setup, my goal was to just ditch the AI wherever possible, and get back to writing code the "old fashioned" way. I can say that it has made it far more enjoyable, rewarding, and just FUN.

As time went on previously, I felt like I could feel my ability to actually write code getting worse and worse.

All ethical and environmental questions aside, if I may find myself with a ChatGPT tab open, that's okay.

That being said, you'll find me in vim, mostly because I don't now how to exit ;)