Beginning to see the light with org-mode

Posted by jaslar
Dec 16, 2015 at 06:59 AM

Dr. Andus, I’ve been thinking about your question: How long does it take to get to proficient with org-mode?

The short answer is, “I don’t know. I’m not proficient yet,” and I’m at about 50 hours. And I have to agree that emacs generally is going to have a steeper learning curve than the limpid elegance of WriteMonkey (or most markdown editors). But I suspect it goes something like this, particularly for someone who hangs out on this site:

1. There’s the shallow dive, working through the built-in tutorials. Call it two-four hours. This will get you solidly comfortable with terms and text manipulation.
2. There’s the frustration of diving into major modes, and customization. You can find out that something is possible, but the steps described seem cryptic. This confusion of configuration and Lisp syntax is real. That’s another 8-16 hours, with enough success along the way to feel like you’re learning something, and getting closer to the tool you want. The default configuration for emacs is not inviting, more a programmer’s tool than a writer’s.
3. The third phase seems to be having things mostly right - good enough for serious work. Now you’re focusing more on the content than the tool. Another 8-16 hours.
4. Discovering the extraordinary richness of commands. Emacs has something like 4,000. After coasting along on the previous stage for a week, I dug into the online manuals, and found a host of new, mind-blowing commands that are just wonderful for writing and organizing. (Split screen vertically, load an org file on the left, hoist a slice of it in on the right - suddenly, a two pane outliner.) And here, I imagine, it’s effectively limitless. There are probably new levels of proficiency here. I guess I’m at intermediate, although I could be fooling myself. But as I mentioned earlier, it already has replaced several tools in the chest, and I’ve generated actual work of significant size and complexity. Moreover, it has been genuinely interesting and absorbing. This is the glory of open source. While I’ll never be a programmer, it’s fun to swim into the ocean.