NJVERSE // BOOT
>NJVERSE OS v3.14 — BOOT SEQUENCE INITIATED
>loading kernel modules...
>mounting /sys/identity... OK
>applying user preferences...
>spawning interface threads...
>connecting BKK :: 13.7563°N, 100.5018°E
>SYSTEM READY
~/ / posts / 0x04
POST 0x04//life2026.01.07 // 4 min read

vim, 10 years in: still no idea how to quit

an honest retrospective on muscle memory, hjkl, and the day i accidentally became a plugin maintainer.

NJ
Nattapong Jaisabai
Software Engineer · published 2026.01.07

ten years ago, in a fit of optimism, i opened vim and typed :q. vim, in its infinite patience, ignored me. i have not closed it since.

this is a retrospective. it is also, in places, a confession.

what i actually use

  • no IDE features that aren't a one-liner.
  • telescope for fuzzy-find, because i'm not a monster.
  • lsp via mason — sparingly, because completion popups are the devil.
  • a colorscheme i wrote in 2017 and refuse to touch.
  • hjkl, only because qwerty made me.

"neovim is what you get when a community of people who love vim agree to ruin it slightly."

the day i became a plugin maintainer (accidentally)

i wrote a 60-line plugin to renumber footnotes in markdown. it now has 4,200 stars, a discord, two contributors who actively dislike me, and a roadmap. i did not consent to any of this. and yet — here we are. version 3.1 ships next week.

ten more years. probably the same setup. definitely still don't know how to quit.

EOF · 0x04 · last edit 2026.01.07// thanks for reading.
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