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# Emacs as a Highschooler: How It Changed My Life
Pierce Wang
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Could Emacs be humanity's solution to the turbulent years of
adolescence? So much more than a text editor, Emacs changed the way I
approach everything at the age of 15. In the two years since
discovering Emacs in my sophomore year of high school, I have been
constantly amazed at what Emacs is capable of. In this talk, I would
like to share this journey of discovery and what I've learned along
the way, beginning with what led me to Emacs. I will reflect on my
experience of the Emacs learning curve and then also talk about the
many ways that Emacs has shaped my life as a student, programmer,
violinist, and a productive and happy adolescent. In each case, I
have thoroughly enjoyed figuring out the best way to make Emacs work
for me. Finally, I will reflect on my journey thus far and briefly
talk about my plans for the future.
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- Actual start and end time (EST): Start: 2020-11-29T13.06.20; Q&A:
2020-11-29T13.16.52; End: 2020-11-29T13.21.51
# Questions
## Q6: How would you introduce other classmates to Emacs? Meaning what's the "gateway" drug to Emacs?
Would probably start with doom or Spacemacs.
Try to find their reason for using Emacs.
## Q5: What made you use Vim in the first place? Were you looking for a note-taking system in plain text (such as Markdown), or were you using it for programming?
Used vim first time mainly for programming not for Markdown.
## Q4: I tend to think that life in school-age is somehow simple to organize since categories are easy to distinguish (years/classes, hobbies, …) in contrast to business life (many projects in parallel with many touch-points in-between them). From your point of view: do I have wrong memories on my time in school or did school change that much?
School makes it easier to have a structured system.
## Q3: Assuming you keep real time notes during your lessons how do you manage to keep up with the lecturer's speed. I can write LaTeX fragments pretty fast but I am not yet at the point that I can keep up with them. What are the tricks/snippets you use? Oh and do you have a git repo with your Emacs dots that we can see?
Types pretty fast (~110 wpm); for math/science uses CDLaTeX, YASnippet
expansion, and LaTeX fragments.
Emacs config! <https://piercegwang.github.io/emacsd/init>
## Q2: What do your friends think :) ? (Do you collaborate with your friends?)
Overwhelmed them by the positive experience at first :). Now that the
configuration is somewhat stable Emacs doesn't come up as often in
discussions, though. [someone can probably come up with a better
summary of this answer]
The general concensus is that it's an amazing piece of software, but
they think it's too complicated for them to use. I think they also
still have PTSD from the initial days when I was talking about Emacs
**all** the time (whooops).
## Q1: Do you use Emacs for school assignments?
Answered in talk: yes, Org mode, export to LaTeX -> PDF.
One Org mode template file with latex-fragments that is used for
exporting.
# Notes
- Discovered Emacs from:
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWD1Fpdd4Pc>.
- Tried various note taking tools - settled on Org mode in Emacs.
- YouTube channel: <https://www.youtube.com/user/eywang/>.
- Emacs config: <https://piercegwang.github.io/emacsd/init>.
<a name="transcript"></a>
# Transcript
[[!template new="1" text="Hello and welcome to my EmacsConf lightning talk." start="00:00:01.360" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
[[!template text="Today I'll be talking about my journey into Emacs as a high schooler" start="00:00:05.200" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
[[!template text="and how it has changed my life." start="00:00:09.840" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
[[!template text="Right. So who am I? I am a senior at Stanford Online High School," start="00:00:14.400" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
[[!template text="and I am also a violinist." start="00:00:19.520" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
[[!template text="I started violin when I was two and a half," start="00:00:22.800" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
[[!template text="and I have been keeping it up ever since." start="00:00:25.199" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
[[!template text="Violin is a huge part of my life," start="00:00:28.560" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
[[!template text="and I am very much a musician at heart." start="00:00:30.240" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
[[!template text="I am also a somewhat capable programmer." start="00:00:33.360" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
[[!template text="I've done a lot of informal programming in the past," start="00:00:36.239" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
[[!template text="and this year I'm taking my first AP Comp. Sci. course in my high school." start="00:00:39.280" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
[[!template text="And so I've done a lot of side projects," start="00:00:45.840" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
[[!template text="mainly in Python, and some very short scripts in Elisp." start="00:00:51.039" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
[[!template text="And last but not least, I am a tinker." start="00:00:56.800" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
[[!template text="I love to play around with things and see what I can do better," start="00:00:59.840" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
[[!template text="and just have as much fun as possible." start="00:01:05.280" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
[[!template new="1" text="So how did I find Emacs?" start="00:01:10.880" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
[[!template text="I discovered it actually through a talk, funnily enough," start="00:01:15.040" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
[[!template text="at a Vim conference given by Aaron Bieber, titled:" start="00:01:18.880" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
[[!template text=""Evil Mode or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Emacs."" start="00:01:23.947" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
[[!template text="I watched that talk a couple times over," start="00:01:28.320" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
[[!template text="just marveling at all the wonderful things that he could do in Emacs." start="00:01:31.439" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
[[!template text="And being a previous Vim user myself," start="00:01:35.759" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
[[!template text="I found it very enticing to be able to have" start="00:01:38.799" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
[[!template text="the evil-mode package and very quickly switch to Emacs." start="00:01:42.399" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
[[!template new="1" text="At the time, I was also in my sophomore year," start="00:01:47.040" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
[[!template text="and so I had had a sort of a note-taking system in the past." start="00:01:49.680" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
[[!template text="But it was not good, and I needed a more organized note-taking system." start="00:01:56.320" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
[[!template text="My parents had suggested paper for a while," start="00:02:01.680" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
[[!template text="and there was the whole organization part of that," start="00:02:04.240" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
[[!template text="but that did not really work out for me." start="00:02:09.759" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
[[!template text="And so I was trying to find this better note-taking system," start="00:02:12.080" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
[[!template text="and it was very hard." start="00:02:16.239" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
[[!template new="1" text="I had two main criteria which I did not define at the time," start="00:02:19.440" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
[[!template text="but I realized was really what I was looking for." start="00:02:23.520" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
[[!template text="First of all, it had to be flexible enough," start="00:02:26.640" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
[[!template text="and second of all, I had to have control over the data." start="00:02:29.599" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
[[!template text="And so through this process," start="00:02:33.680" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
[[!template text="I actually went through a bunch of note-taking softwares rather systematically." start="00:02:36.239" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
[[!template text="I went through Google Docs, which very much did not work out." start="00:02:41.920" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
[[!template text="I also went through Evernote which also was not great for me," start="00:02:47.519" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
[[!template text="and OneNote, which I settled on for a little while," start="00:02:52.080" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
[[!template text="but it did not meet these criteria," start="00:02:55.200" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
[[!template text="particularly the second one." start="00:02:58.800" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
[[!template text="I had taken some notes and I wanted to export it," start="00:03:00.879" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
[[!template text="and OneNote did not let me do that." start="00:03:03.840" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
[[!template text="It was PDF. Horribly-organized PDF." start="00:03:07.519" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
[[!template text="And that's when I knew I needed some change." start="00:03:12.000" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
[[!template new="1" text="So I discovered Emacs through this talk," start="00:03:17.440" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
[[!template text="and through the wonderful features of Org Mode." start="00:03:21.519" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
[[!template text="This is my first journal entry in Emacs." start="00:03:27.040" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
[[!template text="I had been playing with it for one day," start="00:03:30.080" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
[[!template text="and I was on the Org Agenda," start="00:03:34.000" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
[[!template text="and I happened to press I," start="00:03:35.760" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
[[!template text="which for the Emacs keybinding is the default for diary entry." start="00:03:38.159" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
[[!template text="I was very excited." start="00:03:43.040" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
[[!template text="I shouldn't stay on the slide too long lest you read it." start="00:03:45.440" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
[[!template text="So let's move on to the next one." start="00:03:50.239" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
[[!template new="1" text="So the learning curve for me, I think," start="00:03:53.760" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
[[!template text="particularly being an ex-Vim user," start="00:03:57.200" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
[[!template text="evil-mode made it very easy to switch." start="00:04:00.480" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
[[!template text="Thankfully, there was the Emacs reference sheet," start="00:04:03.760" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
[[!template text="and having evil-mode to switch between texts..." start="00:04:07.439" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
[[!template text="Whether it be editing a text file," start="00:04:16.160" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
[[!template text="or going to other parts of just Emacs in general," start="00:04:17.919" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
[[!template text="I think Vim really helped with making me feel comfortable" start="00:04:21.600" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
[[!template text="within this new environment." start="00:04:25.520" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
[[!template text="So, having that experience, I also wasn't new" start="00:04:28.000" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
[[!template text="to the keybind-based world." start="00:04:32.160" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
[[!template text="I have been very comfortable with the computer" start="00:04:33.759" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
[[!template text="and the keyboard for most of my life," start="00:04:36.320" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
[[!template text="and so it was not a totally new environment for me." start="00:04:40.160" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
[[!template new="1" text="I also spent a lot of time looking at the Emacs reference sheet," start="00:04:45.520" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
[[!template text="Just thinking about trying to find all of the different functions." start="00:04:49.360" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
[[!template text="If I didn't know what something was, then I queried it in Emacs," start="00:04:54.720" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
[[!template text="and then I figured out what it was." start="00:04:58.720" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
[[!template text="And that was one of the best ways for me to discover" start="00:05:01.199" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
[[!template text="all of the capabilities of Emacs." start="00:05:05.600" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
[[!template new="1" text="Thirdly, of course, the self-documenting feature" start="00:05:09.360" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
[[!template text="or nature of Emacs and narrowing frameworks such as helm" start="00:05:12.800" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
[[!template text="really helped find things, especially for M-x." start="00:05:17.120" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
[[!template text="For a while, I was just..." start="00:05:21.360" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
[[!template text="I would go about my day, and if I pressed a keybind that I didn't know what it did," start="00:05:25.919" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
[[!template text="I would do the lossage and see the list of keybinds that I had pressed" start="00:05:30.720" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
[[!template text="and tried to find that one, and query the function and what not." start="00:05:37.039" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
[[!template new="1" text="So yeah. And now we jump to now." start="00:05:43.039" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
[[!template text="So there is at least one moment in each day when I think" start="00:05:48.160" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
[[!template text="how would I live without Emacs," start="00:05:53.280" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
[[!template text="particularly now during my senior year in high school." start="00:05:55.600" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
[[!template text="Things are very busy with school, violin, and other side projects." start="00:05:59.120" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
[[!template text="It's pretty crazy, and so Emacs and Org Mode has really helped me stay" start="00:06:04.880" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
[[!template text="on track with everything." start="00:06:12.720" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
[[!template text="And the flexibility of these software" start="00:06:14.479" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
[[!template text="is being able to have things in different files," start="00:06:16.319" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
[[!template text="notes within the tasks," start="00:06:19.919" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
[[!template text="all of that stuff has been truly a lifesaver." start="00:06:21.600" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
[[!template new="1" text="And so I think I can confidently say" start="00:06:25.840" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
[[!template text="that I have found Emacs to be the perfect software for me" start="00:06:28.400" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
[[!template text="over the past two years of using Emacs." start="00:06:35.280" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
[[!template text="Now it is about two years and two months." start="00:06:38.639" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
[[!template text="I have built a fairly well organized" start="00:06:42.240" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
[[!template text="2000+ line Org literate config." start="00:06:45.039" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
[[!template text="I actually started with an Elisp config," start="00:06:49.520" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
[[!template text="just the vanilla Emacs with evil-mode," start="00:06:53.840" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
[[!template text="and I built it up from there." start="00:06:56.800" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
[[!template text="Eventually I switched to Org literate configs," start="00:06:59.039" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
[[!template text="and used that to organize the snippets" start="00:07:02.400" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
[[!template text="that I was putting in there." start="00:07:05.840" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
[[!template text="So yeah, this is really my workflow now." start="00:07:08.639" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
[[!template new="1" text="Currently about 90% of everything I do on my computer is in Emacs." start="00:07:14.000" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
[[!template text="The most notable things, of course--" start="00:07:18.960" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
[[!template text="the list is far too long to put on one slide--" start="00:07:21.360" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
[[!template text="but I do a lot of my programming in Emacs," start="00:07:25.280" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
[[!template text="mainly Python and Elisp." start="00:07:28.160" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
[[!template text="Because of my AP Comp. Sci. class," start="00:07:31.280" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
[[!template text="I have to do Java as well," start="00:07:33.199" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
[[!template text="and thank goodness Emacs has wonderful support for that as well." start="00:07:35.199" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
[[!template text="Also, I do all of my school assignments," start="00:07:41.840" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
[[!template text="more or less, in Emacs." start="00:07:45.840" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
[[!template text="Essay writing I do in Org Mode, and I have some template files," start="00:07:47.840" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
[[!template text="template Org files which I just include at the top," start="00:07:51.919" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
[[!template text="and then I can export easily to LaTeX and a beautiful PDF." start="00:07:55.039" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
[[!template text="Math, physics, same thing." start="00:08:01.440" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
[[!template text="LaTeX fragments are a lifesaver, and also really pretty." start="00:08:03.440" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
[[!template text="I take notes on basically everything." start="00:08:09.599" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
[[!template text="At first, I had things separate," start="00:08:13.199" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
[[!template text="and then I started sort of putting it all into one notes.org file," start="00:08:15.120" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
[[!template text="or most of it into one file," start="00:08:19.680" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
[[!template text="and that has actually worked out surprisingly well," start="00:08:22.479" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
[[!template text="especially with all the searching features of agenda and what not." start="00:08:24.960" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
[[!template text="And I also use mail." start="00:08:30.442" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
[[!template text="I recently made the switch, probably about one or two months ago," start="00:08:33.440" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
[[!template text="and it has been one of the best switches I've ever had," start="00:08:37.680" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
[[!template text="especially given connecting to tasks all of this wonderful stuff." start="00:08:42.399" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
[[!template text="Just putting even more in Emacs is always a good thing, I found." start="00:08:47.839" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
[[!template new="1" text="So reflecting back on my journey," start="00:08:54.160" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
[[!template text="I think one of the most important things" start="00:08:56.959" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
[[!template text="was just having a reason to use it." start="00:08:59.600" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
[[!template text="When I came to Emacs I had something that I was looking for," start="00:09:01.440" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
[[!template text="and as soon as I found it, I delved right in," start="00:09:06.080" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
[[!template text="and I started using it for that thing." start="00:09:09.839" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
[[!template text="So I was sort of forced to take the time to read the docs" start="00:09:12.720" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
[[!template text="and figure out what functions I needed to function" start="00:09:16.240" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
[[!template text="and how I was going to put my workflow," start="00:09:20.880" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
[[!template text="and also, of course, the desire to tinker." start="00:09:25.839" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
[[!template text="So, really, what's next for me is just wanting to become" start="00:09:30.399" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
[[!template text="a more active member of the Emacs community." start="00:09:35.839" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
[[!template text="I want to give back, and I think this talk" start="00:09:38.640" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
[[!template text="is sort of the first step to that" start="00:09:40.959" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
[[!template text="being a more active part of this community" start="00:09:43.760" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
[[!template text="that has, indirectly, perhaps, but just really helped me" start="00:09:46.399" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
[[!template text="become a better and more organized human being." start="00:09:52.720" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
[[!template text="I have some package ideas that I'm slowly working on," start="00:09:55.839" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
[[!template text="and yeah, I just hope to spread the word." start="00:10:00.240" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
[[!template new="1" text="So thank you very much for listening to my lightning talk." start="00:10:05.920" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
[[!template text="If you'd like to contact me here are" start="00:10:09.360" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
[[!template text="three modes of or two modes of communication." start="00:10:11.360" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
[[!template text="I will be on IRC more soon," start="00:10:14.800" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
[[!template text="and you can always email me if you have any questions." start="00:10:17.600" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
[[!template text="You can also search me on Youtube: Pierce Wang violin." start="00:10:22.079" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
[[!template text="Thank you very much and I hope you enjoy the rest of the conference." start="00:10:25.519" video="mainVideo" id=subtitle]]
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