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+WEBVTT
+
+00:00:01.360 --> 00:00:05.200
+Hello and welcome to my EmacsConf lightning talk.
+
+00:00:05.200 --> 00:00:09.840
+Today I'll be talking about my journey into Emacs as a high schooler
+
+00:00:09.840 --> 00:00:14.400
+and how it has changed my life.
+
+00:00:14.400 --> 00:00:19.520
+Right. So who am I? I am a senior at
+Stanford Online High School,
+
+00:00:19.520 --> 00:00:22.800
+and I am also a violinist.
+
+00:00:22.800 --> 00:00:25.199
+I started violin when I was two and a half,
+
+00:00:25.199 --> 00:00:28.560
+and I have been keeping it up ever since.
+
+00:00:28.560 --> 00:00:30.240
+Violin is a huge part of my life,
+
+00:00:30.240 --> 00:00:33.360
+and I am very much a musician at heart.
+
+00:00:33.360 --> 00:00:36.239
+I am also a somewhat capable programmer.
+
+00:00:36.239 --> 00:00:39.280
+I've done a lot of informal programming in the past,
+
+00:00:39.280 --> 00:00:45.840
+and this year I'm taking my first AP Comp. Sci. course in my high school.
+
+00:00:45.840 --> 00:00:51.039
+And so I've done a lot of side projects,
+
+00:00:51.039 --> 00:00:56.800
+mainly in Python, and some very short scripts in Elisp.
+
+00:00:56.800 --> 00:00:59.840
+And last but not least, I am a tinker.
+
+00:00:59.840 --> 00:01:05.280
+I love to play around with things and see what I can do better,
+
+00:01:05.280 --> 00:01:10.880
+and just have as much fun as possible.
+
+00:01:10.880 --> 00:01:15.040
+So how did I find Emacs?
+
+00:01:15.040 --> 00:01:18.880
+I discovered it actually through a talk, funnily enough,
+
+00:01:18.880 --> 00:01:23.947
+at a Vim conference given by Aaron Bieber, titled:
+
+00:01:23.947 --> 00:01:28.320
+"Evil Mode or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Emacs."
+
+00:01:28.320 --> 00:01:31.439
+I watched that talk a couple times over,
+
+00:01:31.439 --> 00:01:35.759
+just marveling at all the wonderful things that he could do in Emacs.
+
+00:01:35.759 --> 00:01:38.799
+And being a previous Vim user myself,
+
+00:01:38.799 --> 00:01:42.399
+I found it very enticing to be able to have
+
+00:01:42.399 --> 00:01:47.040
+the evil-mode package and very quickly switch to Emacs.
+
+00:01:47.040 --> 00:01:49.680
+At the time, I was also in my sophomore year,
+
+00:01:49.680 --> 00:01:56.320
+and so I had had a sort of a note-taking system
+in the past.
+
+00:01:56.320 --> 00:02:01.680
+But it was not good, and I needed a more organized note-taking system.
+
+00:02:01.680 --> 00:02:04.240
+My parents had suggested paper for a while,
+
+00:02:04.240 --> 00:02:09.759
+and there was the whole organization part of that,
+
+00:02:09.759 --> 00:02:12.080
+but that did not really work out for me.
+
+00:02:12.080 --> 00:02:16.239
+And so I was trying to find this better note-taking system,
+
+00:02:16.239 --> 00:02:19.440
+and it was very hard.
+
+00:02:19.440 --> 00:02:23.520
+I had two main criteria which I did not define at the time,
+
+00:02:23.520 --> 00:02:26.640
+but I realized was really what I was looking for.
+
+00:02:26.640 --> 00:02:29.599
+First of all, it had to be flexible enough,
+
+00:02:29.599 --> 00:02:33.680
+and second of all, I had to have control over the data.
+
+00:02:33.680 --> 00:02:36.239
+And so through this process,
+
+00:02:36.239 --> 00:02:41.920
+I actually went through a bunch of note-taking softwares rather systematically.
+
+00:02:41.920 --> 00:02:47.519
+I went through Google Docs, which very much did not work out.
+
+00:02:47.519 --> 00:02:52.080
+I also went through Evernote which also was not great for me,
+
+00:02:52.080 --> 00:02:55.200
+and OneNote, which I settled on for a little while,
+
+00:02:55.200 --> 00:02:58.800
+but it did not meet these criteria,
+
+00:02:58.800 --> 00:03:00.879
+particularly the second one.
+
+00:03:00.879 --> 00:03:03.840
+I had taken some notes and I wanted to export it,
+
+00:03:03.840 --> 00:03:07.519
+and OneNote did not let me do that.
+
+00:03:07.519 --> 00:03:12.000
+It was PDF. Horribly-organized PDF.
+
+00:03:12.000 --> 00:03:17.440
+And that's when I knew I needed some change.
+
+00:03:17.440 --> 00:03:21.519
+So I discovered Emacs through this talk,
+
+00:03:21.519 --> 00:03:27.040
+and through the wonderful features of Org Mode.
+
+00:03:27.040 --> 00:03:30.080
+This is my first journal entry in Emacs.
+
+00:03:30.080 --> 00:03:34.000
+I had been playing with it for one day,
+
+00:03:34.000 --> 00:03:35.760
+and I was on the Org Agenda,
+
+00:03:35.760 --> 00:03:38.159
+and I happened to press I,
+
+00:03:38.159 --> 00:03:43.040
+which for the Emacs keybinding is the default for diary entry.
+
+00:03:43.040 --> 00:03:45.440
+I was very excited.
+
+00:03:45.440 --> 00:03:50.239
+I shouldn't stay on the slide too long lest you read it.
+
+00:03:50.239 --> 00:03:53.760
+So let's move on to the next one.
+
+00:03:53.760 --> 00:03:57.200
+So the learning curve for me, I think,
+
+00:03:57.200 --> 00:04:00.480
+particularly being an ex-Vim user,
+
+00:04:00.480 --> 00:04:03.760
+evil-mode made it very easy to switch.
+
+00:04:03.760 --> 00:04:07.439
+Thankfully, there was the Emacs reference sheet,
+
+00:04:07.439 --> 00:04:16.160
+and having evil-mode to switch between texts...
+
+00:04:16.160 --> 00:04:17.919
+Whether it be editing a text file,
+
+00:04:17.919 --> 00:04:21.600
+or going to other parts of just Emacs in general,
+
+00:04:21.600 --> 00:04:25.520
+I think Vim really helped with making me feel comfortable
+
+00:04:25.520 --> 00:04:28.000
+within this new environment.
+
+00:04:28.000 --> 00:04:32.160
+So, having that experience, I also wasn't new
+
+00:04:32.160 --> 00:04:33.759
+to the keybind-based world.
+
+00:04:33.759 --> 00:04:36.320
+I have been very comfortable with the computer
+
+00:04:36.320 --> 00:04:40.160
+and the keyboard for most of my life,
+
+00:04:40.160 --> 00:04:45.520
+and so it was not a totally new environment for me.
+
+00:04:45.520 --> 00:04:49.360
+I also spent a lot of time looking at the Emacs reference sheet,
+
+00:04:49.360 --> 00:04:54.720
+Just thinking about trying to find all of the different functions.
+
+00:04:54.720 --> 00:04:58.720
+If I didn't know what something was, then I queried it in Emacs,
+
+00:04:58.720 --> 00:05:01.199
+and then I figured out what it was.
+
+00:05:01.199 --> 00:05:05.600
+And that was one of the best ways for me to discover
+
+00:05:05.600 --> 00:05:09.360
+all of the capabilities of Emacs.
+
+00:05:09.360 --> 00:05:12.800
+Thirdly, of course, the self-documenting feature
+
+00:05:12.800 --> 00:05:17.120
+or nature of Emacs and narrowing frameworks such as helm
+
+00:05:17.120 --> 00:05:21.360
+really helped find things, especially for M-x.
+
+00:05:21.360 --> 00:05:25.919
+For a while, I was just...
+
+00:05:25.919 --> 00:05:30.720
+I would go about my day, and if I pressed a keybind that I didn't know what it did,
+
+00:05:30.720 --> 00:05:37.039
+I would do the lossage and see the list of keybinds that I had pressed
+
+00:05:37.039 --> 00:05:43.039
+and tried to find that one, and query the function and what not.
+
+00:05:43.039 --> 00:05:48.160
+So yeah. And now we jump to now.
+
+00:05:48.160 --> 00:05:53.280
+So there is at least one moment in each day when I think
+
+00:05:53.280 --> 00:05:55.600
+how would I live without Emacs,
+
+00:05:55.600 --> 00:05:59.120
+particularly now during my senior year in high school.
+
+00:05:59.120 --> 00:06:04.880
+Things are very busy with school, violin, and other side projects.
+
+00:06:04.880 --> 00:06:12.720
+It's pretty crazy, and so Emacs and Org Mode has really helped me stay
+
+00:06:12.720 --> 00:06:14.479
+on track with everything.
+
+00:06:14.479 --> 00:06:16.319
+And the flexibility of these software
+
+00:06:16.319 --> 00:06:19.919
+is being able to have things in different files,
+
+00:06:19.919 --> 00:06:21.600
+notes within the tasks,
+
+00:06:21.600 --> 00:06:25.840
+all of that stuff has been truly a lifesaver.
+
+00:06:25.840 --> 00:06:28.400
+And so I think I can confidently say
+
+00:06:28.400 --> 00:06:35.280
+that I have found Emacs to be the perfect software for me
+
+00:06:35.280 --> 00:06:38.639
+over the past two years of using Emacs.
+
+00:06:38.639 --> 00:06:42.240
+Now it is about two years and two months.
+
+00:06:42.240 --> 00:06:45.039
+I have built a fairly well organized
+
+00:06:45.039 --> 00:06:49.520
+2000+ line Org literate config.
+
+00:06:49.520 --> 00:06:53.840
+I actually started with an Elisp config,
+
+00:06:53.840 --> 00:06:56.800
+just the vanilla Emacs with evil-mode,
+
+00:06:56.800 --> 00:06:59.039
+and I built it up from there.
+
+00:06:59.039 --> 00:07:02.400
+Eventually I switched to Org literate configs,
+
+00:07:02.400 --> 00:07:05.840
+and used that to organize the snippets
+
+00:07:05.840 --> 00:07:08.639
+that I was putting in there.
+
+00:07:08.639 --> 00:07:14.000
+So yeah, this is really my workflow now.
+
+00:07:14.000 --> 00:07:18.960
+Currently about 90% of everything I do on my computer is in Emacs.
+
+00:07:18.960 --> 00:07:21.360
+The most notable things, of course--
+
+00:07:21.360 --> 00:07:25.280
+the list is far too long to put on one slide--
+
+00:07:25.280 --> 00:07:28.160
+but I do a lot of my programming in Emacs,
+
+00:07:28.160 --> 00:07:31.280
+mainly Python and Elisp.
+
+00:07:31.280 --> 00:07:33.199
+Because of my AP Comp. Sci. class,
+
+00:07:33.199 --> 00:07:35.199
+I have to do Java as well,
+
+00:07:35.199 --> 00:07:41.840
+and thank goodness Emacs has wonderful support for that as well.
+
+00:07:41.840 --> 00:07:45.840
+Also, I do all of my school assignments,
+
+00:07:45.840 --> 00:07:47.840
+more or less, in Emacs.
+
+00:07:47.840 --> 00:07:51.919
+Essay writing I do in Org Mode, and I have some template files,
+
+00:07:51.919 --> 00:07:55.039
+template Org files which I just include at the top,
+
+00:07:55.039 --> 00:08:01.440
+and then I can export easily to LaTeX and a beautiful PDF.
+
+00:08:01.440 --> 00:08:03.440
+Math, physics, same thing.
+
+00:08:03.440 --> 00:08:09.599
+LaTeX fragments are a lifesaver, and also really pretty.
+
+00:08:09.599 --> 00:08:13.199
+I take notes on basically everything.
+
+00:08:13.199 --> 00:08:15.120
+At first, I had things separate,
+
+00:08:15.120 --> 00:08:19.680
+and then I started sort of putting it all into one notes.org file,
+
+00:08:19.680 --> 00:08:22.479
+or most of it into one file,
+
+00:08:22.479 --> 00:08:24.960
+and that has actually worked out surprisingly well,
+
+00:08:24.960 --> 00:08:30.442
+especially with all the searching
+features of agenda and what not.
+
+00:08:30.442 --> 00:08:33.440
+And I also use mail.
+
+00:08:33.440 --> 00:08:37.680
+I recently made the switch, probably about one or two months ago,
+
+00:08:37.680 --> 00:08:42.399
+and it has been one of the best switches I've ever had,
+
+00:08:42.399 --> 00:08:47.839
+especially given connecting to tasks all of this wonderful stuff.
+
+00:08:47.839 --> 00:08:54.160
+Just putting even more in Emacs is always a good thing, I found.
+
+00:08:54.160 --> 00:08:56.959
+So reflecting back on my journey,
+
+00:08:56.959 --> 00:08:59.600
+I think one of the most important things
+
+00:08:59.600 --> 00:09:01.440
+was just having a reason to use it.
+
+00:09:01.440 --> 00:09:06.080
+When I came to Emacs I had something that I was looking for,
+
+00:09:06.080 --> 00:09:09.839
+and as soon as I found it, I delved right in,
+
+00:09:09.839 --> 00:09:12.720
+and I started using it for that thing.
+
+00:09:12.720 --> 00:09:16.240
+So I was sort of forced to take the time to read the docs
+
+00:09:16.240 --> 00:09:20.880
+and figure out what functions I needed to function
+
+00:09:20.880 --> 00:09:25.839
+and how I was going to put my workflow,
+
+00:09:25.839 --> 00:09:30.399
+and also, of course, the desire to tinker.
+
+00:09:30.399 --> 00:09:35.839
+So, really, what's next for me is just wanting to become
+
+00:09:35.839 --> 00:09:38.640
+a more active member of the Emacs community.
+
+00:09:38.640 --> 00:09:40.959
+I want to give back, and I think this talk
+
+00:09:40.959 --> 00:09:43.760
+is sort of the first step to that
+
+00:09:43.760 --> 00:09:46.399
+being a more active part of this community
+
+00:09:46.399 --> 00:09:52.720
+that has, indirectly, perhaps, but just really helped me
+
+00:09:52.720 --> 00:09:55.839
+become a better and more organized human being.
+
+00:09:55.839 --> 00:10:00.240
+I have some package ideas that I'm slowly working on,
+
+00:10:00.240 --> 00:10:05.920
+and yeah, I just hope to spread the word.
+
+00:10:05.920 --> 00:10:09.360
+So thank you very much for listening to my lightning talk.
+
+00:10:09.360 --> 00:10:11.360
+If you'd like to contact me here are
+
+00:10:11.360 --> 00:10:14.800
+three modes of or two modes of communication.
+
+00:10:14.800 --> 00:10:17.600
+I will be on IRC more soon,
+
+00:10:17.600 --> 00:10:22.079
+and you can always email me if you have any questions.
+
+00:10:22.079 --> 00:10:25.519
+You can also search me on Youtube: Pierce Wang violin.
+
+00:10:25.519 --> 00:10:33.040
+Thank you very much and I hope you enjoy the rest of the conference.