[[!meta title="Sharing Emacs is Caring Emacs: Emacs education and why I embraced video"]] [[!meta copyright="Copyright © 2023 Jacob Boxerman"]] [[!inline pages="internal(2023/info/sharing-nav)" raw="yes"]] # Sharing Emacs is Caring Emacs: Emacs education and why I embraced video Jacob Boxerman (he/him) - - - I am looking for a summer internship for Summer 2024, please feel free to reach out, I am looking to network :) [[!inline pages="internal(2023/info/sharing-before)" raw="yes"]] My YouTube Emacs series, "Straightforward Emacs," started as a quick video to share with one person. That video now has over 50 thousand views, and inspired me to do my part and give back to the Emacs community, creating what I wish I had when I started my journey. 150,000 views later, I still find my YouTube channel one of the most fulfilling things in my life at the moment (despite the fact that I am very busy and don't have so much time for videos these days), because it is my way of giving back and sharing Emacs with a wider community. In addition to the technicalities of video production and teaching Emacs, this talk will also address two crucial topics in our community — a love of Emacs and desire for its longevity, and spreading Emacs to new users. In particular, I will discuss my views on the sharing of information in the Emacs community — how we do it, what it does for us, and how we can do it better. People often complain about the Emacs learning curve. As we all know, Emacs is a beast, and those who use and love Emacs spend years tweaking, adjusting, modifying, and, above all, learning. Because at the end of the day, Emacs is a personal journey. Everyone has preferences, searching for what makes them most comfortable, happy, and productive. Still, I believe that we are stronger together than we are apart. One of the best ways to find out what we like is by seeing what other people like. What's important is that what other people like, other people can understand. I hope you'll come check out my talk, and that it will inspire you to do one of the most honorable things one can do: teach and share with others. About the speaker: Jacob Boxerman is the creator of Straightforward Emacs, a video-based Emacs series with practical, easy-to-follow and implement tutorials and advice. He is a 2nd-year computer science student at Columbia University in New York and is interested in the intersections of computer science, finance, and psychology. In his talk today, titled "Sharing Emacs is Caring Emacs: Emacs Education and Why I Embraced Video," he will share his views on communication and sharing in the Emacs community, and how we can all do our part to spread Emacs, support each other, and ensure its growth. # Discussion ## Questions and answers - Q: Are you using ox-reveal to make your slides? If not, what are you using? They look very elegant. - A: Yes, and Jacob has a video about it on his channel! - Q: Videos can be very inspirational to learn about something by watching it used. I often find I need to do some research after watching a video to learn more. Do you give people links to relevant resources etc? - A: Definitely something that I can do more of.  I like to think of my videos as jumping-points to the manual. - Q: What are your fellow cohort of students using for their editors?  What kinds of "feedback" do you get from them when they learn about you using Emacs? (Missed your talk so perhaps you answered this) - A: Professors making entry to comp sci as "accessible/simple" as possible.  In 3rd course the professor gives option of either Emacs or Vim.  Professor uses vim; so the class gravitates towards that.  A 4th course, in assembly, and the professor suggests Emacs.  At Columbia, vim is more used (as it's modeled) - Q: Did you start those university classes using Emacs? - A: Yes. (Two years before entering college); taking notes in org-mode for programming classes is the BEST!!!  Syntax highlighting, inline code blocks, literate-esque programming is great for school.  Professors want PDFs on their desk!  And org-mode simplifies this process. - Also presenter is in humanities, and writes their humanities essays in org-mode - Q: To Leo: Before NeoVim, you had to do as much (or more) configuration to get basic editing done than in Emacs. It's also slower with modal editing compared to Emacs keybindings because you have to press Esc and two keys to get things done while in Emacs you only have to press C/M-something (one keypress) to move or search or whatever and then write. I instantly became productive for writing when I switched to Emacs. (I have 5 times tried to adopt Vim...and each time I get a bit better.  But Emacs was lightning in a bottle for "productivity"; for those where vim works, I love it.  And am eccstatic that they are owning their editor) - A: - Q: Wha was a question you'd hoped we'd ask of you? - A: ## Notes - Cool talk! :-) - I've used your videos before! Thanks for all the good work. - So awesome to hear that!! You are welcome and thanks for letting me know, love to hear it - Ha ha. I think Emacs users might just enjoy inconvenience. If a picture is worth a thousand words ... then maybe the value of a video is based on frame rate. - Agreed, jakeb --- video is worth it. - Interesting to think about video beeing worth it while watching a video of the conference. [[!inline pages="internal(2023/info/sharing-after)" raw="yes"]] [[!inline pages="internal(2023/info/sharing-nav)" raw="yes"]]