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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.