path: root/2022/captions/emacsconf-2022-fanfare--fanfare-for-the-common-emacs-user--john-cummings--main.vtt

WEBVTT captioned by John Cummings

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Hello, my name is John Cummings, and I'm here today

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to play a Fanfare for the Common Emacs User.

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By "common", I mean the types of Emacs usage

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and comfort that are simpler, more mundane,

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and yes, even imperfect,

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that some may identify with more than others,

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or more at certain times.

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It's hard to use Emacs and not be aware of

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the impressive and interesting accomplishments

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of its community. And here at emacsconf

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we also get pumped up about those things,

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amplified by the energy of the other attendees.

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But this energy fades as we return focus

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to our day-to-day work. And in these circumstances,

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we may unfairly judge our own Emacs usage

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against the community highlights.

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So I want to identify and celebrate the ways

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that we common Emacs users use it,

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the reasons why it's a good fit for those ways,

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and some ways we could take advantage of that.

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What is Emacs to us common users? Well, we're consumers.

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We use whatever was available - whatever our OS gave us,

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or whatever we found when we searched the web.

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We're not even necessarily aware

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of what the latest version is, or what changes it has.

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We may not ever think about upgrading.

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We have what we have, and we use what we have.

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But I think, with this simple act, many of us

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achieve a very significant Emacs milestone:

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we've committed to having it in our toolkit

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and our skillset. We'll probably install it

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on every system that we can, eventually.

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We know it has a use for us today,

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and that it will solve some problems

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that we don't even know about yet.

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It will not just be one tool; it will be many.

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And we know that it will be more than just useful;

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it will also be challenging, puzzling, and frustrating.

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But we still keep it

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as a permanent part of our toolkit,

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and we should be proud of that.

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And regardless of what exactly we've installed,

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it was a good choice.

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It will almost certainly do what we need it to do.

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Old versions are not inert dead-ends;

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they're still functional tools.

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And that's a key aspect of Emacs - it's a tool

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to get our work done. That sounds obvious,

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but it's easy to get distracted by the great things

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that it can accomplish, and think

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that it requires the same accomplishments from us.

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But it requires no advanced state of mind,

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no level of expertise to start using it,

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or use it correctly.

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It just requires that we have it, and use it.

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And with a little effort, we can get results early on,

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and those results are not just preparations

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for better things to come later;

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they have value for us today,

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and we're already using it right.

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And when we do need to tweak whatever we installed,

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we might again be consumers, finding some snippets

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out on the web, pasting them in, and moving on.

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We don't necessarily understand what we did,

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but we got some value out of it. Over time,

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we may participate more, take it day by day,

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and one day we may find that our config

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has become a disorganized pile.

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Maybe it's mixed haphazardly

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with some output from the "customize" feature,

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and eventually we start to feel

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like it's a shameful mess. It's hard to manage;

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we may think of it as append-only or read-only.

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We can't deny there are problems here,

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but it happened for a good reason. It was quick,

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easy, and effective for us

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to enhance our experience this way, and then move on.

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We were using Emacs as it was designed here.

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It just wasn't sustainable indefinitely.

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We may continue doing things this way

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even though we realize it's not a good idea.

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But I think there are some ways

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to mitigate the downsides,

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that let us embrace our tendencies,

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and continue to benefit from them.

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If we allow and encourage ourselves

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to capture our thoughts and circumstances

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along with the work that we do on our config,

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and do so without judgment, or the responsibility

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to "do it right", we give ourselves the context

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to understand and manage it later.

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This should be done however works for us,

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whether it's rambling inline comments,

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keeping a separate journal or notes,

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or even a more advanced literate programming technique,

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if we want to make an investment like that.

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Or putting our config into source control,

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even if it's nothing more than a simple,

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daily record of changes along with our contextual notes,

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will make things a lot easier for our future selves.

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But regardless of how well, or sloppy, we manage it,

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we should also realize that our messy config

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is a personal artifact with inherent value,

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even if it's amusement value, or sentimental value.

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Emacs is not only a tool to get our work done,

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it can also be a very personalized experience.

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And if so, then our Emacs config

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is our experience in written form.

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You can see it as a log of your journey through Emacs,

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and the mark that you made on it along the way,

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mistakes and all.

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We may see our config as a record of failure,

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of things that we did wrong, the things that we repeated,

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or never finished. But it's important to realize

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that a record of failure is a record of persistence.

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In that sense, it's kind of like our genome:

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a set of unique, disorganized,

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somewhat accidental properties, that, on the whole,

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makes us fit to survive in our Emacs usage.

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It's also interesting to think of it

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as an archaeological record. Where we can sometimes

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get some insight into our "ancient times".

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Just being able to see what we were doing years ago

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is interesting -- to see how things changed,

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and hopefully grew over time. And sometimes

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we find some buried treasures that we forgot were there.

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And of course it's interesting to realize

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that when we start Emacs, this pile of config

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also executes in roughly the same order

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that we created it in. Our journey through Emacs

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happens again and again every time we start it up.

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And it's ready for us to keep working on it.

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And when it comes to packages,

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we may not make extensive use of them, if any at all.

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We probably have different reasons for this.

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We may feel like we need to reach

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some level of mastery before we start using them.

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We may not have the mental room to think about packages,

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or may not want to take on the administrative burden

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required to keep track of which packages we have,

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the dependencies and versions, and their compatibility.

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Some of us may just be uncomfortable

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letting new third-party code run in our environments.

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It could also just be the case

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that our needs haven't driven us to need a package yet.

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We're already doing what we need,

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and doing it efficiently enough.

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And here we find more alignment

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between Emacs the tool, and our common mindset:

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They work well when they stay needs-driven.

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We're not obligated to use

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as much of Emacs' functionality as we can,

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or every package that we're aware of

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if we don't have a need to.

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And in fact, that's a great way to stay overwhelmed.

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But if we stay aware of our needs, and then find

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that there is a package that might address them,

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then we can deal with it. And a need to explore,

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and a need to be curious, is a valid need.

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And if we do need extra confidence for that exploration,

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then the things we talked about before,

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like keeping good notes of our experiences and needs,

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or version controlling our config,

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will help us keep that connection to our needs,

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that gives us the freedom to experiment

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in the wide world of packages.

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And if we really do just need what's built in to Emacs,

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the vanilla out-of-the-box experience,

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then we can also be proud that we're making use

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of all the work that went into that experience,

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because a lot did.

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And when we report any problems that we find,

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we're also working to keep that experience

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smooth for future users.

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Of course, some of us may find this intimidating,

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and if so, feel free to reach out to me,

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and probably anyone in the community,

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that can help you navigate that process.

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So how do we use our Emacs installation?

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We often use it very simply: we get simple results

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in simple ways. Often we do things the same simple way

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for a very long time, and this is of course great,

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since we're getting done what we need to get done.

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There's no result or method too simple for Emacs.

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And we're not oblivious to the alternative.

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Many of us are at least aware that there are ways

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we could iterate on what we do,

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or some polish that we could apply,

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and we may even quite enjoy

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reading about more advanced Emacs possibilities,

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and thinking about how they could apply

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to our own workflow, but at the end of the day,

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we still keep our own usage the same, and basic.

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And this is another fundamental aspect of using Emacs.

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You can work simply and successfully,

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but you'll always be conscious of the possibility

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for far more complexity. And many of us

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do try to iterate on our ways, and sometimes succeed,

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but often we run into trouble and we stop or defer.

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A lot of times we're intimidated by the scope of things -

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we're not sure how to make measurable progress.

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We may find that the first ways we learned

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are so ingrained in us, that learning even a second way

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is many times harder.

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And sometimes we do make sudden progress

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after years of sameness,

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and wonder why we waited so long.

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And these are universal pains

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that everyone has to feel who wants to improve.

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But this is again where we can benefit

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from letting our needs drive us.

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Sometimes they'll tell us that it's OK

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keeping things the way they are, and sometimes

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they'll tell us that it's good to keep pushing,

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because there's a reason for it,

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and we'll be glad that we did.

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And what are the ways that we do learn,

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and grow, and create within Emacs? One constant

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is that we forget a lot. We learn something

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and then remember that we already learned

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and forgot it once before. Sometimes we just hope

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to learn more than we forget.

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And staying driven by our needs can also help here,

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because it's easier to learn something

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when we have a reason to, and an application for it.

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In Emacs, it can be tempting to do this backwards,

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and want to learn all there is about Emacs first,

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and then apply it. But again that's a surefire way

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to stay overwhelmed.

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And when we code and build things, we tend to create many small, quick things,

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but never really integrate them deeply

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into our environment or workflow.

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We leave things half-finished once we get bored,

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or find ourselves in over our head.

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And this is natural, because we're curious and creative,

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and Emacs makes it relatively easy, and actually fun,

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to experiment and get these quick results.

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But it's less clear how to see them through,

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and inherently less fun to do the follow-up gruntwork.

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But if we embrace our ways here,

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and structure our workflow to support them,

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we might find ourselves more satisfied.

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So let's give ourselves permission, and a logical place

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to put all our fun little quick experiments,

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without having to worry about integrating

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or polishing them, unless we find a need to later.

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Let's use source control wisely to give ourselves

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a place to experiment, and a place for stability.

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Let's stay needs-driven so that we know

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what we really do need to follow up on,

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and what's OK to drop. And let's remember

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that there is someone who will always appreciate

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any notes about our thought process we can take,

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no matter how rough or rambling they are:

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our future selves.

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And so I hope that some people can identify with

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at least some of what I've shared today.

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And I hope that we realize that,

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no matter how we see ourselves as Emacs users,

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and no matter what we see other people building,

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we're proud of the fact that we have built

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an experience that fits us. Thank you to everyone.