This is how computing should feel
It’s not surprising most of us find ourselves doing more and more in Emacs as time goes on. Here’s an environment that’s completely malleable and transparent - a productive playground where workflow and tooling grow organically together, intertwined.
I sometimes feel like a blacksmith or the ‘primitive technology’ youtuber: building tools that make new tools possible, each more powerful and precise than the last, working in concert to open new possibilities.
As I think about that comparison, it strikes me that this must be the key to Emacs’ allure. Most of our computing tools are delivered to us on a plate, like a modern mass-manufactured product. Impressively engineered and convenient to be sure, but closed and impersonal. In a funny way, I feel Emacs puts us in touch with a much deeper human tradition: moulding and shaping our environment to suit our own needs, instead of being moulded and shaped ourselves.