The Bare Minimum

There are many tools that I use that I don’t know how to use. I don’t mean this literally; I can use them, but not well, and certainly not to their fullest extent.

For example, I’m on a NixOS system, but often avoid packaging software and working with Nix the language; I use neovim, but can barely remember more than the basic vim commands; I use the fish shell, but have to look up the syntax every time I write a function.

I know the bare minimum to make these tools work. I’m taking on the tradeoffs of these tools without fully harnessing their advantages; This is not good. I don’t like using tools that I don’t understand. Maybe that’s my ego talking, but it feels stupid to interact with something daily and not fully “get it.”

To correct this, I plan on dedicating an hour or two every day to learning more about the tools I’m using. Along the way, I’ll try to write up some of my findings, and catalog the best resources that I’ve found.