Thorsten Ball on Why AI Coding Tools Make Vim Obsolete

The Shift Away from Vim

• 💡 Thorsten Ball admits he no longer uses Vim extensively, opting for VS Code's Vim mode but doing significantly less manual coding.
• 🚀 His journey involved building a text editor from scratch, reaching what he considered the core of programming, only to be surpassed by AI advancements.

AI's Impact on Coding Speed

• 🤖 AI coding tools like Cursor and Tab offer completions that are faster than traditional Vim macros for repetitive tasks.
• 🎯 For example, adding console logs to switch statements or removing columns from CSV files can be completed with a few taps via AI, surpassing manual Vim efficiency.
• ⚡ This realization led to questioning the relevance of advanced Vim techniques when AI models can perform these tasks more rapidly.

The "Horse Carriage" Analogy

• 🐴 Ball likens working on traditional text editors, even advanced ones like Zed, to working on a "horse carriage" in the age of automobiles.
• 🧠 While acknowledging the quality of editors like Zed, he felt his work might be becoming obsolete due to AI's rapid progress.
• ✅ His personal desire for efficiency, not just mastery of macros and keybindings, drove this reevaluation.

Embracing the Future of Development Tooling

• 📈 After realizing the transformative impact of AI, Ball returned to SourceCraft to help build the future of development tools.
• 💻 He is now working in VS Code, an environment he previously disliked aesthetically and philosophically, because he recognizes its 10x multiplier effect.
• 💬 Many former hardcore Vim users have similarly switched to tools like VS Code or Cursor, prioritizing AI-driven efficiency over traditional editor mastery.

The End of an Era

• 🔑 The age of optimizing for fast, mechanical movement within an editor may be over, replaced by AI models that are significantly faster.
• 🔮 Projecting forward, as AI becomes cheaper and more accessible (potentially running on local laptops), the interaction model might shift from keybindings to natural language conversation with computers.