I tried and failed to make myself use `hjkl` instead of the arrow keys. It was a perpetual hindrance to my brain that up (`k`) and down (`j`) did not spatially reinforce their functions.

What ultimately worked was to map the triangle `ijkl` like you normally see `wasd` in games.

     i
    jkl

    i -- up
    k -- down
    j -- left
    l -- right

I then added two more keys beyond left and right to skip forward and back by words.

      i
    hjkl;
    
    h -- skip backward to the beginning of a word (ordinarily `b`)
    ; -- skip forward to the end of a word (ordinarily `e`)

There were some echo effects since I had to replace `i`, but they were manageable. On machines where I don't have my vimrc available I'm still functional, just clumsy. It was definitely worth it.

My vimrc: https://github.com/rectang/dotfiles/blob/master/vimextra