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We have finite brain power. The power you dedicate to thinking about what hotkey (/combination of) to press for niche tasks, is not, per say, wasted. But it definitely isn't going towards thinking about what to write, the objective. Maybe useful for less information-dense writing.

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That's a very important insight. Faster doesn't mean less effort. More efficient doesn't mean more intuitive. I think that today's hacker attitude tends to drastically underestimate the degree to which natural languages have been optimized over time to fit the way our brains work. Most conlangs fall into the same trap. Ithkuil isn't a better form of communication just because it uses fewer characters than English. And Vim isn't a better editor just because you can do things with fewer keystrokes.

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