Ask HN: In 2024, is it worth learning Emacs Org Mode? Alternatives? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: In 2024, is it worth learning Emacs Org Mode? Alternatives?

5 pointsbehnamoh9 comments

It blew my mind when I found out you could write a document including text and code in Org Mode, then export only the text parts as a Latex/whatever document.

As a researcher, this could be very useful as I often find myself context-switching between VSCode (with Vim), Microsoft Word / or Markdown. What I like about Word is WYSIWYG and the fact that my figures are not scattered all over the place as files.

Given the learning curve involved with Emacs and then the additional curve of Org Mode, is it worth learning this to replace my current workflow, or do you recommend other toolings?

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Learning Emacs and org-mode are one of the most worthwhile things I've ever done. I'm not joking, it was quite literally life-changing and mind-opening. It's about as big a change as learning about an OS other than Windows for the first time, or learning programming for the first time.

The learning curves aren't quite as bad as people let on. There's definitely a large learning curve, but you can learn enough of the basics in a day or so to be able to use Emacs for file editing. The learning curve is learning to use Emacs to its fullest potential.

No other tooling can come close to Emacs, and it's because of this general sense of everything being integrated with everything. With other tooling, features only work inside their respective apps, but with Emacs everything works basically everywhere.

And if you put a lot of work into configuring and extending Emacs, you'll learn a bit of Lisp, which will expand your mind in other ways as a programmer.

My advice is to check out the System Crafters "Emacs from Scratch" series on YouTube[1]. David helps you learn Emacs while also learning to customize and configure it to your liking.

- [1]: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLEoMzSkcN8oPH1au7H6B7bBJ4...

Thank you, will check it out!

Yes, be sure to use these resources:

Rainer König's free youtube course

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLVtKhBrRV_ZkPnBtt_TD1...

Updated paid Udemy course also from Rainer König I hear is somehow even better

https://www.udemy.com/course/getting-yourself-organized-with...

Bernt Hansen's org-mode tutorial

https://doc.norang.ca/org-mode.html

System Crafters org-mode video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PNE-mgkZ6HM

A more prescriptive approach using gtd

https://github.com/Trevoke/org-gtd.el

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNqFZ4VBppA

Something different: Using org-roam nodes (notes) to populate your agenda

https://d12frosted.io/posts/2020-06-23-task-management-with-...

misc:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=be8TC-i-NpE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6nbjqn5Uxw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVV9gVp5nxU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZ54HLqNMDU

If your field is CS or Physics, then yes. Otherwise no. For whatever reason, the kinds of people in those two fields possess a strong enough UNIX background to tame pain-in-the-ass emacs.

the "PITA emacs"? Is it really notorious for being hard to maintain and tame?

tl;dr Big marginal gains for small marginal effort likely make it worthwhile.

The payoff can be enormous. The investment can be illegible on the front end—it depends on the skills and concepts you already have.

Open an Emacs buffer, switch to Org mode, and start typing an outline. The benefit is immediate, provided those paradigms (plain text, outline hierarchy) appeal to you.

There are many features of Org mode that complement each other powerfully but that are district enough that you can climb one learning curve at a time.

I vividly remember the manual, years ago, overwhelming me! But today there are so many good tutorials the barrier to entry is quite low. Best of luck!

Highly recommend: David Wilson's System Crafters channel, Mike Zamansky's channel, Protesilaos Stavrou's channel. There's an amazing community on Mastodon.