My “Emacs day” is July 11, 2018. Or in org-mode, it looks like this: [2018-06-11 Mon]. As I noted last year at that time, it is the day I wrote my first official journal post in Emacs org-mode, and the rest is history. I’ve been a daily Emacs user since that day.

Both my partners joke about Emacs. NK calls it “Immaculate.” When I asked them this morning to guess what I was going to write about, they rolled their eyes and nailed it on the first try. At the same time, Nat and I have “venting sessions” where we sit down and talk about work and life. If there’s something that’s too complex and I need their patience as I unfold a story, I lead with “Well, this is kind of an Emacs vent, but…” and Nat knows to brace himself.

But what the hell is Emacs, anyway?

I’m not sure I explained it in a way that makes sense. The problem is not explaining what tool Emacs is or what kind of software; that’s pretty easy: It’s a text editor, like NotePad, TextEdit, or that horrible, well-known Microsoft Office one I dare not associate with Emacs in one sentence. Asking what is Emacs sells it short and doesn’t explain why so many people swear by Emacs every day. Perhaps a better question is why. So, as the blog’s title suggests, don’t ask why; I’ll explain anyway.

Some people compare Emacs to an operating system of its own, which makes sense: it comes with so many built-in tools you could fire it up and probably do all of your computing work without ever exiting it. Well, in a command-line computer-geek kind of way.

Some of the things I use Emacs for all the time, besides writing, of course (it’s a text editor, remember?), are to navigate and operate my Mac’s files, read other blogs I subscribe to, check my calendar for events, and manage my projects and todos. I do all of those inside Emacs. But even so, why not just use my Mac’s tools or Windows if I were to use a Windows computer for my productivity?

The answer, which may not make sense to you if you’re not an Emacs user, is that Emacs is quicker and simpler and thus better for me to use. The key thing is that if it’s not better to use for something, I can manipulate and customize it until it is. My Emacs is made for me, and if there’s something I need to change so it fits better, I can do just that. Emacs is completely customizable, which means you get to tinker and manipulate whatever you need until you get those tools to work exactly the way you want them to.

Imagine you get up and make drip coffee. You grind your beans, fill in water, carefully place the filter with the grinds, and turn it on. Now, imagine that turning on the coffee maker doesn’t only start brewing your coffee but also turns on the toaster with two slices of fresh bread and also displays a crossword puzzle automatically on your phone. Not only do these things happen automatically, but also the bread is always toasted the way you like it, the coffee is automatically dispatched from your favorite roaster, and the crossword puzzle is tailored specifically to a level of your liking. On top of that, to continue with the metaphor, you can always make changes (change the coffee type, for example, so you make yourself a cappuccino instead of drip) quickly and easily, and the knowledge and ability to do so is completely yours to do whatever you want with it, for free, forever.

If you could do all of that, would you still go to Starbucks to get your coffee?

Sounds almost like magic, but for a computer, that’s what Emacs is. You could use it to read and write emails, look at maps, browse the web, listen to music, and over other 5000 additional things that exist just in its main library (it’s not even the biggest one). All of those are available for free, code and all. When you’re an Emacs user, all of these functions are available to you with the same ease - and keybinding - that your fingers are already used to.

Perhaps now it’s a bit easier to understand why Emacs is difficult to explain. It’s not just another application. it’s a lifestyle. To me, it has been the ultimate productivity hack - and it keeps getting better.