I need to quench my thirst for knowledge and learn something new just for the sake of it.
I’ve already learned:
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Equations and pivot tables in Excel
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Vector graphics in Inkscape
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Music mixing in rekordbox
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Personal VPN on a raspberry pi 4 with OpenVPN
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LAMP stack web hosting
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Streaming & video capture with OBS
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Manual & automatic backups with FreeFileSync
Things I’m open to:
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FOSS (even beta) or free-as-in-beer software
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A high or low learning curve
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Tools for niche fields that I’d otherwise have no reason to learn


Greatly recommend this approach:
install Evil right away for humanly motion keys
perhaps install Org-mode if you’re still shopping around for the perfect notes app
spend a few months crafting your own configuration
backup your whole configuration, install Doom Emacs instead, port extra stuff from your conf on top of Doom
finally enjoy proper quality of life in Emacs
Sorry to interject with a different opinion but I think it would only be confusing for OP to take that advice about starting out with evil-mode, especially if they’ve never even used Vim before. Evil mode is fine for someone who has become used to Vim and wants to continue using its keybindings, but not for other emacs beginners.
IMO new users should learn emacs with its default keybindings, the way it was designed, to avoid confusion and get the most out of it and understand how it actually works. Then change any keybindings you don’t like to whatever you prefer. Then later if you want, experiment with things like modal editing by trying out Evil mode or meow or Xah flykeys, etc.