Have I been using vi keys wrong my whole life?

Or at least the 10 years since I started using Vim?

Back in my dvorak days (read: until about a month ago), I would rebind “HTNS” (the “JKL;” keys) to the vi navigation keys (typically “HJKL”). Since switching to qwerty, I adopted the habit of moving my right hand over the “HJKL” keys when in normal mode, and moving it back to “JKL;” when switching to insert mode.

Today it was pointed out to me that I could try leaving my hand on the “JKL;” keys in normal mode, and reach my index finger over to press the “H” key when I want to navigate to the left. My right index finger now presses both the “J” and “H” keys when navigating, which is the same as when typing, and seems obvious in hindsight.

In general I find this change has made it easier to use Vim. The biggest benefit I’ve noticed is pressing “I” to enter insert mode requires the same hand movement than pressing “I” to type the letter “I”, as my hand is in the same place in normal and insert mode.

Hooray for more muscle memory to unlearn and relearn. The fact that I must now stop and think for a moment before using vi keys will hopefully mean I use them in fewer circumstances where other forms of navigation would be more appropriate.