I think you have to see someone who has used it for a while (or use it for a while yourself) to understand.
To me nano is just a basic text editor (open, edit, save). Vim is a way to 'jack in' and be able to manipulate text with my mind. I don't 'think' anout how to accomplish something, I just think about what I want done and my hands just do it.
This comes from the modal nature of the editor and text objects, mostly, but there are so many other little things (like macros, ex commands, filters) that you pick up over time that all add up to a great text manipulation toolkit.
To me nano is just a basic text editor (open, edit, save). Vim is a way to 'jack in' and be able to manipulate text with my mind. I don't 'think' anout how to accomplish something, I just think about what I want done and my hands just do it.
This comes from the modal nature of the editor and text objects, mostly, but there are so many other little things (like macros, ex commands, filters) that you pick up over time that all add up to a great text manipulation toolkit.