When I started learning Linux years ago, my teacher gave me advice that changed everything:
“Do everything in vim for a year.”
I thought he was crazy.
I was comfortable with nano. Why torture myself with vim?
But that single piece of advice has shaped me more than any certification or bootcamp ever could.
Here’s what most DevOps courses get wrong about learning the command line…
The Problem with Jumping to LazyVim Too Fast
Most people want to skip straight to the fancy stuff.
They see my LazyVim setup with tabs, code completion, and language servers.
They think: “I’ll just copy that config and be productive immediately.”
This is backwards.
When you jump to advanced tools without understanding the fundamentals, you miss the entire foundation.
You don’t know what problems these tools actually solve.
What “Do Everything in Vim for a Year” Actually Teaches
Using basic vim and bash for months builds skills you can’t get any other way:
File management mastery - You learn where files live and how the filesystem really works
Text editing from the command line - Opening multiple files, managing them efficiently
Unix philosophy - One program, one job, done well
Standard in/out, pipes, redirection - The building blocks of everything
If you don’t know what stdin, stdout, Unix filters, and pipes are…
That proves my point.
You’re trying to use advanced tools without understanding what they’re built on.
The Three-Stage Learning Path I Recommend
Stage 1: Master the Basics (2-3 months)
Use bash as your default shell
Edit everything in basic vim
Learn find and grep (not fd and ripgrep)
Process text with Unix filters instead of editing files
Stage 2: Feel the Pain Points
Notice what’s slow or repetitive
Desire better code completion
Want consistent setup across machines
Crave modern features
Stage 3: Appreciate the Solutions
Move to zsh when you understand what it solves
Adopt LazyVim when you know why it exists
Build dotfiles when manual setup gets tedious
Why This “Slow” Path Makes You Faster
When I first opened LazyVim after months of basic vim, my reaction was:
“Oh wow, everything just works! What a relief!”
I knew exactly what problems it solved because I’d lived through them.
Compare that to someone who starts with LazyVim.
They see the complexity, get overwhelmed, and give up.
Or worse - they use it without understanding it.
The Reality Check
If you can’t manage a Linux system with just vim and bash…
You’re not ready for advanced DevOps tools.
Every production server has vi(m).
Not every server has your fancy config.
When things break at 2 AM, you need to fix them with basic tools.
That’s when this foundation pays off.
Your Next Step
Don’t take shortcuts with your fundamentals.
Spend the next few months doing everything in basic vim and bash.
Yes, it’s slower at first.
Yes, you’ll feel like you’re missing out on modern tools.
But when you finally graduate to the advanced stuff?
You’ll understand it deeply instead of just copying configs.
You’ll be the engineer who can troubleshoot anything, anywhere.
That’s the difference between a junior and senior mindset.
Question for you: What’s one basic command line skill you’ve been avoiding because there’s a “better” tool for it?
Reply and let me know - I read every response.
Cheers, Mischa
P.S. We’ve landed a few more jobs last week, so I’m opening a few spots in KubeCraft. We start with fundamentals and build up properly - no shortcuts. My teaching method works. Book a call to see if you qualify.
!