"He recommends reading the Emacs Manual" is basic and obvious that a lot of people miss it. I try to do it for all software that I use. I don't need to memorize it, but familiarity is helpful.

Even if I can't remember how to do X I know the piece of software I'm using can do X.

It’s very long and dry. I recommend balance it with installing some flashy packages like selectrum, company-mode, and eglot. The wonder created from using incredible packages helps fuel and direct the drudgery of learning the nitty gritty.

What helped you most getting up to speed in emacs? Every time I try I give up

Starting small.

I started with org mode and plain text files. Magit has been a very handy tool. I've started using it for markdown more recently.

Don't try to do everything. You'll get burnt out from learning/spending too much time customizing.

Ha. I feel the same about vi. I know enough to use it for basic edits if emacs isn't available, but I struggle with it.

In one of my first programming classes in school, the available editors were vi and emacs. The modal operation of vi kept throwing me, so I used emacs. Over 30 years later I have rarely used anything else. I had one job where Visual Studio was used. I tried using it with emacs keybindings, but eventually switched to using emacs in cygwin and only used VS to run builds.

I can completely relate to this.

What helped me the most was Ch 2 from "Clojure for the Brave and True" https://www.braveclojure.com/basic-emacs/

Basically how to open, save and basic editing. I knew it was going to be slow and mildly painful to learn but I wanted to learn Clojure (since moved on to Common Lisp).

I used Vim for several years and would still consider myself very novice. I don't dig into anything for the sack of digging. I learn just enough to do what I need to do. When I need something new then I look it up. Same thing with Emacs, I've been using it for 4 or 5 months. I enjoy it and it lets me work with Common Lisp so I'm happy.

In the early days, it was easy to install Emacs on any system I was working on.

In modern times, VSCode is a fine substitute for Emacs, so try that. I generally prefer Emacs because I am so used to it.

VS Code has many pleasant properties, but its lack of respect for user freedom is a real turn off. Also it is considerably less conveniently extensible than Emacs. That however is definitely a double edged sword and there are valid reasons to go with a less customizable tool.

I would guess there's about 1000x as many people who are capable with javascript as there are who are capable with elisp though.

... that could be a feature, depending on the person, I guess.

It’s not so much the particular extension language as it is the design philosophy. JavaScript is considerably lispier than most squiggly brace languages.

I find the Electron based GUI of VSC to be laggy compared to other GUI editors like Sublime Text.

It's subtle, but there is a noticeable lag when clicking on a file and the view refreshing in VSC that isnt there in Sublime Text, for instance.

I learned it by using it to do a project in college in Common Lisp using SLIME. There wasn’t really a good Lisp environment for the editor I was used to before that (visual studio) so o had to power through.

What happened when you gave up?

This question to me is like, how did you navigate this jungle? I got lost. Theres many answers depending.