The this blog had its genesis when I sat down to read the GNU Emacs Manual while we were travelling over the holidays—I figured I could skim it, maybe pick up one or two new things, but, really, it would mostly be just speed-reading.
What it actually proved was that I had never tried to read the manual recently, perhaps ever. I would stumble across basic stuff I feel like I should have known all along, and then an hour or two later would have to work very hard to remember what it was that I had stumbled across.
I have come to realize I retain things better if I write them down—I still don't understand how I got all the way through college, since I never took notes worth a damn. So this is my public notebook.
While I know M-f (forward-word) and M-b (backward-word) at such a
low level that I thought I didn't know them until I used them without
thinking about it, I didn't know about M-RIGHT/C-RIGHT (right-word)
and M-LEFT/C-LEFT (left-word), which do basically the same thing,
but are a little bit more ergonomic since you're not doing both keys
with the same hand. Something to retrain, I suspect.
I probably also need to try to train myself to use my right Meta key
more; unfortunately, on my laptop keyboard, it falls somewhat
awkwardly under my thumb, so it may take some time to make that
transition.
Finally (for today), there's M-g M-g/M-g g (goto-line) which I use
at least a couple of times a day…by typing M-x goto-line. I think
this will be a little faster.