Good Tools Are Invisible

The author argues that good tools should be "invisible"—seamlessly fading into the background during use—rather than being celebrated for the challenges they present. They critique the tendency to romanticize tools like Vim by framing their limitations and workarounds as "fun puzzles," when simpler, more direct solutions (like Sublime's multiple cursors feature) would be more efficient and productive. The real measure of a tool's quality is how smoothly it handles tasks without friction, not how entertaining it is to overcome its shortcomings.