Interactive Vim tutorial
Alternatively, don't try to hurry enlightenment.<p>First, learn<p><pre><code>    :q!
</code></pre>
Next<p><pre><code>    h,j,k,l
</code></pre>
Then<p><pre><code>    i and ESC
</code></pre>
Finally<p><pre><code>    :w
</code></pre>
Now you know vim.  Don't let people tell you you're using too many keystrokes.  Are you still reaching for the mouse?  If not, you're using vim just fine.<p>Most of the good stuff in vim, you'll learn accidentally, because you're in normal mode when you think you're in insert mode, or because you have caps lock on in normal mode and you don't realize it.  Pay attention to the bizarre behavior that results and you'll learn useful tricks.  Mode confusion is a feature, not a bug.<p>For the rest, there are certain topics that reward study and are unlikely to present themselves to you accidentally, but there's no hurry unless you're feeling the pain of not knowing them.  I recommend:<p>1. Visual selection mode<p>2. Prefixing counts to commands<p>3. Search and replace with regular expressions<p>4. Advanced cursor movements<p>Lastly, if you're using gvim, do<p><pre><code>    :set guioptions=
</code></pre>
at the beginning of every session.  Those GUI elements will tempt you to use the mouse, when that's almost never an appropriate thing to do.<p>Edit: learning to use x and d early on is probably also a good idea, if like me you're the kind of person who makes mistakes.