Not just different preferences, but a different way of thinking about using computers. I naturally evolved from using notepad > edit plus > notepad++ > vim. I had simply reached the point where I was tired of moving with a mouse, arrow keys, shift-arrow keys, dialog menus, watching coworkers gather to talk about how broken Eclipse is that day, regex not being more prominent. I was tired of "you can't do that."
The number of keystrokes used is irrelevant because this is the optimal generalization of how to perform an action on some text. As in I could turn my screen off, open this file, perform the action an save the file and be sure of the result. So I could map a single key delete four words in vim, but why would anyone do that? It's easier to think "I want to delete four words" and have my fingers do that from muscle memory. That's exactly what it feels like to use ci" when I want to "change inside double quotes" - I tell my editor what I want to do and it moves the cursor for me without needing to peck at the arrow keys N times.
I decided to accept nothing less than tools that are reliable and work exactly the same way every day until I want to change something. I don't care about following someone else's idea of what features or keybindings should be in my text editor; instead I started from a blank slate and added what I wanted. This has the side effect of making it incredibly obvious when I change something that causes the editor to behave in a way that I don't expect or to slow down.
The other day I was driving down the road and saw a plane coming in from a landing right in front of me. That was no big deal. But seeing a rocket blast off into space from one of those at 30,000 feet? That's interesting, but which phone was used to film it is not.
Really glad to see the HN crowd knows what's up regarding the War on Drugs. If you want daily news on the subject, the best site I can suggest is http://drugwarrant.com. I've read this site obsessively for nearly two years, as it is hands down the best at what it does. Excellent writing with that goes beyond the media's lazy parroting of press releases without any thought or analysis.
You may also be surprised to learn that the Drug Czar and anyone who is funded by their office (such as researchers or propaganda campaigns) are legally required by law to oppose legalization of any Schedule 1 drug for any reason, even for medicinal use. Even in the face of obvious acceptance of medical use of cannabis (such as what the DEA is doing right now by rescheduling natural THC to the same position as synthetic THC) they must oppose giving up any ground or even stating that it might be a good idea. They have actively blocked attempts at research or rescheduling in an undemocratic way, which is why the issue is currently working out at the State level.
There are also some articles on this site that are widely regarded as the best pages to link to get people up to speed on the true nature of the war on drugs. May I suggest: