
Ask HN: Anyone else constantly improving their configuration files (dotfiles)? - PlayMeWhile
Lately I catch myself updating my config too often and it starts to feel counter productive. Does constant fiddling with the dotfiles pay off? Is it viable to have no personalised configuration at all? Or is &quot;middle way&quot; the best approach? Looking to hear wisdom from all perspectives.
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beatgammit
I stopped years ago.

I used to fiddle with my vimrc, but then I got frustrated whenever I had to
had to use vim without the complex setup, so I just learned to use vim with
mostly defaults. I used to fiddle with my bashrc/zshrc, and then I used fish,
which has most of the features I need anyway. I used to mess with global
coding style configs, and now I just commit them to the relevant repo.

Maybe I'm getting old, but it's just not nearly as interesting as getting
stuff done. The last time I messed with it was when I tried to get Rust
spiffed out with the Rust Language Server, but I ended up not using it.

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chewz
Not always but I am having days like this. Instead of working I am fiddling
with my .vimrc or .zshrc or .otherrc or creating some single-use script,
chrome extension etc..

It feels like waste of time but occasionally it pays off after some time. And
it gives myself some easily achievable satisfaction.

But on the other hand going for a walk would sometimes feel like better use of
this time.

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nextos
A minimal customization is likely to bring most benefits while still being
easy to maintain and unlikely to break with updates.

I have a quite small .emacs, and tiny user.js, .stumpwmrc, .bashrc and a few
others. I think it's the way to go. Try to use as little software as possible,
stuff that is well maintained, and don't fight its defaults too much.

In cases like emacs or vim, you do need some customization since they are
trying to address such a wide userbase that their defaults are sometimes a bit
odd, or just there for historical reasons and backward compatibility.

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dabockster
I stopped writing custom configs years ago. They kept breaking with every
major OS update and seemed like a lot more trouble than they were worth.

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vkaku
No. I don't tweak it unless I need to change a version based path.

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3KQgt0Cl
No. Such a waste if time.

