(global-hl-line-mode t)

this turns on highlight line mode. It makes it easy to see the line the cursor's on. Nothing huge, I just like it.

Beacon mode flashes the cursor whenever you scroll. It makes things easy to locate the cursor when scrolling

; flashes the cursor's line when you scroll
(use-package beacon
:ensure t
:config
(beacon-mode 1)
; this color looks good for the zenburn theme but not for the one
; I'm using for the videos
; (setq beacon-color "#666600")
)

This mode deletes all the whitespace after the cursor (or before it) when you use delete or backspace.

; deletes all the whitespace when you hit backspace or delete
(use-package hungry-delete
:ensure t
:config
(global-hungry-delete-mode))

Magnar Sveen's awesome expand region mode is a must have. He also wrote the amazing multiple cursors package. I highly recommend checking out his work.

Expand region expands the marked region by semantic units. It's my go to way of marking text for manipulation

; expand the marked region in semantic increments (negative prefix to reduce region)
(use-package expand-region
:ensure t
:config
(global-set-key (kbd "C-=") 'er/expand-region))

I also tried to look at aggressive indent but that had some problems so we'll come back to that later.

Relevant links:

• Video series overview page:
• http://cestlaz.github.io/stories/emacs
• Code:
• https://github.com/zamansky/using-emacs/tree/master