It's not old, it's just wrong to emphasize _the tool_ so much. Don't know about the author, but being productive doesn't equal being masterful typist. I had a member of the team, who was above average productive in notepad (yes, notepad!) and I also had someone who was below average productive in emacs (I always let the programmers decide, what tool they use). And I am not talking about being fast, but about producing quality code.
While it could have been better phrased, he is correct that the "Effective Emacs" post is old and well-known. It's been mentioned dozens of times on HN -- so it's a little surprising that no one had yet submitted the link.
