Comment by Zyst

I started with just Nix-Shell in WSL with Home Manager. Then I have kept adapting that file for my Linux, OS X, and other needs. I didn't touch NixOS at all until years later. I'm really, really glad I started with Home Manager. It delivered value immediately, and I was instantly sold on the value proposition of a declarative file to manage dependencies with other associated benefits from the Nix world.