SPOILER ALERT: you can't!
And the best part is that to be a good developer you don't even have to!
😕 I'm sharing this because at some point in my developer journey I thought I needed to remember everything I learned by heart.
💡 But we don't know every single word in English and we can still speak it right? That's because to speak a language, whether it be a natural language or a programming language, if you focus on the most important and commonly used words you will be considered fluent. Everything else is secondary and can be looked up in the dictionary. For ex, if you are travelling to Spain and can't speak Spanish won't you rather learn how to say "Where is the bus?" than "Xylophones are amazing?"
😍 Syntax + Grammar rules + Core Vocabulary > Random Vocabulary
🙂 The same applies to programming! Some things are like core vocabulary that will help you get around, and some things can be kept in your notes for reference only when you need them. Not everything you learn should be memorized. If you won't use it on a consistent basis turn it into a code snippet with a thorough explanation and you'll be fine.
💡 For example, instead of trying to memorize all the methods of Arrays, you can learn the most essential (adding, deleting, slicing) by heart and read/make notes about the rest and know what they do. Only memorize on a need-to-know basis.
😋 Do you take a lot of notes when you code? What apps do you use? Share in the comments!
This post was originally posted here:https://brinascode.com/ac263e38615e47309a955302c0293723
Top comments (15)
I write everything I learned on my blog, so whenever I need it, I reopen the article.
This is a great idea. Not only do you benefit, but other people benefit. Try also making small PDFs of what you are learning and maybe monetize them. That could be great. You can use Gumroad to sell them.
I'd like to try to create an e-book, but I think it's hard to sell some, because today's knowledge could be acquired free from anywhere on the internet
https://twitter.com/Prathkum/status/1467023435083620353?t=gLF2cIG3XUDonIOSLZt5Eg&s=19
Check that out. I watched that guy's journey. You can do the same too. The thing is with a PDF you are providing convenience and value to someone. Of course there are a lot of free blogs and videos out there. And yes someone can go through all those blogs and videos and find what they want. But if you do that to them and combine them into an easy to digest format then you are saving them time. That's what they are paying for. Remember there are millions and millions of developers out there. A large number of them still consider books to be the best resource to learn. I'm just saying. Try it out.
Thanks for the reference! Gonna check that later.
You are welcome.
I just checked out Gumroad and it definitely looks like something I could use, thank you so much! 😄
You are welcome. Glad I could help.
Killing two birds with the same stone 👌🏾🔥
Ha, as soon as I saw the title I said out loud: "You don't!"
I think instead of notes (or alongside), we should also emphasize learning to read and navigate documentation. Will pay dividends compared to notetaking when it comes to language features/methods.
Soo true! When I finally learned to navigate documentation I felt like I got superpowers. We should definitely emphasize that more👌🏾
I used to take physical notes but I realized thats not scalable and searchable. It's tedious. So I'm working on converting to markdown. This way I can even publish my notes onto a blog and even make pdfs from them. I stumbled upon obsidian and typora while I was searching for some good Markdown editors so that's what I'm now using. You can also use VScode. There are plenty of markdown extensions for ghat too. I just picked these because I wanted a separate tool for a separate purpose.
That’s such a great idea, definitely share your blog when you can!
What’s important is knowing the key words to be able to lookup the answer
Rightt, exactlyy!