I hate to break it to you, but knowing "just this and this..." won't get you very far when the thing you know is no longer popular, becomes infrequently used, o

I hate to break it to you, but knowing "just this and this..." won't get you very far when the thing you know is no longer popular, becomes infrequently used, or worse, is no longer supported. It also doesn't help you if you want to branch out into things that Java/SQL/JS/Python don't really support that well. It also won't help you if you switch focus mid-career, which people often do, from say web development to embedded systems. No one sane is claiming that every programmer needs to know as many APIs as possible, but knowing they exist and being able to quickly find information on them is probably a requirement as you progress in your career. SO is a good place to spin up on things IMO. Is it the best way? I don't know - but it's helped me out a lot, and not for the purposes of cutting and pasting code snippets. It has literally helped me learn, syntax, paradigms, etc. in languages I use infrequently.