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I have been programming for the last 15 years and I still sometimes look things up, even in languages I use daily. I would not really change this, since if I us

by amix 14y ago

I have been programming for the last 15 years and I still sometimes look things up, even in languages I use daily. I would not really change this, since if I use it often I will remember it - - and if not, it's just one search away. I think memorizing random facts is a really bad way to become a better programmer - - much better ways is to solve problems and read expert code (via ex. GitHub). Regarding the memorization technique I am unsure if this is the most effective way of remembering things. The book "Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything" presents a lot of tricks on how to memorize things that could be more effective than the method described in this article.

rogerbinns 14y ago
If anything the most important skills are the "meta" ones - being able to judge search results quickly for their credibility and knowing what vocabulary to use. And it is a good idea to look things up every now and then because they change. In the olden days if you wanted to open a file you just did it. Nowadays you have to consider things like TOCTOU, process credentials, character sets, permissions to require/set, virtual locations (eg "My Documents", localization), quotas, race conditions, fsyncs and renaming of temporary files etc. Heck even adding two integers can result in security flaws if not done carefully
- IheartApplesDix 14y ago
  Absolutely about the change point. It's also valuable to understand why things have changed, memorization is not going to help you with that, but you should be able to at least notice that things have changed and be able to conceptualize why they have.
DennisP 14y ago
Here's a really good article on the staged memory technique, and the guy who first popularized it: http://www.wired.com/medtech/health/magazine/16-05/ff_wozniak?currentPage=all http://www.wired.com/medtech/health/magazine/16-05/ff_woznia... It sounds very effective but only if you make time for it every day. Combining this with the "Moonwalking" techniques might be best of all.
- jacques_chester 14y ago
  It's my sincere belief that the bloom in programmers talking about SRS in the past few years goes back to this precise article.

by amix 14y ago

rogerbinns 14y ago

If anything the most important skills are the "meta" ones - being able to judge search results quickly for their credibility and knowing what vocabulary to use. And it is a good idea to look things up every now and then because they change. In the olden days if you wanted to open a file you just did it. Nowadays you have to consider things like TOCTOU, process credentials, character sets, permissions to require/set, virtual locations (eg "My Documents", localization), quotas, race conditions, fsyncs and renaming of temporary files etc. Heck even adding two integers can result in security flaws if not done carefully

IheartApplesDix 14y ago
Absolutely about the change point. It's also valuable to understand why things have changed, memorization is not going to help you with that, but you should be able to at least notice that things have changed and be able to conceptualize why they have.

DennisP 14y ago

Here's a really good article on the staged memory technique, and the guy who first popularized it: http://www.wired.com/medtech/health/magazine/16-05/ff_wozniak?currentPage=all http://www.wired.com/medtech/health/magazine/16-05/ff_woznia... It sounds very effective but only if you make time for it every day. Combining this with the "Moonwalking" techniques might be best of all.

jacques_chester 14y ago
It's my sincere belief that the bloom in programmers talking about SRS in the past few years goes back to this precise article.