Memorization and learning to code

Memorization equals learning.

For many of us, it’s how our understanding was assessed. We were praised for memorizing the alphabet, numbers, the four nucleotides in DNA, and x is equal to negative b plus or minus the square root of b squared minus 4ac all over 2a. I imagine that somewhere out there my former math teacher is smiling.

Many of us have held on to that belief. I did when I was learning my programming basics. I spent so many hours attempting to memorize the syntax of a for loop. So many evenings where I’d try to recite the names, syntax, and return values of array methods. And many nights where I read and re-read the documentation on React, wishing I could just tattoo it to my brain.

I’ve spent the past few years helping people learn to code at The Odin Project and I’ve noticed a lot of people there are doing the same. At least a few times a week folks come in to our Discord server to ask about the best note-taking techniques or to express concern about moving to a new topic for fear of forgetting what they just committed to memory.

Here’s a hard truth: the concept that you spent hours trying to memorize that you feel has finally stuck- you’re going to forget it. Don’t freak out though. That’s ok. That’s normal.

The greatest concern I had once starting my job as a software engineer was whether I had enough in my brain. I was afraid of pairing with more experienced engineers at work because I didn’t want them to discover how little I knew. When we did pair I was embarrassed that I couldn’t recall a syntax for a some method or recall the return value of another. There was a pairing session I had with my colleague, John, where this all changed.

While pairing on a task, the idea of localStorage came up. I mentioned that I used it a few times in the past, hoping to impress my new co-worker. John invited me to tell him about it. There isn’t a way to dress this up: I FREAKED OUT. I couldn’t think of a thing to say. I apologized and said I forgot everything about it. But I gave myself a few seconds to think and finally told him there was a way to set and retrieve information but I had nothing beyond that. I was afraid of his response. I was expecting he’d say it’s crazy I hadn’t memorized everything about localStorage and go tell my boss that hiring me was a mistake. Instead, John shared something like this. His exact words are hazy but the spirit of it was:

“That’s ok. I haven’t used that in years myself. Let’s google it together and figure this out.”

The conversation continued and I remember little about the technical stuff. The fact that he didn’t flip out was shocking and that stuck with me. At the end of the pairing session, we discussed the need of revisiting documentation. John shared that he googles and reads documentation regularly. And shared that it is very normal to not have everything memorized. I always imagined that great engineers knew everything. I imagined they carried all their knowledge all the time and could recite any of what they held in their brain whenever they wanted. After all, I was under the impression that memorization equaled learning, which in turn led me to believe that I was only as good and skilled and useful as my memory. John taught me that this is far from the truth.

Now that I’ve been in the field for a few years, I find that I very much agree with the sentiment that John shared. I regularly forget how to use stuff. I forget syntax, return values, even names of methods. If I haven’t used Flexbox in a while, I’ll need remind myself on how to center a div. But rather than freak out, like I used to, I know that I can visit documentation to refresh myself on things when I need it.

When we are actively engaged with a topic, that topic is easy to carry in our working memory. And the hope is that our efforts in studying a thing will move that thing into our long-term memory. For many, falling short of putting everything we engage with into our long-term is failure. Moving things from our working memory to our long-term memory is hard. And to make matters worse, working memory is not unlimited. This means that as we become familiar with one thing, another thing will fall out of that working memory. This causes concern to a lot of people. We end up returning to things we feel we’ve forgotten every time we learn something new. Except in revisiting that thing we forgot, we now risk forgetting that thing we just learned. Then we’re in a cycle where we’re constantly trying to hold on to everything at once. And if we’re constantly trying to hold on to what we know, what room do we have for learning new things in peace?

In the real world, no one holds on to everything all the time. We’re more likely to hold on to the general idea of a thing and less likely to hold on to the details. And in the adventure of learning to code, there is little difference in the utility between perfect memorization and being vaguely aware.

Knowing that it’s possible to remove the last element of an array is just as good as having the syntax of JavaScript’s pop method memorized.

❗ FULL DISCLOSURE ❗: As I typed the sentence above, I was like: “is the pop method even the one that removes the last element of an array?" Me 2 years ago would have freaked out and felt real sorry for myself. Not this time. I cracked open a browser tab and looked at the documentation and confirmed that was the case. Cool!

As we engage with ideas over time, we’re more likely to move larger concepts into our long term memory than the finer details associated with those concepts. As with the example above, we’re more likely to remember that there is some way in JavaScript to remove last element of an array instead of perfectly memorizing everything about the pop method.

We can’t memorize everything. But we can become aware of a ton. Equipping ourselves with awareness of what to research is good enough for getting through learning. Over time, and with lots of practice and mistakes and experimentation, things will stick.

Being vaguely aware is enough.

Disclaimer:

Having some stuff memorized by the time you get to interviews is useful. But by the time you get there you'll be surprised by how much has stuck. The thoughts I’ve shared here are specifically for folks actively in the learning process.