When I first started my self-learning journey I would try to memorize everything, from every HTML tag to every use case of every CSS property. Beca...
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This reminds me of some of the best learning advice I ever received. It came from my A-Level Physics teacher:
He meant essentially that any amount of last minute cramming, or just trying to stuff your head with information that you didn't fully take the time to really understand - is completely futile.
Learn by doing - it's the key to understanding
100% agree! cramming never helped me in uni. Actually, it made things worse haha
This is why I tell interview candidates that they can use Google/Stack Overflow/MDN/whatever to complete the mini app I have them build. It's silly to expect anyone to know everything, especially with the multiple technologies required in the world of web apps.
Watching what a candidate searches for and how they use the info they find is very revealing about how they think, which ultimately shows me how they problem solve better than just reading whatever code they wrote (or copied) after the fact.
Seriously? Respect 🙌 for you and all those who think this way. I wish I could be interviewed with that maturity someday :XD
One coding interview I did something the interviewers didn't know about (and subsequently started using in production code), simply because of Intellisense.
This is great! Better than a lot of interview experiences I've heard of from others
Good point about well structured and easily accessible notes. That's why I would always convince anyone to have your very own personal wiki with all quick tips, code snippets, cheat sheets and recipe for cheesecake :) just everything. Don't use your brain to do things which can be done more effectively by simple software.
yes! I use the notion app for everything I have my own notes on everything it is extremely helpful. I also include code snippets that I always end up referencing.
Great advice. It reminds me of a talk by Barbara Oakley, a professor of engineering who also teaches a course called "Learning how to learn". In the talk, she pointed out that our education systems often focus on declarative learning, which is mostly concerned with memorising facts at a conscious level. In contrast, procedural or implicit learning is more akin to gradually building a program in your head that carries out a task expertly with almost no mental effort. The way to take advantage of procedural learning is of course to just practice and try things, rather than trying to memorise overly specific facts.
It sounds like a very insightful talk. I think especially in the tech industry procedural learning is key 🗝️👍😊
Love your post. I wonder if people get this idea from interview horror stories. Regardless, I encourage you to look up stuff and take notes just like you are doing. I love that you use notion I used to keep a little wiki locally but notion is much easier. The benefit of looking stuff up too is that you will develop your ability to filter out bs. Its an overlooked but important skill especially if you are looking for answers to 'hot' technologies everyone throws stuff out there but its not always high quality.
100% agree! Knowing how to use the correct keywords in your search is a skill 😊 we al need to constantly practice
"Talk to yourself" actually has a particular name. Rubber duck debugging.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubber_duck_...
Yes I've heard of it 😊 but I don't have one. So I Just talk to myself 😂
So true and I had it today. It was about the 'option' element and I knew that aside of the 'select' element there is another element where the 'option' element is used but wich one? I couldn't get it into my head, so I went to mdn to figure out that it was 'datalist'.
I totally agree! I'm a webdeveloper for more than 15 years now, and I have never had any education in webdevelopment. Btw, no education in using Google as well of course. ;)
But during that days it was normal to use any search engine. "Programming" in the early days at least for me, was being able to search, find, copy-paste and apply to your own project.
And 15 years later, that's what I still do. However, seems experience caused me to gain some knowledge and muscle memory as well :D
I definitely talk to myself. I am lucky enough that with my current position, my office has a white board. When I am trying to solve a problem, I will draw the idea out, and specifically talk out loud to see where it will all go. This trend does help me flesh out what I want to do.
I have been meaning to get a white board. I always end up talking to myself and scribbling on some paper .
It’s one the most important ability the every developer should have and there’s no recipe, everyone must find the best approaches fits for you.
But, as was mentioned, have a organized structure is the key point.
Yes! Since structuring my notes and learning process o have been able to learn a lot more and a lot faster 😊👍
Thanks this is good advice. I would just like to add that programming concepts ( such as Object-Oriented programming, functional programming, SOLID) would also be beneficial to learn when starting out. Awesome article!
Thank you :)
Great advise!
I think this is part of the difficulty with getting stuck in tutorials and with code schools. You get shown/told what to do, but a key skill to have as a developer is learning how to "figuring it out". I found it best to just learn that there IS an answer out there, and I just need to find the path back to it when I need it.
I tried using Anki to create flash cards to memorize the syntax of F#. In the beginning it was going nicely, but I was creating too many cards and memorizing too many useless details. Today I still use Anki, but it is like a last resort in case I see something in a reference book that I think I will likely forget but I would like to remember.
For instance, what is the name of the operator ?? in swift (answer nil coalescing operator)? I usually have a hard time memorizing names like these and then it is hard to google later too, so when I see a new term like this or an interesting library method I create a flashcard so that I review it.
I think this optimizes learning, at least for me. I guess 90% is what you mentioned and 10% trying to memorize certain details. One without the other would be possibly meaningless too.
Good points. I took this course a while back and it helped me:
Learning how to learn
You can audit the course.
It sounds like a very good course. 👍Knowing how to learn is very important. Especially knowing your own learning style.
This one suggestion would have changed my college life! Hope it helps the newbies out there.
Yes. That is my goal. Hope it can help someone else :)
Great advice! I had to learn this on my own several years ago so you are saving people time!
Same here. I had to learn it the hard way. My goal is definitely to help someone out so they do not go through the sam struggle.
Nice article. I had to learn the hard way by experiencing similar or even worse as I had to learn English at the same time. But with HTML it was similar. I tried to memorize or even write on a paper HTML tags by hand lol.
As time goes, you'll find your way of learning.
exactly
Thanks for sharing this useful article @Brenda
I am glad it was helpful :)
Playing Summon The JSON is also a great way to learn
Will def look it up thanks for the recommendation :)
Interesting article to read in the "AI era"...
"You will always have to revisit your notes. This is one of the reasons why I like having digital notes."
Now I don't feel alone with me OneNote notes about some Docker commands 😂
Digital notes are great! I always reference mine 😊👍
I totally agree. I've found myself using Google looking up the correct syntax for various commands that I use infrequently. Other things are just second nature.
Every bit of this advice is true and amazing.
Programming is a large topic. We can't learn all of it. The best way to learn is to practice regularly
Great post, this is actually the exact thing that's blocking me from moving on beyond basic HTML / CSS stuff. Thanks for the advice!
I never believed in cramming for once in my life, even in primary school. The best alternatives have been stated by you here. Awesome!