Why Good Programmers Don't Memorize

Society rewards people with good memorization skills. There are all sorts of contests on who can memorize the most of some particular material. And when it comes to learning, we often rely on tests which sometimes are just gauges of how well we can memorize. But does memory make a person smart?

I contend that it doesn't. Programmers need to focus on problem-solving skills which require little memory effort. Moreover, our memorization techniques in an age of instant knowledge at your fingertips are less valuable skills than they might have been in times past.

In today's world, especially for the programmer, everything we know about memorization goes out the window. Good programmers don't spend all thier time memorizing, because if they did there would be no time for work considering the vast amount of documentation one must sift through just to get a project done.

For that reason, memorizing can actually be counter-productive when it comes to programming. You should definitely memorize and more importantly, seek to understand programming concepts, but if you try to memorize everything - you won't get too far. Go ahead and try memorizing the Java documentation if that suits you.

This is all good news for me because my memory sucks.

The real secret to being a good programmer is your resourcefulness. How good are you at you at finding what you need when you need it? Your Google and ChatGPT skills will set you apart from others in this regard.

It's not that memorization is bad, it's just how you go about it. When you work with a programming language long enough, you'll eventually memorize what you use most through sheer repetition. The memorization just sort of occurs through osmosis. However, taking time to try to memorize every detail of a programming language from the outset is a time-waster.

You just learn coding just by building stuff. Spend all your time memorizing and you'll never build anything. Someone called it 'just-in-time-learning'. You learn what you need when the need for it arises.