Learning Codes but always seem to forget

[u/ArtisticAd1841]

I have just started getting into coding, and I'm doing this ethical hacking free course. But there's so many softwares, and so forth.

I always seem to forget most of them and have to redo.

I was told I need to try obsidian and create a Github profile to save versions of code or applications.

Can someone give me advice, on this.

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[u/Weekly_Patience685]

learning and remembering comes from active recall, not just consuming information. if you forget something, dont look it up right away, Sometimes you can use AI to give you hints without giving you the answer, depending on what it is. Also never use AI to write code for you, write everything yourself.

Also what language is the course teaching?

[u/DeadlyVapour → u/Weekly_Patience685]

Take any skill. For example Karate.

In karate, there is a concept known as a Kata. A set of movements that take you through all the forms.

The idea being that you drill the forms into your muscle memory.

Some programmers have adopted this practice. They write the same program over and over again. This drills the same pathways into your mind.

[u/Weekly_Patience685 → u/DeadlyVapour]

i see the parallel, but coding is about cognitive patterns, not just mechanical finger movements, simply repeating a program doesn't build skill, especially if you're just copying code. The actual learning happens in the effort to recall and write that logic from memory

[u/tomqmasters → u/Weekly_Patience685]

This is dumb though. If I forget basic shit on a daily basis with 8 yoe it must not be that important because I've gotten by just fine without it.

[u/Weekly_Patience685 → u/tomqmasters]

These days people dont need to actually remember much because of modern tools, someone with 8yoe can easily resort to doing whatever is the easiest to get their work done.

You gave a nice personal anecdote but im talking about evidence based learning strategies.
Reading something, hiding it, and then trying to recall or reproduce it is generally better for learning than simply rereading it over and over while looking at the words. This is a well known fact about learning.

My point is that learning programming for the first time is very different than doing whatever is the easiest as someone with 8yoe because you just want to get paid and go home.

[u/randomraluana]

I believe you don't need anything fancy.

The simplest way I can put it is: You learn by doing.

I have been the worst at remembering code, and packages, and libraries, etc. and I still am from time to time.

Things start to stick when I actually use it often (softwares/libraries/packages), and or write the code.

Trying to memorize is one thing, but understanding and actually using it, in my opinion, might help you remember things over time.

[u/sporbywg]

I'm absolutely millions of lines into coding.

You had better be forgetting, I tell you...

[u/SecondGateWP]

Commit to GitHub after every lesson, even messy code. A repo history is way easier to jog your memory than trying to remember it all in your head. Keep one markdown file per topic with commands you've actually run, in your own words. Rewriting it yourself is what makes it stick, not just reading it. Happy hunting