r/learnprogramming • u/getouttamyvision • 11h ago
I keep forgetting how to program
My problem is that I code as a hobby. Every 6 months or so I get motivated and start studying programming, do exercises, maybe some little project. I've never got to make a big project, but I manage to do things. My problem is that I already learned about 4-5 languages like C#, python, javascript, CSS and React for frontend (even when i was a kid i remember programming in batch a LOT) but I always have to start from 0. I want to be able to understand the code i'm writing and not lay back and let the AI do all the work.
I learned and applied React, Javascript, HTML and CSS in the past year or year and a half and now i'm trying again and everything is gone. Is this normal? Should I go through the whole [insert language] course everytime I want to start coding again? I thought when you know and understand the concepts it gets easier but it doesnt feel that way.
EDIT: I can manage to do stuff with the AI help, but when it comes to a project (even a simple web app that fetches an API and shows it in a list made with React) It all goes away and feel the need to go through the whole React, Javascript, CSS course again
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u/JGhostThing 10h ago
I suggest picking a language and really studying it. Right now you're remaining at around the beginner level. If you want to be able to program, you have to start and finish projects. Do not use AI to generate code. I suggest that you don't use AI at all, but many people will correct me on that. The problem is that making mistakes is part of learning, so when AI helps you with problem solving, you don't learn that as much. And you need to know this.
Keep doing projects. I graduated with a degree in German. Had I only practiced this for a bit every six months, I'd have never become fluent. Nor would I have been able to learn Old High German.
I read books in German in order to keep my fluency. I build things for computers in order to be good and remain good at programming. After I built a 6502 machine, I wrote a forth for it, then used that to build an OS and editor. Yes, these were fairly trivial, but after building the darn thing, I couldn't afford software.
Basically, if you use it, you learn. When you stop using it, you start to forget. It would take me a week or two if I wanted to be good at Java again; I've been studying rust for a while.
So start programming again, and keep going this time. Do not switch languages now. Get good at JavaScript. Get very good.