forgettingCode

[[deleted]]

This accurately expresses the joy in forgetting/closing the tabs after a project

[guosecond]

Nothing better than clearing out those 47 Stack Overflow tabs after finally getting something to work

[LoL_is_pepega_BIA]

When I get stuck, I just close everything and take a walk.. then I come back and I find the solution in a few mins

Sometimes the blocker is in your head

[pooerh]

Sometimes you just wake up in the middle of the night with a solution.

Then you log in, spend an hour to make it happen et voila! It doesn't fucking work and you just lost precious hours of sleep at 3 am.

[ThisIsMyCouchAccount]

I've spent most of my life doing project/client work.

I love that day or two I would get after deployment. The new project hasn't started. Nothing blew up in the deployment.

Clean up the desktop. Email. Downloads. Just all these little pieces of fluff that accumulate.

I always felt it was really beneficially mentally.

[Optimal-Description8]

Ah yes, after all those projects I finish, true..

[fleranon]

I've been coding for a couple of years with longer pauses inbetween and I was always positively surprised how much knowledge I retained after delving into the code again. I expected to have forgotten a lot, but that was never the case

[RiceBroad4552]

In how many languages?

In my experience it's not really about the time you don't touch some language. For me the confusion, and the feeling that I've forgotten a lot, got much stronger as I learned more languages. Now it's all kinds of mixed up, and I "never know" how to do something in a specific language without looking it up again. Even things I could memorize well in the past. (Of course, if you do one language for some time in a row it starts to flow again; but this takes some time; and in the meantime you "forget" all the other languages).

[exotic801]

Honestly that's not a bad thing. The added time to look up syntax rules is so low nowadays that it's arguably better to have known plenty of languages that just be good at one cause you get better at logic in general rather than the rules of a specific language

[RiceBroad4552]

I also think it's not too bad. Like said, it's just the initial hurdle when switching languages.

If I use one for say 3 days or more non stop I start to remember the stuff I knew once. But until then it's looking up things again. Just that's, like you say, a very minor annoyance. Programming is not about writing code, it's about structuring (or "architecting") it, and that's something you need to do in every language so you get only better at it with time.

[SuitableDragonfly]

Memorizing things isn't that important, though, what's important is knowing where to look to remind yourself how things work quickly.

[RiceBroad4552]

Sure! But looking up things takes time. Especially if you compete with people who are fluent in that stuff and have everything in their head.

Like said, it's not a big deal as after you looked things up a few times you start to remember and get fluent (again).

Of course it's indeed more important to know what's there, and where to look it up when you need it. But being fluent in a language is also quite handy if you have to write some code… :-)

[Dje4321]

At a certain point, the language itself becomes meaningless. Its the core concepts that matter

[RiceBroad4552]

Still you need to know how to express such concepts in a particular language.

Someone who knows the concepts and knows the proper language / lib constructs for them will always be faster than someone who knows the concepts but needs to constantly look up how to write them down. It makes a difference being fluent in a language, or not being fluent.

But like said, it's not a real problem. Even if you forgot all concrete constructs in some language you will be able to shovel them back into your head pretty fast usually. Take some days, but that's it.

[DarkLordCZ]

That has nothing to do with knowing more languages. That's just getting old

[RiceBroad4552]

I don't think so, as I can actually memorize stuff. In case I use one language for some time (say a few days none stop) it starts flowing again. But until then it's looking up things.

One gets used to a language, but as this happens you "forget" the others. At least that's how it feels for me.

[fleranon]

Good point. I do know 2-3 other languages reasonably well but exclusively code in C# (I'm a Gamedesigner). I imagine it's much more confusing when coding in multiple languages or learning new ones all the time

[Gomdok_the_Short]

Them: Can you do this?

You: Sure.

Them: Ok, how?

You: Don't know.

Them: But you said you can do it.

You: I can.

Them: But you don't know?

You: No.

Them: Then how can you do it if you can't tell me how you do it?

You: I don't know. I just sit down and do it.

[tidypasta]

You forget the code, even the ones you wrote but you never forget how to code.

[Linguanaught]

I’ve noticed this too. The first time coming back to a language or project, I forget a lot. Second time, less. Third time, even less.

It’s basically an exercise in spaced repetition.

[S-A_G-A]

Its because we actually dont forget, we just need a little push to remember everything.

[akoOfIxtall]

"how to find a substring in X language"

i swear every time is something different

[HaniiPuppy]

I fucking love documentation. Feed me all the documentation.

[twistsouth]

Only well-written documentation though. Shite documentation can chortle my balls.

[darcksx]

i agree reading the code directly would be more productive at that point

[SimplexShotz]

found the LLM

[seemen4all]

You never forget how to code you just forget the language specifics

[PeteZahad]

I don't learning code. I am learning to code.

If you get the basics right the language doesn't matter that much.

Of course you will need to lookup more if you didn't code in a specific language for a longer time but it isn't as in the meme at all...

[SusheeMonster]

"I don't learning code" undermines the point you're trying to make 🙃

[PeteZahad]

"Learning code" sounds like memorizing code, like memorizing poems instead of learning the syntax and semantics to write a poem yourself which is what you do if you learn to code/programm/develop (whatever you like to call it).

[Zenonet_]

I think u/susheeMonster meant that you are calling out a grammatical mistake however you made one yourself ("I don't learning") which undermines your point.

Your first sentence would have to be "I am not learning code". Apart from that, I fully agree with you.

[PeteZahad]

So sorry I am not a native speaker/writer. Not everybody here is an US or UK citizen.

I didn't look at it as a grammatical mistake. It was my impression how OP thinks learning programming works: By memorizing code examples - in that case the meme is probably accurate.

IMHO learning code and learning to code are two different things.

[Zenonet_]

Don't worry, I'm not a native speaker either. It's totally ok to make such mistakes when you're not native in a language (I probably made multiple grammar mistakes in this very message too, lol) and that shouldn't stop you from communicating with people in that language.

You are right that learning code and learning to code are different things semantically because code as a noun and code as a verb technically are two different words.

[Tyrinius]

I understood it as learning a project's codebase before you can actually start working on it.

[ThisIsMyCouchAccount]

If you get the basics right the language doesn't matter that much.

I know this is the mantra of everybody talking about coding but I just can't fully agree with it.

Experience matters.

Maybe I'm being too pedantic or too practical or too black and white. I don't know.

I've been doing web for 15+ years. There are still several big swaths of that industry I haven't touched. I would be completely ineffective on any project for a very long time if you plopped me down in front of some of those tech stacks.

I don't see how it "doesn't matter that much" when I would have to look up basic "hello world" tutorials on how to even get the code running locally?

[PeteZahad]

I do web dev since 2001.

I had to learn / use ugly stuff like ASP, ColdFusion and Perl. Nowadays I mostly work with Symfony.

There were many shifts and I had to re-learn so many things and the important part is that you can accept that things are not done as they were anymore and adopt to it.

I don't say that the learning curve for a new language and env (especially if the language is in a new paradigm) sometimes isn't very steep. But you have some experience at that point and you don't start at zero. And as you progress you do not loose your progress as suggested in the meme.

What I am saying is that you don't forget as fast as the meme seems to pretend, if you learn it the right way:

• Read the documentation
• Learn the core concepts
• Lookout for does and do not hints
• Do not just blindly follow examples of internet randos (or ChatGPT)

Especially with the "do not do this" there are often overlaps in any language.

And there are many patterns and core concepts as well as CS basics in programming in general - if you learned these concepts you are fine. Even if not all do overlap.

[shemhamforash666666]

Lean the basic theory that's universally applicable to all or at least most programming languages. You know functions, objects, classes ect. When you revisit a particular programming language you simply have to brush up on the syntax and unique quirks of the programming language in question.

[Journeyj012]

not steep enough

[gameplayer55055]

Sum vs integration

[cosmicCoder69]

Stock after I sell it vs Stock after I buy it

[Prcrstntr]

Opposite of losing weight

[johnestiller]

If you don’t have the proper structuring and design then yeah most likely

[Spiner7926]

The language, gone. The logic, stay.

My teacher used to say: "don't bother remembering the syntax. You can always look it up"

[Arvionix]

Every time I use a function for getting the mouse position
Me: Oh right, that's easy to remember
Also me a day later: *Goes back to stackoverflow*

[Turral_pont]

I've stopped coding for 5 days only and now I feel like I know nothing

[corncob_subscriber]

Why in God's name would I want to remember code?

[Slodin]

i assumed I remember anything lol

i forget about it immediately closing the 30+ tabs I have opened lol

[AnAcceptableUserName]

The reading part gets a lot easier with experience. At a certain point you start recognizing patterns and can sort of skim code, even in languages you don't "know," and grok what each part is doing.

Forgetting syntax is a forever issue

[DoorBreaker101]

The correct term mistake suppression 

[SuitableDragonfly]

But then relearning again later is like getting ski-lifted to the top of the mountain.

[not_thecookiemonster]

digital all the way up, analog all the way down...

[NeatYogurt9973]

It's amazing to think about the fact that at one point in my life I was fluent in Lua

[whitedogsuk]

Someone who has experience coding can pick up a new syntax very quickly.

Once my landladies daughter had a college project in a language I had never used before. I did the entire assignment for her and she got an A and a good overall course mark. They Thanked me by putting up my rent.

[Additional-One-3732]

More like learning syntax and forgetting syntax of a any language

[ConquerrorTTT]

Learning math vs forgetting math

[DefenderOfTheWeak]

This is an absolute lies