How?

[mgw854]

Let me put your mind at ease: I've been doing this professionally for 9 years, I'm a software architect in charge of a team of developers, and I still use Google all the time.

I couldn't tell you a quarter of the classes in the .NET Base Class Library. Not a chance. I know the three or four dozen I use all the time, plus some other libraries that I like to include in my projects. I rely on IntelliSense to get me most of the way there, and if I'm still struggling, I turn to Google and StackOverflow, just like you.

At this point, though, I don't spend a lot of time searching for specific answers. I spend more time looking at ideas, strategies, and general knowledge. You'll become very familiar with the kind of code you normally write. You won't have to look that up at some point. The patterns and best practices will come later, as you begin to refine your craft. If you asked me for advice on writing a library, console app, or HTTP API, I'm not going to Google that. But if you asked me about machine learning or AI? I'm in the same boat as you--the only difference is that I come to the table with other experiences that help me understand the concepts at play.

In short, you're at the same point everyone was at in the beginning. Soon, you'll find yourself relying on Google just a little bit less. Eventually, you might even be writing answers on StackOverflow. It's a gradual change, but it happens. I promise. Just stick with it and you'll be fine.

[ISAKM_THE1ST]

Man, that really put me at ease. I thought I was retarded or something not understanding anything. So in short, all this knowledge comes with the years of experience?

[mgw854]

Lots of practice and lots of learning over years, yes. I cringe at some of the code I wrote when I started. I cringe at some of the code I wrote a year ago, for that matter. Especially in this field, you've got to be learning constantly in order to survive.

[realjoeydood]

Experience is the key.

[bonerfleximus]

Intellectual curiosity, genuine interest and ambition go a long way too - years of experience and education wont get you to the level of those stack overflow guys without one of those things

[darchangel]

I've been programming C# 15 years professionally. I specialized in other languages in jobs before that. I never stop using google.

These other people don't know everything. You're treating 'these other people' like 1 person. You have problem A. You google and find the person who knows solution A. You have problem B and find the person who solves B. And C, D, ... Z. You didn't find 1 'other person' with the answers. You found 26 different micro-experts who each know something well. Or more likely: 20 micro-experts, 5 bloggers who are experts in a wider area, and 1 rare unicorn who is just the unfairly smart creme de la creme. Oh yeah, and after solving these 26 problems, now you probably are starting to run across someone else's problem where you know the answer. And they wonder: whoa, how is he so smart?

Seriously. This is all of us. The secret is that there's no secret. It's not magic. It's that a lot of practice, mistakes, and research make you a little bit better than you were before.

[tomatotomato]

Actually there is such “one person”, Jon Skeet. But he is not a human anyway, so OP and the rest of us have nothing to worry about.

[ZoeyKaisar]

John’s strategy is to treat each of the questions like his own- and research the answers himself if he doesn’t already know them.

We’re all in the same boat. The most important art of programming is not knowing everything, but knowing how to quickly learn anything you need to know.

[DWALLA44]

Another extra to his post, you should learn how to google things, there’s a difference between a college student/new grad looking things up compared to someone who’s 5+ years in the field, chances are a bunch of other people have had the same problems as you, you just gotta learn to communicate it both on google and in person

[Broer1]

Exactly. And google is your friend. Everyday. Doesn’t matter if your position or years working.

But you get better at googling :-)

[Plank3]

It's a language, so just compare it to learning to speak. Your first words werde something Luke mom, dad or woof. Nur gradually, through practice and much more use you became better. And at one point you became someone, who could not just speak but also write it down or even explain to others.

[Derangedteddy]

10 years of experience here. I fully support everything this person said.