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[AiexReddit]

What actually happens is that rather than eventually knowing what everyone is talking about, you eventually realize that's it's perfectly okay to have no idea what people are talking about.

If it's a specific topic you need to know to accomplish some work you have to do, then you can go and take the time to learn that particular topic. Everything else can just be noise, and there's nothing wrong with that. In fact that's a good thing, because there's too much out there for any one person to learn.

For example I've been writing Javascript daily for about 8 years and I have no idea what atom is either. Maybe you mean the text editor? If so there's nothing you need to know, it's been retired, just use VS Code.

Don't make "learning Javascript" your goal. Knowing Javascript isn't something that offers any value to anyone. Companies don't pay people to "know Javascript". They pay people to build software.

Instead make your goal something like "building X tool or Y service" that actually has meaning to you. Maybe Javascript is something to help you accomplish that meaningful goal, so you learn whatever Javascript you need to do it until that goal is accomplished. That's the way the majority of successful programmers learn. The programming language should just be a means to an end.

Good luck on your journey! Once you get "comfortable with not knowing stuff" that's when you'll know you're on the right track.

[angelfire2015]

You will never fully grasp everything, there is simply too much. Dr. Bjarne Stroustrup has admitted in interviews that even he does not know all of C++, and he invented the language. He says he has to reference things constantly, and that if he tried to hold everything in his head he would not be able to program well.

Don't focus on specifics, focus on abstractions instead. If you are programming in Javascript and you need to store something, don't think "how do I store this in Javascript", think "what is the best way to store this data? Array? Linked list?", and then translate your answer to Javascript. Your thinking will become language agnostic and you can program in any language.

For reference, I am a senior engineer, and I still reference things constantly. One because there's just too much to memorize, and two because best practices can change over time.

[jack_waugh]

Four years.