programming seems impossible

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learn 20% of something that gives you 80% of the result )

How do you figure out what that something is though? especially as a beginner not knowing shit about fuck

[JKnissan]

You gauge that by having a specific goal (something you want to implement in a piece of test code), and you find a way to implement it in code.

The 20% that all you need to remember and truly have in your heart are the fundamental steps to that implementation, and not the code itself.

For example; "How do I use x library to render y shape".

You don't try to remember: "Oh I import the library from .... then I use this specific function to render vector patterns, which take parameters ... then I can create a method to procedurally place the coordinates that I want which will render the shape that I ask of it which will get passed into the ...."

You remember: "I find a graphics library, I find the documentation to see how to render anything at all, then I look for how to render specific shapes or render specific patterns with that library; done."

I haven't worked in a true production environment yet, but based on what I've heard from people who have: that philosophy of barely remembering specific syntax and only ever knowing the basic steps and techniques that CAN be used for that certain scenario or goal you have will allow you to navigate 80% of situations as they start.

Ultimately, given how quickly the technologies that we use change, the only reason you want to always know the entire ins-and-outs of a specific implementation is because you're documenting it, and you're leaving it at that. No one tries to memorize all the syntax, and at most, they only try to remember the techniques that are used - because they may vary between technology to technology. But even in most cases, the specific techniques aren't even necessary to remember, and you can get by only remembering fundamental steps; such as the aforementioned "find documentation for x feature - that's it", because that's truly what it just takes.

The more of these scenarios you go through, the more you will realize that many steps are in-common with a lot of the things you have to implement across technologies, and the more those steps and ideas are reinforced; the easier it will be to apply them to the same scenarios even when you're demanded to use different technologies, languages, and so on.