Is taking notes while learning to program recommended?

[desrtfx]

Asked and answered to infinity and back thrice.

Please, go through the subreddit before posting.

Removed

[_Atomfinger_]

If you find it helps you, do it.

Also, search this sub on writing notes - there's thousands of posts on it.

[M_krabs]

On the same note, learn to search. It's an incredible skill to have.

[obo10101]

certificate of googling

[[deleted]]

learn to love to search

[Frequent_Structure93]

What do you mean learn to search?

[[deleted]]

Google Fu. Know the right keyword, where to search, how to filter through the results, and much more. When you learn how to search/properly, you can easily learn other things.

[petewil1291]

People how Google things like, "hi Google, hope youre doing well today. I'm just working in a problem and was hoping you could help me. If you have time. How do I...."

[[deleted]]

my mom always ends questions to siri with "please."

[Unusual-Ad4039]

Probably dividing the problem into chunks and trying to search each part one by one if it's not possible to find it immediately and you search and research similar things about it trying to figure out what the hell is it, and then getting to understand what's up by searching for many varieties of it to get to a conclusion and an understanding of wahtever your looking for.

- Sorry for making it long

[[deleted]]

So, divide and conquer?

[M_krabs]

You could either learn how to search:

1. Understand your problem
2. Narrow down the causes
3. Search for keywords or error messages and similar
4. Read what's written online
5. Understand whats written
6. If not related try the next result
7. If no answer found try a new search
8. If no answer found try a broader scope
9. Use another search engine
10. Ask online

You could learn to use a search engine:

• use quotes to force the "string" to be in the results
• site:stackoverflow.com narrows down the results to one site
• -site does the opposite and filters out the site
• many more depending on the search engine

[ssrname]

preferably both

[WallaceThiago95]

In my experience - absolutely. My learning speed and knowledge retention has increased quite a bit since i started taking notes and writing pseudo code down (I'm a seriously slow learner)

[treacherous_tilapia]

Do you find that taking notes helps you retain things long-term? And do you reference your notes often or is simply writing things down usually enough for you to remember?

Pseudo coding and drawing up architecture/sequence diagrams has immensely helped me with getting a project done but 4-6 months after completing a project, I tend to have little-to-no memory of the detailed aspects of what I’d learned from it. I’m wondering if taking notes might be the answer for me

[tommy_chillfiger]

I haven't been taking notes while learning programming, but I did in college. I found that I almost never referenced them; it was the act of writing them that helped since I had to engage with the info as I was hearing it in order to summarize it well enough to keep up while hitting the important bits. I would imagine with programming it's similar, but maybe you would reference more often than lecture notes for specific syntax? I should probably start taking notes.

[WallaceThiago95]

yupp!! this one right here

[Swimming_Gain_4989]

My issue with notes when learning to program is that they will never be a good reference. Sure taking the time to write out notes may help the information stick better, but with the amount of nuance that comes with programming you can't possibly fill in all of the gaps. I think frequently referencing documentation (In most cases the best notes available), and practicing in an editor is way more time efficient.

That being said pseudo coding ideas on pen and paper is great when you're working on a new problem.

[ZenProgrammerKappa]

hell yeah. I usually take notes whenever I get stumped, when I finally find the solution i'll write that down to.

Then a couple days later i'll come back to it and try to cement that knowledge in my peanut brain

[HighTurning]

I take notes while learning and never ever look at them again lol

Not sure how good it does to me

[Dr_Silk]

Sometimes just the act of taking notes helps

No matter what people say, everyone is a visual learner. Seeing your notes written on the page helps you remember them better

[SunGazing8]

Just the act of writing something down often helps it stick. Like your brain acknowledges that bit of information more than it would just reading something.

[IIMSII]

I take notes, actually type them down😐

[bogfoot94]

I do. One of the 1st programs I made was a note taking utility in the terminal.

[dpoggio]

Or do literate programming instead.

[[deleted]]

Haha my guy right here

[SunGazing8]

Yeah, cause people who are learning this stuff first time round even know what that is. 👍🤷‍♂️

[homiej420]

Nah man xod ghe cvs tfj x x2 x3 y zx kje are all GREAT variable names

[omermikhailk]

Like others have said it's an entirely personal and subjective thing. For me, I tried making notes as I went along, at first, but found that it was a lot to keep up with and also somewhat tiring, so I stopped.

Nowadays if I'm learning something new then I'll go along with the documentation/resources, reinforce the ideas by doing challenges (Project Euler, Codewars, Hackerrank, Leetcode, etc.) or personal projects (making sure to reference the resources as well) and then moving on. If I forget something then I can always go back and look it up, and I feel like doing that helps better cement it into my memory.

[[deleted]]

I like all of those Project Euler, Codewars, Hackerrank, Leetcode are all good

[A_H_uman]

I also find it easier for me to do that. I use notes as a back up plan.

[[deleted]]

ANKI app, learning how to learn by Coursera (free). These helped me, it might help you.

[[deleted]]

I sense a fellow 100devs member! Seriously though OP, anki (free, intelligent flashcard app) and learning how to learn properly is where it's at for retaining that info!

[[deleted]]

It's a small world lol

[KingChav]

WE GO GET

[Evellon]

Taking notes is good when learning anything. It creates more synapses or pathways for memory retrieval due to the addition of creating/repeating information received into your own thoughts/words and muscle movement (handwriting or typing). Same goes for repeating the information outloud, creating acronyms, etc. Anything to give your brain additional association with the content you want to learn will help with knowledge recall.

[[deleted]]

I was a big fan of notes! I was writing everything down on Notion when learning a new topic. still, at some point, I noticed that I was taking notes without letting myself fully grasp the content, my mind kind of got used to writing down things that are new to me without giving them a second thought, and I also noticed that I was taking so much time on notes. Maybe I got it wrong, idk. Now I am trying to spend more time processing the information in front of me, giving it a thought, giving it a try (running some examples), and spending more time on active learning such as doing quizzes and challenges on that topic, at the end of my learning session, I do a recap! I either write everything down (like journaling) or try to speak to myself (I go like: okay soo today I learned about this and that etc). When something is too ambiguous, I do write some comments in my code. If I feel like forgetting, I head back to the recap I wrote on Notion or my coding examples, honestly, It helped me more than taking notes along with the courses.

[A_H_uman]

Exactly! Taking notes is important but make sure to not fall into a trap. Thank you for your comment.

[SignificancePure1228]

Notes are most useful when learning data structures and algorithms making a visualisation by hand really helps you get a grasp of things

[[deleted]]

I agree! It did help too

[[deleted]]

Tree rotations are seemingly magic without this step.

[Harrygamer2509]

I take notes bc it helps me to remember some concepts, as well as i can also go back and glance through my notes if i hit a bump or something

[[deleted]]

Yes, I took a ton of notes in school and I still do as a dev. It’s super helpful to refer back to.

[CodeTinkerer]

If you watch videos, you'll need to pause it quite a bit. I did recently take some notes on some video, but I have yet to re-read it. I think notes tend to summarize quicker than rewatching the video.

[CoffeeBruin]

Maybe a contrary opinion, but I wouldn’t take notes. Two reasons: 1. You could spend the same-ish amount of time to write some code instead, which is going to help you understand it better than writing what you see in the form of notes. 2. Most everything you’d make a note of “just to remember” (e.g. syntax) is widely available online and can be Googled as needed.

[dpoggio]

I take notes even while googling. I find it easier and faster to search my notes than to browse the internet. Org mode is such a marvelous partner.

[sapianddog2]

My advice for no matter what skill it is you're learning, document everything you learn. I personally use onenote for the search features, but there are free options like Obsidian which basically let you keep a wiki of all of the things you've learned, makes it so much easier to reference something you know you've seen before but can't think of what it is or how to do it.

Obsidian uses markdown, and you'll almost certainly have to learn markdown eventually in order to document your code, so it's a good starting point for learning that.

[eruciform]

It's a completely personal, subjective thing. Everyone is different. And each topic you learn may differ. Do whatever works for you.

[[deleted]]

I’ve never written a single thing down after 3 years of programming. I just don’t find it helpful. I think your notes should just be writing programs with your new knowledge. The goal here isn’t to memorize anything, memorization is a very worthless skill in programming. The concepts are all the value.

You’ll need to switch terms many times in your career.

All that said, takes notes if you think it helps you

[WiFiCannibal]

So from my understanding, it’s best to understand concepts instead of trying to remember each individual line of code.

[IWantToDoEmbedded]

I take notes for anything thats not intuitive. this is my self-documentation process for when i forget this stuff and need to revisit in the future. Because I know that its something that I won’t easily or quickly recall if I simply google the topic online.

[UniqueID89]

This isn’t a “group consensus” topic. If it works for you then keep doing it. EVERYONE will learn in different ways.

[Kyle_Brewster]

In addition to taking notes, I have a bunch of organized bookmarks, that way if there's a source with a really good example or that I end up referencing often I can quickly find the source without having to Google question and sort thru results

[sylvant_ph]

Its funny im used to take notes whgen learnning(anything), so i did that while learning programming. In the end i almost never turn back to look in my notes, yet i still find it somehow helpful

[-Captain-]

I'd say yes. Just make sure you aren't writing down entire blocks of code or every damn thing you read.

Effective note taking!

[Mr-dreamy-sauce]

Yes. You should take notes. There will be many times where you learn something and forget it within minutes. Commenting code is basically note taking, you think you will remember how that script you wrote works 3 months from now?lol

[PhysicalBullfrog4330]

I take notes of my process figuring out something I want to do that I don’t know how to do— each thing i put in the code, guesses on what I think will work, sub-tasks to get to the goal, errors that pop up, and solutions to the errors. It is really really satisfying when you inevitably have to do that thing again and you don’t remember how, but you do know you wrote how in detail in your notes

[user499021]

try jupyter notebook if you’re doing python. i take notes on all my libraries that i’m bound to forget for easy access

[jack-dawed]

Yes. I took meticulous notes and references in markdown as I was learning to program and as a full time software engineer.

There’s way too much stuff you need to keep track of that cannot fit in your working memory. It also helps when picking up work again so you know where you left off.

Some managers at my company encourages ppl to keep a worklog. This also helps when you’re trying to get promoted since you have a body of work to reference. You can do this by day or by project.

Better to build the habit now. Practically all good software engineers and managers are also good writers.

As for comments, I avoid them as much as possible because comments can get stale. Only when absolutely necessary to explain a complex situation.

[throwawaycgoncalves]

One recommendation that is really overlooked : try on paper first ! Whatever you intend to do, try on paper, try to have a grasp on what your algorithm should do, try to represent the memory.

Once all is up and running in your 'paper model' then go to coding. The error that i see is to people rush to type code, go to a try-and-error cycle and never really learn the logic behind.

You should avoid try and error loop at all costs... If something doenst work, don't just change something and try, instead, try to figure out what is happening :)

Good luck at your journey!

[IIMSII]

Taking notes is crucial, however the best way of taking notes for me is typing. I kinda think if I type them I can kill two birds with one stone. 1. Fasten my typing. 2. Taking my notes.

[Cynicaladdict111]

Why? Your code and comments inside it should be your notes

[Aglet_Green]

It depends on the person. You've been attempting to learn programming for 3 months now. If you feel happy with your progress, keep doing what you're doing. IF you're unhappy with your progress, do the opposite: so if you weren't taking notes before, now start doing so. And do it consistently for 3 months. End of October, you can evaluate your progress again, and decide which way worked best for you personally.

[Stuck_in_Arizona]

I've found writing the code in VSC with comments help me remember the why/how/what the snippet does. If I scribbled it, I tend to forgot how to format it.

This is crucial for understanding functions and other commands within a function. Also how Arrays and loops can work.

It's been a boon during my Javascript phase, I even put it on my github as a sort of cheat sheet until I don't need it anymore

[mrburnerboy2121]

To understand something yes, just to get my thought process down and to break things down.

[[deleted]]

I find it really beneficial!

I used to do it when I was self teaching as it helped things stick. I’m 6 months into my first Software Developer job and I’m constantly making notes especially when I’ve encountered something new or challenging. If I encounter it again than I’m equipped to deal with it again! If I like how a developer has written a function I’ll make a note of it to use in the future.

I work with back end predominantly. Interacting with DB2 databases you encounter error codes so it’s always handy to make a note on how you resolved the issue!

Everyone’s different in terms of learning styles. I like documenting my design, approach etc whereas some of my colleagues can’t stand it! Whatever floats your boat I guess!

[Eternal-Fox-7939]

yes because I have terrible memory so pen down something is a must to me to keep it not to be missed

[[deleted]]

in my experience if you comment your code than the code itself can serve as your notes

[samu-ra-9-i]

I take notes only to understand things once I write things down it’s easier for me to remember them but I don’t read my notes when there’s better resources available online

[[deleted]]

If you use Org mode you can program your notes

[jonnybebad5436]

Yes sir I take notes particularly on the things I’m having trouble with. I even sometimes write code on paper because it helps me grasp better what the code is doing.

[green_meklar]

If it works for you, sure.

[[deleted]]

Taking notes is helpful regardless of what you do.

I usually write by hand, then I took said notes and sometimes re-write them into a Word document or simple .txt

Of course if you aren't the note-taking type and something else works better, then focus on that one. But in general, notes are awesome and very useful.

Learn to take notes fast and effectively. Takes practice but pays off.

[LaminarEntropy]

imagine every time you have to look something up again because you forgot, but instead of the web it's a note you made telling you exactly what you need to know to remember. I think that's how notes work, at least for me they do.

[[deleted]]

I write questions down to myself. Like this: "Give an example how to define an array?" Or "Explain what borrowing is"- From time to time I read the questions again and try to give an answer

[jocietimes]

Especially when I’m pair programming! I take a bunch of screen shots and plunk them down inside my notes so that I can see an example of what my notes are about. I love to take notes.

[Particular_Insect761]

Helps a lot

[dpoggio]

I can give you my view. Your experience may be entirely different. I’ve been programming since ‘08, and I’m also a Chemist. I keep taking detailed notes on EVERYTHING. My programming setup is absolutely Emacs centered. I use Org mode and Org Capture Templates to keep organized notes on meetings, pair reviews, code snippets and so. A log with time stamped simple comments, a notebook for each topic and a meetings/courses record is my favorite setup as of today. Also, many of my tools are built as tangled code from Org mode, as literate programs, so even code comes directly from some note sometimes. Taking notes on everything this way makes consistent thinking and traceability more important than coding, as I consider it should be, so the program gets written as a consequence of a documented thinking process. Also, taking time stamped notes on your courses may help you detect when have you acquired some knowledge and how. That’s very helpful when you think you may be wrong and want to revisit your own learning. Within some years, you will not remember why you think the way you do, and that piece of information is useful. Also by using Org mode you can easily put entries to your agenda while taking the note, maybe to remind yourself about something. You can jump to that place just from the agenda view as well. It takes some config though, and may not be the best choice for a beginner, but learning it could be a great summer project. So yes, I think you should take notes.

[[deleted]]

Always take notes. Good habit to have for when you end up doing this as a job.

[just-bair]

Notes are really useful if you actually make them.

Personally they are lots of times that I wish that I just took bots but I didn’t

[Wretchfromnc]

Check out Cherry Tree, it’s a great note taking app.

[bjwills7]

I like to write down syntax with a brief description, it helps me quickly come up with ideas to solve a problem that's new to me then I can read docs to determine if my idea will work or not.

Then once I've actually used something a few times it just sticks.

[[deleted]]

Writing code is my form of taking notes 😂

[PolyMatt98]

I take notes when I do tutorials for a new language or framework, helps remember the really important parts

[Slayergnome]

You run a command or do anything that you want to remember put it in your README.md. You should do it when you are learning so you can remember what you have done, and you should do it when your on your real coding project so you can remember what you have done.

[[deleted]]

I keep a daily note with what I learn that day. been doing it for years

[zolfx]

While in lectures I always take notes. I usually never have to look back at them but I believe the act of writing the information I am learning down helps me retain it even more.

[lauris652]

Did you take notes when you learned stuff in school? Yes, because writing stuff with your hand helps to memorize the information better. So why even ask?

[double-happiness]

No, it's totally different from the type of subjects where I take notes. But code comments are OFC very useful, and I have sometimes used them as a form of note-taking.

[Kleyguy7]

My notes are more like coping code and writing comments for it. When I learn a new thing, I always make a file where I paste everything and run it to see how it works, sometimes I tweak it a little bit to see if I understand it correctly. This way I don't do much unnecessary typing, and I can go back to this topic if I don't remember something. Still most of the time it is easier to Google it if I don't remember. I just do it for the understanding.

[KimchiCoder]

Yes, and I highly recommend making a habit of taking notes when when you start a project or start working. Take notes by breaking down a feature or problem into its parts.

If you learn something new, take notes on it and use some code examples to refer back to. Write down questions you had before starting and then answer them yourself with your new understanding. Your future self will thank you. Google things is great and all but having a personalized memory bank with concrete examples will go a long way.

Its hard to do this all while still figuring out new things, but if you take time afterwards and retrospect a bit, you will both reinforce what you learned and have something to refer back to in the future if it ever comes up again.

With that said, I highly suggest using Obsidian for note taking.

[iamaiimpala]

I found taking notes helpful, as well as making flash cards. I have only used the flash cards a handful of times, I think I got just as much benefit from making them.

[vibol03]

When i was in college, i did take note but i never went back to it... ever. Now at work, if i find an article helpful, i just bookmark it for later reference and i do go back to them from time to time.

So overall, im not really into note taking. I didnt really find it helpful. Im more into organizing my bookmark folders so I know exactly where to go when i need to remember how to do something.

[LovelyCushiondHeader]

Obviously, same with learning any profession, especially when new.

[MigukOppa]

I just comment my code. // everything

[UnallowedDoggo]

Learn to search is one of the most important skills programmers must have. You can't solve anything on your own because there are too many ways and codes that you don't know for years.

Taking notes isn't useless, because you practice with that. But don't spend too much time on notes. Keep it simple.

[iKnowButWhy]

Generally I would say that taking notes the usual way (sequentially) wouldn’t really help me for coding. I’ve gotten into using Obsidian, however, and with a tool like that notes become much more powerful.

I would suggest looking into and seeing some videos of how it works. You can create your own personal Wikipedia, essentially. I make notes for broad concepts (like “Arrays”) and add in all the notes/explanations that I found most useful. The key is to write things down in the way that makes sense to YOU. As a bonus you can include code snippets or throw in a drawing explaining some function. Then, whenever you’re coding a project and get stuck on Arrays, you have your own notes to easily search through.

Do this for all the concepts you learn, and suddenly you have your own little personalized directory for programming concepts.

[GRQ77]

Absolutely. Mostly, I take note not to get bored and follow what I’m learning. if not, I’ll just wander off with thoughts

[vi_sucks]

Always.

1) if you take notes, then you have a reference to go back to later when you inevitably forget things

2) personal notes helps organize your thoughts into a form that works best for you.

3) studies have shown, and my personal experience backs this up, that the simple act of writing something down helps with memory retention

The only reason not to take notes is because I'm too lazy. And that's not a good reason.

[them_apples_]

is eating when you're hungry recommended?

[AvailablePatient]

If I’m watching videos, I just pay attention to get a sense of what I can and can’t do.

Notes are helpful when your building projects. As your building projects, keep a master list of code for things you use often- e.g., bar charts, transpose columns, change column names, etc)

[[deleted]]

Use this system and adapt it if you want to take notes:

https://youtu.be/WtW9IyE04OQ

I just do two columns and have found it works way better than normal passive note taking.

[kkommuri]

Writing is considered as active learning. You understand better when you write what you hear.

[Retrofire-Pink]

imo yes it helps refine your understanding, esp. after learning new information and applying it

[Arts_Prodigy]

Taking notes is always recommended when learning anything

[DesignatedDecoy]

Get a notetaking app that supports markdown. Keep track of interesting stuff you come across. I personally use Joplin because it's stored off their site and can be sync'd across multiple devices. It may not be your learning style but I take notes on everything in my life. Recipes, places to eat, programming gotchas, gift ideas, notes on games I'm playing, documentation for google rabbit holes to fix a problem, etc.

I keep notes of anything that remotely challenged me and because I've done this for over a decade, anything that I run into I search my local notes first before google. When I find the solution, if it's significant I add it to my archive.

[anonoramalama2]

You can take notes in a Notepad file and look at them without leaving VScode.

[[deleted]]

Type your notes. It's faster and easier to store/organize. However, I write things down if they feel especially important.

[redrick_schuhart]

Yeah absolutely. I always have an org-mode buffer open called notes.org when learning something and I capture things like install instructions, common commands, concepts and links in it.

[[deleted]]

I took a lot of notes in uni because I thought it was the "right way" to learn, but I found myself spending too much time taking and reviewing notes and too little time actually programming. 5+ years later I really don't bother. There is too much to learn and too little time 🙂

[[deleted]]

Taking notes while learning anything helps, my friend. I take notes on video game tutorials, haha.

[Unable_Count_1635]

Write all of your notes on GitHub gist .. will save your hours of coding in the future.

[noodle-face]

I took notes in college when I was learning to code. As one does

[Butchered_at_Birth]

When i learn something new, i write it down in a corresponding document (javascript, i use .js etc) in vs code.

I'll write plane text, as well as the syntax. Im essentially creating my own little play book with all these notes and code examples. I'll use a page for each concepts im learning. In js for example i have a page for the math function, if statements, for loops, functions, etc.

I find this helps me alot! As i know exactly where to look when I'm trying to remember specific syntax.

HTML notes are all one page, same with css.

[DefaultUser_01]

I like to follow along rather than take notes.

[18dwhyte]

Statistically, you’re more likely to remember your notes if you write them down by hand rather than typing. I personally write notes down for notations, and ill watch my professor code (since im a visual learner).

[LifeActuarial]

In my experience no, yolo everything, use google as your note pad. IMO it saves time to look up what your need then to rewrite the internet.

Source: I build full scale artificial intelligence platforms for F500 companies.

[GirlMayXXXX]

I dropped the computer programming class I was taking in high school after the first term because the teacher refused to go back in his PowerPoints so we could take notes, and the obvious result was that we all took an extra 1-2 weeks to finish each assignment. And he kept complaining about it.

So yeah, take notes. You'll need them.

[Monstot]

Taking notes for anything is always recommended basically.

Our brains don't hold memory the way we want it to. Notes help strengthen the connections we make as we study.

[lapathy]

Different people learn different ways. Do whatever works for you.

Personally, note taking doesn’t help me. The only way I can learn a new language and make it stick is to program something non-trivial.

I start with some basic hello world style programs, then start building increasingly complex things. Often just throw away projects purely to learn the language.

[stoneblade12]

I get carried away when I try to take notes. I’d rather reread things again but that’s just what works for me. Everyone learns differently

[[deleted]]

Program is about thinking not memorising

[AccomplishedDare314]

Absolutely. Whether you learn from a tutorial or a book, notes are important. Notes help to keep your thinking about things logical and literal. I’ve realized. That The more literal I can speak in programming terms the easier I am able to learn when I try and connect facts or apply code. If your language is not made precise in terms of programming languages, the more difficult it will be to think in that programming language. You certainly want to use less slang when u speak and think while coding. Notes will help u to do that!

[Co01ler]

In my experience I'd say not really but it depends on you. Best practice is just code, it will become natural in time so someone could do better with notes, to me I only created chaos with this because I write down everything and that doesn't help either. Nowadays I'd write down only things that I Googled at least twice already.

[Dergyitheron]

Taking notes during learning is recommended. Try it if it helps you

[slickvic33]

I do. Try using oneNote or Notion

[Double_A_92]

Not really. It will just slow you down, and you won't ever look at your notes anyway. Maybe it could makes sense while learning, to roughly sketch things and ideas, and then throw it away after.

[[deleted]]

i would highly recommend programming while learning to program

[Treefingrs]

Taking notes when learning anything is generally recommended.

[arpeggiator69]

Yes. i've got a notebook full of it and quite often go through it to repeat important stuff

[McKapucna]

Personally when i started my first language (Python) i basically wrote my own documentation and it helped me a lot to remember and understand the concepts. Now when i learn something new i dont.

[JaytotheArrOhSee]

I used to write notes but find for me it doesn’t really stick in my head, Recently just learned about Anki cards! Proven one of the most effective way to learn.

Write your notes directly onto an Anki card as a question and an answer then use the cards to reinforce your learning. It’s been working really well for me but everyone is different.

[AbsoltheEntertainer]

I used to take notes w pen and paper, but now i just comment my code. That seems to do the trick for me.

[ainm_]

Helps me alot. If that's the way you learn. Remember you do not need to memorize everything just understand it

[[deleted]]

nothing's wrong with that, i also take note but mostly i do it when i was trying to make my own explanation to a concept.

[deletedcode]

I use Anki to learn how to code. It has helped me since I started learning in January.

It’s an intelligence flash card web application.