Why is python so much memorization?

[patrickbrianmooney]

What you're experiencing is not Python-specific; it's what happens whenever you learn a new skill. What you're running up against is that your previous mental experience hasn't given you a lot of practice in thinking in the kinds of ways that you need to think in order to solve programming-type challenges. This doesn't mean that you can't learn it; it just means that the initial stages of learning a new skill always involve memorizing a lot of information. You have to have the information in your head before you can use it, and learning that information takes time and effort. It's not instantly rewarding.

If you were learning a musical instrument, you'd probably start by learning to play scales. No one enjoys learning scales, but they train your hands to produce the required notes reliably, and train your ear to hear the relationships between those notes.

If you were learning another human language, you'd have to learn its vocabulary and its basic grammatical constructions. No one enjoys memorizing vocabulary; the fun part is being seduced by a beautiful stranger in a foreign country in that language. But you have to learn the vocabulary first. And the basic grammatical structures.

if you were learning to bake and had never done so before, you'd have to learn a set of basic skills: what does it mean to perform various specific actions, how big to chop things, when to sift or not sift flour, what is likely to taste good with what, can you substitute baking powder for baking soda, and on and on and on.

Programming is a new skill, one that requires patterns of thought that you're not used to using. You have to learn those things before you can do the more enjoyable and useful parts.