When I first started my self-learning journey I would try to memorize everything, from every HTML tag to every use case of every CSS property. Because of that, I felt like I was making no progress. Every time I would try to code something I could not think of the exact code off the top of my head and I thought:
- I am so stupid.
- This is not for me.
- Why can't this just stick?
Little did I know that my learning approach was completely wrong. It wasn’t until I completely shifted my learning approach that I started to make significant progress.
In this article, I will show you why memorizing is not the right approach in learning to code. I will also share some quick tips to help you shift your learning approach.
Google is your best friend
You do not need to memorize everything. Even the best software engineers still Google and copy and paste from stack overflow. If there were perfect engineers there wouldn't be software updates every few months. If you know how to Google properly and use the correct keywords to find what you are looking for you are set. Instead of memorizing focus on problem-solving skills practice by building projects and going on websites to practice algorithms and data structures.
Muscle memory
You can reference the muscle memory phenomenon and use it to help your learning process.
“Muscle memory is a form of procedural memory that involves consolidating a specific motor task into memory through repetition, which has been used synonymously with motor learning. When a movement is repeated over time, a long-term muscle memory is created for that task, eventually allowing it to be performed with little to no conscious effort.” -Wikipedia
The more you practice the more you will understand and you will begin to think like a programmer. You will know when to use a specific HTML tag or CSS property or even think of JavaScript functions a lot easier. You will be able to "dream of code" and understand how it works.
Programming is a completely different way of thinking. Most brains are not programmed to think this way. You have to teach your brain how to think like a programmer.
Quick Tips
When you are studying and writing out your notes make sure they are properly structured so that it is easy to go back to them. You will always have to revisit your notes. This is one of the reasons why I like having digital notes. I can easily search and find what I need.
Talk to yourself!
When you are coding talk to yourself and explain every step. Why are you using a specific CSS property or what is your function doing.
Especially when you are stuck on a bug this is the best time to learn. Talk to yourself through the problem. Go through every step.
There are a lot of different approaches you can take when learning to code. It all depends on your learning style and what works best for you. I hope this was helpful.
If you are even a bit intrigued and are interested in learning to code lets connect! I would love to help in any way I can.
Photo by Jesse Martini on Unsplash
Latest comments (47)
Interesting article to read in the "AI era"...
I never believed in cramming for once in my life, even in primary school. The best alternatives have been stated by you here. Awesome!
Good points. I took this course a while back and it helped me:
Learning how to learn
You can audit the course.
It sounds like a very good course. 👍Knowing how to learn is very important. Especially knowing your own learning style.
Great advice! I had to learn this on my own several years ago so you are saving people time!
Same here. I had to learn it the hard way. My goal is definitely to help someone out so they do not go through the sam struggle.
This one suggestion would have changed my college life! Hope it helps the newbies out there.
Yes. That is my goal. Hope it can help someone else :)
Great advise!
I think this is part of the difficulty with getting stuck in tutorials and with code schools. You get shown/told what to do, but a key skill to have as a developer is learning how to "figuring it out". I found it best to just learn that there IS an answer out there, and I just need to find the path back to it when I need it.
"You will always have to revisit your notes. This is one of the reasons why I like having digital notes."
Now I don't feel alone with me OneNote notes about some Docker commands 😂
Digital notes are great! I always reference mine 😊👍
Nice article. I had to learn the hard way by experiencing similar or even worse as I had to learn English at the same time. But with HTML it was similar. I tried to memorize or even write on a paper HTML tags by hand lol.
As time goes, you'll find your way of learning.
Love your post. I wonder if people get this idea from interview horror stories. Regardless, I encourage you to look up stuff and take notes just like you are doing. I love that you use notion I used to keep a little wiki locally but notion is much easier. The benefit of looking stuff up too is that you will develop your ability to filter out bs. Its an overlooked but important skill especially if you are looking for answers to 'hot' technologies everyone throws stuff out there but its not always high quality.
100% agree! Knowing how to use the correct keywords in your search is a skill 😊 we al need to constantly practice
Great post, this is actually the exact thing that's blocking me from moving on beyond basic HTML / CSS stuff. Thanks for the advice!
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