Don't Memorize What You Can Google!

This is something that might seem weird for beginners, yet is something that every beginner should know if they want to save their time and frustration.

What do I mean by "Don't Memorize What You Can Google"?
Simply: Memorize core concepts and functions that are essential for working with your programming language or framework, but don't memorize random functions, code snippets and concepts that you will rarely use! Instead, take advantage of external resources(forums, books, blogs) for those things when they are needed.

Don't memorize things that take 1 minute to find through google like:

Why This is Important for Beginners

I've seen beginner programmers memorize random things about a language or framework because they thought that memorizing more will make them more competent since they will be faster since they'd be able to code without using google often.

Yes you will code a bit faster, but this approach will backfire sooner or later. See, this approach might make you faster for a bit of time, but it will bring 3 major downsides in the long run:

1. The first downside is brain cluttering. Trying to clutter your brain with random info that is rarely used is as dumb as it sounds. Instead, you should memorize core concepts, functions and code snippets that you use often.
2. The second downside is a steeper learning curve. If the way you learn a new language or framework is by memorizing a ton of different, mostly irrelevant things, you will have a hard time every time you try to learn something new.
3. The last downside is frustration. You will likely get frustrated if you can't remember something and when this happens too much, you can turn your programming life into a living hell.

Instead, you should memorize only what is essential for working with your language or framework. For example, if you're working with PHP, you should memorize how to use "GET" and "POST". Or, if you're working with data science in Python, you should memorize how to load a dataset through pandas. You get the idea. Don't worry about the non-essentials.

In Conclusion

Your brain's "storage" is precious and limited. Don't fill it with random code snippets, functions and concepts.

See you next time