I used to think you had to memorize every single function to code

For the first three months, I tried to learn Python by just reading and trying to remember every command. My progress was maybe one small script a week. Then I watched a video from a teacher who said to just start building something and look things up as you go. I built a simple number guessing game in one afternoon by constantly checking the docs. It was messy, but it worked. Now I keep a browser tab open for reference and build way faster. Does anyone else code better when they stop trying to memorize everything?

3 comments

3 Comments

lee6272mo ago

My buddy did the same thing with JavaScript.

clark.kelly2mo ago

I mean, my Python work got way better once I stopped trying to memorize every list method. Half the time I just type the thing and let autocomplete remind me. It's not like I'm forgetting what a for loop is, but needing the exact syntax for .map() versus a comprehension? I just look it up. Feels like the flow comes from solving the problem, not reciting code from memory.

gonzalez.vera2mo ago

Memorizing core syntax is how you build speed though, right? Constantly looking up how to write a basic loop or define a function just kills your flow. Sure, you can google the edge cases, but shouldn't the main tools be automatic? My code got cleaner when I actually knew the methods instead of pasting from Stack Overflow every time.