Ask HN: How to remember technical topics which you don’t use/refer everyday?
There are a ton of topics I learn/read on a daily basis. Some are out of my personal interest, some out of need (when interviewing).
I notice that after a while, without enough usage, these topics simply evaporate from my memory. I know the simple answer is to keep practicing.
I’m interested in knowing how different people do this. Looking for any tips, hacks, etc.
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[ 3.4 ms ] story [ 154 ms ] threadIt’s easy to add content to and supports code highlighting, images, files and all the nice things you’d see on wikipedia. And has a beautiful skin (template) with gorgeous typography that’s a joy to read.
I also use it for tech notes, among the other stuff.
I generally remember the difficult/weird parts that made initial learning slow, everything else I just re-learn as needed from the same sources that I used initially.
This may include downloading papers or buying textbooks or equipment to hack (when appropriate).
There ARE some topics I want to remember, and those I try to put in writing. Both because it helps them stick in my mind for longer and because then I have a reference to go back to if I need a refresher. I use my own blog quite a bit to remember ways to do things that I may have figured out earlier and then forgotten.
But in terms of keeping things completely in memory: I have grown to think that, for a healthy mind, the things worth remembering are the things we remember. It's _good_ to remember things you're regularly using. If you're not regularly using them, you may as well forget the details and refresh your memory later if needed. Of course the major caveat being that this is within reasonable limits and not a symptom of an illness or actual serious memory loss.
It is a balance, and losing my memory in general is one of my worst fears. I guess it is a matter of deciding if these topics are beginning to evaporate sooner than you're comfortable with. Do they disappear after a day? A week? A year? If I start forgetting knowledge too quickly for my standards, that's when I'll get worried. It's just a matter of deciding what "too quickly" is for us.
>Hyperthymesia, or highly superior autobiographical memory (HSAM), is a condition that leads people to be able to remember an abnormally large number of their life experiences in vivid detail.
>Hyperthymestic abilities can have a detrimental effect. The constant, irrepressible stream of memories has caused significant disruption to Price's life. She described her recollection as "non-stop, uncontrollable and totally exhausting" and as "a burden".[1] Price is prone to getting lost in remembering. This can make it difficult to attend to the present or future, as she is permanently living in the past. Others who have hyperthymesia do not display any of these traits, however.
Your brain is not wired to remember things that you don't use. If you want to continue remembering, you have to continue engaging with the topic, and a lot of the advice in this thread is IMO just that (just, with a specific regimen / kind of engagement). It's completely natural to forget.
In fact, I'd go further and suggest embracing the forgetting and relearning cycle. If you really need to revisit the topic, you can relearn it again, and it'll be faster than the first time. And maybe you'll forget another time -- that's OK too, you can pick it up again even faster. In the end it's the discipline of relearning (the particular topic, and in general!) that actually continuously hardens. IMO there are parallels between this mindset and SRS -- though without the shame when you forget or miss a day of practice.
Strange, but funny feeling.
[1] A Mind for Numbers (book): https://barbaraoakley.com/books/a-mind-for-numbers/
[2] Learning How To Learn (Coursera course): https://www.coursera.org/learn/learning-how-to-learn
[3] Make It Stick (book): https://www.retrievalpractice.org/make-it-stick
[4] Augmenting Long-Term Memory (blog post): http://augmentingcognition.com/ltm.html
[5] SuperMemo Guru (website): https://supermemo.guru/wiki/SuperMemo_Guru
[6] Nelson Dellis (YouTube): https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnINhoHWuVjUDXp7dav5e3A
I second the use of Anki--it's a great tool. Other (non-free) options include SuperMemo and IDoRecall.
Update: After reading the API section of this post, I found this very last part interesting in the context of OP's question[0]. I thought it may be worth highlighting to the OP that even a heavy user of a memory system recognizes that knowledge we don't regularly use may not be worth remembering.
[0]"A more challenging partial failure mode is Ankifying what turn into orphan APIs. That is, I'll use a new API for a project, and Ankify some material from the API. Then the project finishes, and I don't immediately have another project using the same API. I then find my mind won't engage so well with the cards – there's a half-conscious thought of “why am I learning this useless stuff?” I just no longer find the cards as interesting as when I was actively using the API.
This is a difficult situation. I use the rule of thumb that if it seems likely I'm not going to use the API again, I delete the cards when they come up. But if it seems likely I'll use the API in the next year or so, I keep them in the deck. It's not a perfect solution, since I really do slightly disconnect from the cards. But it's the best compromise I've found."
Paying attention to what knowledge I (or top performers) use most often in practical projects / everyday work has helped. I also try to identify fundamentals; i.e. chunks of knowledge that experts in a field have identified as critical to understanding that field.
This doesn't apply to everyone—if your goal is just the pursuit of knowledge then you can disregard this advice. For me though, the satisfaction and the cementing of knowledge comes from its application. Especially as I get older and realize the ephemeral and fleeting nature of body and mind, it just reinforces the need to be in the moment and cultivate focus on doing rather than optimizing against (or fighting!) my human limitations.
When you learn other things adjacent to the topic at hand, but related in some way, you’re less likely to forget things as you build more and more of a frame of reference around it.
But either way, the key to remembering things for a very long time is spaced repetition. First you need to test your recall after a short period, then after a longer period, etc.
Memorization skills isn’t something you’re inherently good or bad at, or are born with: it’s a skill you can absolutely learn!
Take notes. Use the Search feature when you need to dig information out.
You need to only retain information that can help you derive useful conclusions, and your mind is most likely smarter than you at that.
if a text file isn't good enough, or there needs to be an image embedded, I use other file types
And a Documents folder containing 'subject' article files. Documents/Programming/Languages/Rust ...
I personally use markdown files in the event I want to publish one of my notes. It also let's me inline images and see them if my editor supports previewing.
So forgetting is ok, as long as you remember that there was something extra the next time you meet the same problem.
Keep refreshing HN to keep up to date, but realize any engineer worth his salt can figure out new tech in a week or two. No need to be an expert.
Sometimes, the fate and knowledge of an engineer can be decided by PM ticket assignment. Side projects are good to keep you sharp, but don’t stress. Once you move to management or team lead, you’ll realize that a competent engineer will always deliver results.
It is highly unlikely I’ll end up in a situation without cell signal, I carry an iPhone, Kindle Paperwhite, and a cellular iPad Mini (256gb) literally everywhere. (Handbags are awesome.)
On the off chance, I’m away from the internet and my kindle doesn’t have a useful book, I have all of Wikipedia and Wikitonary downloaded in Kiwix on my iPad Mini, downloaded PDFs in Dropbox, and a bunch of books in the D&D Beyond app, and videos in Youtube, because why not.
Any thing I need to remember is in Apple Notes or Scrivener. (All my research for stories is in a project file.)
One thing to realize is that rapid technology deployment and improvements mean we must adapt our approach to learning and problem solving if we want to be effective.
With the internet and exponential increase in software development tools, the amount of information is massive. And of course, we now have Google and Stackoverflow etc. which are extremely effective ways to solve problems or very quickly refresh your memory on the exact details that are relevant.
If you operate as if those things haven't changed, then you will not be effective.