At first glance, this may seem like a daunting task. And many aspiring developers have given up on their learning journey because it seems like an insurmountable challenge.
Before I go into the memorization system I have used over the years, it's important to say that repetition is the key to memorizing large amounts of information. None of the techniques I will give you are going to help if you don't take the time to work through them consistently.
With that being said, it's important to know that, by itself, repetition is a slow and naive memory training technique. As a development student, imagine that I had a list of a few hundred method names and tell you to memorize them. If you were to simply stare at the sheet of paper and try to memorize the names, how do you think you'd do? If you're like me and the majority of the world, probably not very well.
In the first memory technique, we're going to walk through visual mental mapping. Our minds are incredible at memorization. However, at the same time, our minds are also picky with how they store information. Let's run a quick test. If I show you 15 random digits, such as:
However, what if I showed you the pictures of 15 celebrities? Now if I give you the same test as with the numbers, do you think you'd do a better job remembering the list of celebrities or the random numbers? Assuming you know who the celebrities are, you'd be able to repeat back a significantly larger number of celebrities than numbers.
With this knowledge in mind we can apply the same principles for memorizing anything.
Because our brains are efficient machines they naturally sort information based on priority. You are most likely aware that you have short-term and long-term memory. This concept is the reason why you can instantly remember your second-grade teacher's name decades later, but may forget a new acquaintance's name 30 seconds after hearing it.
So, when it comes to implementing the visual mental mapping technique, we're essentially tricking our brain into thinking that it needs to move a piece of information into long-term memory. In this process, we associate a visual image with the term that we want to memorize. A key prerequisite for this to work is that the visualization needs to be relevant to the term (or the behavior of the term).
So, in this example I have an image filled with decorations. And on top of the image, I have some text that is underlined. And it's sitting on the decorated fireplace mantle. By creating this visual image, I've mapped:
Sticking with our celebrity theme. Imagine that you wanted to go to a private, VIP party in Hollywood. If you just try to show up the bouncer at the door most likely won't let you in. However, if you're friends with Brad Pitt and you walk in together, you won't have any issues attending the party.
As you drive down the street to work your brain captures millions of data points, such as street signs and people walking, etc. If your brain didn't guard against useless information entering your long-term memory bank, all of this information would be treated with the same priority as your parent's names. Obviously, this wouldn't be a good idea!
So visual mental mapping seems like a great idea. However, the idea of creating thousands of visualizations isn't very practical, which is why, when I'm learning a new programming language, I also focus on picking up on patterns.
borderborder-bottomborder-bottom-colorborder-bottom-styleborder-bottom-widthborder-colorborder-leftborder-left-colorborder-left-styleborder-left-widthborder-radiusborder-rightborder-right-colorborder-right-styleborder-right-widthborder-styleborder-topborder-top-colorborder-top-styleborder-top-widthborder-width
Additionally, you may also notice that each side also has a set of options for color, style, and width. So practically, if you know that these elements are all available to the border set of elements, this list can be shrunk down to 5 items:
On a final note, I want to dispel a common fallacy. As a developer, you don't have to memorize every class and method to build a project.