Stop Taking Programming Notes 

that's why making projects to learn a new language or concept is the best method to learn, in my opinion

"I was writing down, highlighting, and memorizing recipes. But, I just wasn't getting better at cooking. Then, everything changed once I started cooking!"

For fundamentals it's ok, but for learning a new language or framework... Active learning is what we need

I reduced my notes to a "What have I learned?" list that I keep handy with every project. It will sometimes contain fundamental concepts if I didn't know them already, and sometimes only items specific to that project.

honestly this is something I've been telling so many people for such a long time it's not about memorizing how something works, it's about understanding how it works, you just gotta "connect the dots" for your brain

This is a great tip I have a slight tweak tho, instead of copy-pasting, I type it down myself. You will probably notice something you didn't notice before if you type every character yourself

1 minute videos that give advice that can save you hours!! bigbox never disappoints!

In my opinion taking notes is good if you need to keep an eye of something important when you're doing a big project, like remembering how a part of someone's else code work. Or like creating a visual and more concrete graphic rf something, that you could not try to change in a big code project without doing damage to all the logic behind. But a the end of the day active code is one of the best option to understand how something works

I think it is still a good idea to take note. I take notes in order to revisit it at a latter date in case I forget something. But I mainly take notes to use as way to memorize things and realize what I still don't understand. My way of studying is as follow: - Watch a tutorial session, try to apply what you have just learnt into coding (just mess around with it until you understand). - Try to teach yourself again about the concept you have just learned. - Take a note, try to write it as simple as possible in your own understanding. - If you don't understand something, experiment with the code again, try to reach your own conclusions before watch the video again. - Rinse and repeat.

The notes I do take, I take with obsidian. Can screenshot and drag and drop charts in, can write sample code with double tab. Markdown support. It is 20x faster than hand writing/drawing stuff. Not to mention the link system to navigate is handy af. Free to use, would recommend. For pure learning though, yeah. Actually coding is the way. Can watch tutorials all day and still not grasp jack.

I agree and disagree at the same time. If notes are just for "memorizing" then yea, it's worthless. But I code AND take notes (or save some unedited scripts into a note) so I can use search. The same way people make videos, blogs or conference presentations, writing something down in a way that that you can explain easily to somebody - it can be very useful. It elevates how much you know because you have to dig deeper in order to be able to put the words down. For me this is "deliberate practice" feedback loop that drives learning and this way motivation is still high after so many years. I can track my progress and I don't have a problem that you mention about not knowing how to code

I would always take notes to never look at them again.

This one-minute video can transform how you learn drastically and in a fundamental way. A big thank you to you for this.

It's still vital to be able to know when and how to take notes as a SWE. When story-pointing or dissecting a ticket, it's use case-specific. What also works for one does not always work for another

Of course you need to apply what you've learnt so far but also you need to take notes for remembering them in the far or near future. There is nothing wrong with doing both of them which is superior imho.

I prefer having some sort of notes that contain code snippets, especially in my early days, where having the intuition written down step by step below a code snippet was reassuring to me so that I could visit it back and be sure that i could understand it with significantly less effort. Although I didn't refer to it extensively, it gave me the fearless attitude i needed to move ahead on to more advanced topics without worrying about refining my memory of its prerequisite concepts. I did default to code first before taking down the notes with the code snippet in it

It's useful to take notes to refresh on stuff you'll eventually forget and need to refresh on. Applying niche concepts without note taking is suboptimal.

I've never had this problem because I learned to create through creating.

Currently I’m learning python and I totally agree that you should test out code whenever you are learning a new concept but it is also nice to keep track of what you learn so you can look back to it. I would take little snippets of past code I’ve done so I don’t forget simple obvious things like how to set up a try… except function. Lol

Great tip for beginners. As a strong middle, I find notes very helpful for both work and personal stuff

To be fair, I think it depends where you are in your programming learning path. Early on, in AP CS and some of my undergrad CS courses, I would take copious (sometimes silly) notes on things like you mentioned-what X means in Y language or how it's used. This was mainly as a form of self-teaching by trying to internalize those concepts and understand them as someone who was only just beginning to study CS. Now that I've been working as a dev for ~4 years, I learn mostly by reading and coding/trial and error.

I just think of everything as a switch. A switch is on off, and everything is just a more complex version of that You basically are making switch boxes, where when you flip one switch, it shuts a series of others off and or on. Coding is just the interface for making that happen.

bro this short video really changed my mind im stressing myself about taking notes digitally or physically and i now i know what to do, great video straight to the point

Taking notes in my opinion is more taking care about future you than trying to somehow memorize things. When I want to remember how to correctly write http interceptor, I likely will use my brief explanation that I took from docs than try to scan enormous docs page. You can't remember all the things you've learned as some of them are not being used so often.

Taking notes is also an active process, IF you're making up the words yourself. Don't just copy definitions, reverse engineer and play with the concepts and write down your findings and how you got there. To me it really helps solidify my understanding of things, and since I write it down, even if I forgot, I can always check and redo the process to get to the same understanding. Yes you 100% need to default to code, but not writing it down is just asking to forget it in the future. Our memories are waaay too unreliable. But I only do this for concepts and finnicky stuff that doesn't make sense first glance, so maybe I'm missing the point of the video altogether.

personally i prefer taking notes, but my strategy is not copy pasting documentation i dont try to memorize them as well. for my note i write my own understanding, and my experimental codes, i learn smtn i try to grasp it, and i write my own version with my own words then i make examples, i tweak around the code, then i paste it to my note. That is the best way to learn for me

This is good advice for a beginner whose aim is to learn "coding". But after a certain experience level, coding turns into unskilled labour (something for ChatGPT to do), while design and algorithms become the difficult things to do well. Another thing I noticed is that when I was younger, I wanted to code everything from scratch. This is still true for some cases, but nowadays I mostly want to see if I can do do something that a big library, say library 'X', does by chaining together small open-source tools or libraries. My thought process is that "yes, I know I can code the whole thing myself, but I'm sure there exist lightweight tools that can help me with certain bits. Besides, my two-day hack would not be as feature-rich as the tool that someone took months or years to build. Why not use these small tools to get stuff done, and in the process recreate the functionality of library 'X'".

When learning taking notes doesn't really help, since you need to understand and learn how it works rather than just the theory of it. Though, when you are actually working on something and you encounter bugs, take notes, it'll help you if you encounter the same thing in the future.

This guy is what every programming content creator should look up to. No bs, no waste of time, no bluh bluh bluh, just straight up to the point.

Thank you so much! I made the same mistake and got frustrated and disappointed. I will definitely apply active learning.

I don't really understand the struggle people have, especially the so called "tutorial hell" or something. Am I the only person that can just watch a tutorial and be able to do it straight away? Not perfectly of course, but there is no "hell" or anything, it is just seemless *trivial* practice with no problems diving into code whatsoever. And that was pretty much since the very start for me. But I guess I got even better after time, since I can watch/read tutorials in full 2x speed about an entirely new concept or a language and then go do the same no problem. I only have the 2 keys(rules?): 1. If you watch something and think of a quick and dirty idea of something, why not go try it (usually not more than 10-30 minutes for me). I usually have a side project open that is fully new and creative, that needs this tutorial so I can make it work. I don't watch a tutorial just for the sake of "vaguely learning the language/technology for no tangible reason" but for the practical purpose of actually doing the side project I had an idea beforehand. 2. No need to be too specific/detailed about something. You are an engineer, not a scientist, so you need to be practical before all. If it works, it's good enough. "Building a strong foundation" ground up approach imo is just a *silly unrealistic ideal* some people have that sounds good on paper, but fails miserably in reality, because just doing something practically, without putting much thought into it, will give *much* better results for less time investment in practice (counter intuitive, right). You can always brush up the basics after acquiring the practical skills. It is the path of least resistance that will give the best results in my (and most people's) experience.

You need to do both! Try everything AND take notes. If you just try everything without notes, you forget those things.

I was torn on deciding on whether I should write notes or not, eventually didn't write any. I was not good at writing notes myself and relied on someone else's notes *documentation*. I used devdocs a lot and kept it on the side of my screen whenever I was doing anything programming related, it was probably the best decision in my life it taught me how to read through and grok documentations and yes even the bad ones, it definitely is a skill that I'm fortunate to have trained since the beginning. The mindset I had was "I can just google it" and you know what? It worked great! And also memorizing/understanding syntax/concept is just a side effect of applying and building things. Something to add is I do take notes whenever I build something but that's more on planning stuff but when I'm learning? Nope.

wow. I hate notes but was still doing it, maybe the cost to learn programming. But you showed me a better alternative which i already like. thanks mate

Sometime ago I felt compelled to take notes for everything new or interesting I learned, fearing that otherwise I would lose that knowledge after some time. Sometimes it's enough to rely solely on the textbook or the language reference.

sometimes you just need a youtuber with 100k+ subscribers to make it sink in

This is why our daddy ThePrimeagen always tells us to learn how to type fast

If you ever need to learn something, you need three things - a runtime/compiler able to handle the code - an editor able to handle the runtime - a debugger or REPL that interfaces with the executable/runtime Everything else is completely secondary to those three things. Don't take notes. Write code. Break whatever you were learning.

Personally i like to take notes on basic syntax and concepts to use as my own reference for later. Usually end up looking back on the notes once or twice before i dont need them anymore. Its also nice to write code on pen and paper for first few examples. But yeah definitely good to keep it to a minimum.

As a developer, you just need to know where things are when need be. That's it. I did the same in the past, and I would get frustrated if I didn't remember the things I'd learnt. It's always a good idea to read as much documentation as you possibly can, though.

For me it is about, writing notes, or references, to what is what, so that I can go back to it and look it up and try to use it again. More of a reminder than anything else. Basically active learning notes, not just passive copying tons of information that is out there. That way when I am coding, I go HEY I remember this was a thing what was it called? go back to my second brain and find the references, and there you go.

I like to take notes. Not notes on the theorethic shit that none uses, but after I am done with a coding session, I like to revise the new things i have implemented and write them down for me. This said, im a beginner but coding is fun!

me: currently taking programming notes for class youtube recommendations:

I love your concept. Actually it shouldn't has worked due to youtube's algo and monetization stuffa however it worked and the channel is growing day by day. ❤

recommend taking notes and practicing examples in an IDE so you can run the example code while taking notes by creating comments

I was watching other videos on note taking and some of them feel like just gimmicks and you managed to debunk them in 1 minute. I will take notes with my code editor open.

Thanks for the video. Saved me a bunch of time. Tons of notes already, thinking to myself, "theres no way I'm going to remember all of this lol".

absolutely True it just like learning blender courses but when you finish it you can't draw any human or other model you need to create it play with program and try to draw anything to know how blender work and start your journey thank you for tell this information for beginner it is absolutely useful for who want to start coding right now

Your channel is a gem man, thank you for these.

Remember, do whatever works best for you. When I was learning, I would often take many notes by hand and learn the skill by thinking about it really hard. I would participate in active learning during note review and note taking. The only time I used programming was for the specific programming language syntax and implementation. I agree with the premise of this video, and its a good suggestion for many, but remember that one size doesn't fit all when it comes to learning.

Appreciate your advise, BigBox :)

Amo esse cara!

Oh lord I thank you for showin me this video for changing my perspective, ur content is gold bro👌👌.

I would say DO write notes for OpenGL or whatever complex like that, if you have to write a lot of code to even see if thing works, do write down some abstract notes/bulletpoints.

I like this videos, short and straight to the point

I'm not sure if this is the same as taking notes, but practicing your technical writing is a soft skill that you need in the workforce

the last remark really strikes me.. the best way to learn and remeber what you learn is by getting your hands drity.

I’d tried taking notes in college at first since I was nervous asking my teacher to stop so could catch up typing along

thanks man, this is what i needed to hear today, keep it up the good content

Very useful suggestion! Also cure my anxiety for never finished some famous c++ book

I still remember having a notebook full of css property name and their definitions lol

Exactly. I took some notes while i was learning a programming language and today I look at them and say myself aggg,, i took these notes while i do these every single day now?!!

That's why I'm writing code in my anki cards. GOTTEM!

I love this man

came to a similar conclusion as you, but i still take notes, but it's stuff that I came up with after learning a concept or a great piece of code that someone else had written.

You got the best swe videos in the game! Thanks bro

Outstanding 🙌🏻🙌🏻🙌🏻

Only if you understand why. If you just "accept" what the code is in the tutorial or proompt from chadgpt then you are just memorizing and couple of days later that piece of information is gone in the wind.

Your vídeos are helping me a lot, thx brother

I was always an applied learner never a passive learner and ig this is very common among our generation ! A big part of our education system is smh based on passive learning techniques which is sad cuz bcoz of that many brilliant brains kinda distance themselves from the quality sorted stuff they could've gotten to learn only if the method of teaching was different. 😢

I love your videos, man.

love your content. thank you

My process nowadays is: Have docs open Have editor open Keep testing things from doc in a test project (a playground of sorts) Take concepts I've learned from experimenting and use them for my project now that I know how they work Not a one-size-fits-all, but for many projects this is how it goes for me. It's akin to taking notes but is a much more hands-on approach.

I tend to write notes when I say "Huh I didn't know you could do that with X". One example is you can "store" a simple conditional into a variable at least with JS. Ex:[ const canDrive= age >= 18 && license;]. Also I was gonna say It's important to write notes one example is React but honestly I try not to write A LOT because it's a lot of info and keep it brief so I don't get overloaded of words

A big ❤❤❤❤Thank Youuu❤❤❤❤ for making these videos!

i love you . short and concise

Programming notes are good(if you actually revisit them)

Thanks man. All That I Need.

Yep. That's the best way... With chatgpt by our side...👌

It makes sense to not make notes but instead document your journey when building something with the framework/language you're learning. Because the next time you read your code, it is most likely that you don't remember what it does.

I mean... you can do both. you can take notes of the things you discover when you experiment. And taking notes is a form of active learning if you write the notes with your own words instead of copy pasting exactly what you read

I'm doing both, first i take notes, then I immediately code.

This is really good. Thank you.

Was thinking of this while scrolling and found this vid 😂

Currently learning Flutter and this hits too close to home lmao

bro i just use chat gpt to make markdown notes for me so when i come back to python after a while of coding on c++ i can refresh my memory also obsidian md kinda nice

great video as always

*the problem* : i am a student who is learning 1 or 2 new languages each semester so yes when i am learning i understand and remember everything but when i looked back , i have forgotten basic syntax , wtf is this code , why did i do this ( i guess commenting would have helped but we were never told to comment i guess because we were just learning basic things but in my opinion writing why you did it would be very helpful for your future help and you dont have to relearn from scratch again

this is the way

It's suited for beginners, freshers...If you keep this up for long you will not get a good job or any job....as you will become a guy who knows bunch of languages and frameworks and not well experienced in any of them....Tech hoping is fun but it's dangerous....You can't keep exploring forever.....In the begining it's fun but if you don't settle down and be really good at something soon you will end up jobless.... Explore but not for too long...Get really good at something and expand in that domain...

Thank you, I wrote this down

The documentation are the only notes you need.

also the only reason notes are actually good for things like math is because that literally is how you actively practice those subjects. you just work equations

The thing is I already knew it and I think a lot of us here too

素晴らし

taking notes at the start can be helpful... but after about a month of trying to make things from scratch... you find you no longer need the notes, you just u look up an old project, then use a search engine to see if there's a better way

Anki is pretty incredible.

OH GOD!!! THANKS ❤

i just note some useful tips for some problem when learning programming or watching tutorials. Then when i face a problem, my brain was like, oh i have noted that or faced that before so that i can visit that note:D

he is big bo-