
ASK HN: How do you retain the knowledge picked up? - joestu
Hi,<p>I&#x27;m aged 40+ years(18+ years of software development experience). I am passionate about technology and keep reading blogs, articles, yc,... but the problem is that I forget what I pick up in two days. It gives a impression that I&#x27;m kinda dull. Not sure what is causing it.<p>I need help. Please share your thoughts and suggestions on how I can retain more knowledge?<p>Thanks in Advance.
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digikata
Take some form of notes. If something is interesting note it. I use pinboard
and tag the link with relevant topics so I can get back to it later. Whatever
note system you want to use, make sure its searchable. If it's interesting
enough, apply it in some form, a mini-program, a essay to your self on why it
might be interesting, or some of the other suggestions here.

Finally, if this trouble is new or slowly growing, talk to your doctor...

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BjoernKW
By applying that knowledge and by teaching it to others.

There's truth in the saying that if you want to become an expert at something
you should teach it to someone else. As an experienced software developer
there are lots of ways to do this:

\- Coach your clients / colleagues.

\- Offer professional training and workshops. Training developers in new
technologies, techniques and frameworks is a lucrative business.

\- Offer non-profit programming classes for children / students.

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NameNickHN
The question is why would you want to clutter your brain with all those
details. If you need an information that you've read about in the past, you
already have a head start and know there was something written about that and
where to find it. And if you don't need those information in the future, what
does it matter that you've forgotten it.

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csnewb
When I'm learning something new I try to take notes by hand or type them up.
Every few days I'll rewrite what I learned from memory, as much as I can
remember. Then I'll compare my current notes to my previous notes and fill in
the gaps that I skipped. I repeat the process every few days until the
information is ingrained in my memory.

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marenkay
Use it frequently. Memory patterns form by applying knowledge. Help some open
source projects using the topics you learned. Nothing magic.

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SirLJ
You have to use it to retain it, imho... and don't be too hard on yourself, if
you don't remember it, maybe it was not worth the brain cells...

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arnauldkayonga1
i think the best memory yet is understanding and visualization. The human
brain is really good at visual tasks and if you have noticed understanding
really goes hand in hand with visualization.

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wayn3
you acquire long lasting knowledge by doing.

reading only gets you so far.

if you want to retain read knowledge, take notes. what you write down is what
you will remember.

