After 1.5 years as a developer working on various frontend and backend projects—from freelancing in frontend to now diving into a NestJS project with enterprise components like Kafka and Redis—I find myself struggling to recall what I've coded in the past. While I can read and understand existing code and concepts, I doubt my ability to write it from scratch without some form of AI assistance. I'm curious about how senior developers manage to remember these details and how they cope with feelings of inadequacy when faced with complex codebases. Is it normal to forget syntax and boilerplate once you switch projects?
5 Answers
The key is to document your process and decisions as you code. Write comments about what blocks do, and keep a work journal if needed. Trust me, years down the road, you'll thank your past self for those breadcrumbs!
Right? I sometimes find myself asking, 'What was I thinking here?' only to find I didn’t add any notes at all!
Before AI, most of us just relied on reading documentation. If you hit a wall with an API function, you'd dig through the docs to figure it out. And hey, if the docs didn't help, Stack Overflow was always there—even if you sometimes got dinged for asking duplicates!
Seriously, what’s this "reading" you speak of?
It’s wild how much time you save by just getting used to looking things up on your own.
Honestly, no one remembers syntax perfectly. What you learn are patterns. I know what a controller in NestJS should handle and the flow of validation, but if you asked me to write one from scratch right now without checking the docs, I’d struggle! The trick is knowing what to prioritize and dig into when you're coding.
This is the truth! I often recycle code from past projects and tweak it for new ones; why reinvent the wheel?
First off, don’t be too hard on yourself! 1.5 years is still a short time with so many different stacks. Also, relying too heavily on AI can make it hard to grasp the deeper concepts. Struggle is part of learning—while you might get a quick overview using AI, you need those challenges to boost your understanding.
So, if I practice coding on my own and seek feedback, will that help?
I get what you're saying, but is it fine to not understand every line? I mean, as long as I get the project up and running with docs, right?
Don't stress about remembering every detail. After working on something enough times, you won't recall every little syntax, but you will remember how to approach the problem. Simplify your code so it makes sense without needing to memorize complex rules; that way, you'll have less to forget!
So it’s about structuring things well and using clear names and comments to navigate later?
Totally! And trying not to fret too much over it—all programmers forget things; that’s normal.
I used to think comments were just for others, but now I get how valuable they are for myself later on!