It's possible, too, that a distinction needs to be made between "thoroughly learning" and "familiarizing". Or something like that? I'm not sure we have good words for this in English.
But yeah, sometimes I just need a quick overview of something, and it's perfectly fine (maybe even good) if I forget 90% of the details. I feel like this actually describes a lot of learning later in one's tech career. It's hard to predict what knowledge is worth retaining in a vacuum. Fumbling with it at work, though, is a great signal.
For fundamental skills, though? I'm kind of surprised how little "instinct" for programming undergraduates and recent graduates that I mentor have nowadays. I'm part of the last generation to go through CS programs at a time when programming assignments were often done on pencil and paper. For some classes the development tools we used were only available in a computer lab, and a decent proportion of students didn't even own their own computers. It was decidedly Not Fun, but those of us who went through it seem to have an easier time mentally "compiling and running" code as they read it.
But yeah, sometimes I just need a quick overview of something, and it's perfectly fine (maybe even good) if I forget 90% of the details. I feel like this actually describes a lot of learning later in one's tech career. It's hard to predict what knowledge is worth retaining in a vacuum. Fumbling with it at work, though, is a great signal.
For fundamental skills, though? I'm kind of surprised how little "instinct" for programming undergraduates and recent graduates that I mentor have nowadays. I'm part of the last generation to go through CS programs at a time when programming assignments were often done on pencil and paper. For some classes the development tools we used were only available in a computer lab, and a decent proportion of students didn't even own their own computers. It was decidedly Not Fun, but those of us who went through it seem to have an easier time mentally "compiling and running" code as they read it.