Documentation also comes in many forms: In the terminal and in the browser

Documentation also comes in many forms: In the terminal and in the browser. I live in the terminal, so my first choice (by far) is to be able to view the reference on the command-line. If you are a Linux user, leverage the man pages. For most command-line interfaces, you can usually have --help or help to dump out the command documentation.

The easier the documentation is to consume…

…the less discomfort to finding the knowledge. If it’s hard to find the text that tells you how something works, it will be mentally and emotionally painful. Use (or create) documentation that is easy to digest.

Create your own documentation

Not everything can be found in --help, or man, or product docs. Some things are created by you, the individual programmer: Software that you write, issues that you troubleshoot, guides on how you set something up. Create your own documentation that is easy to consume.

A good example: I was developing an entirely different product in Azure 6 months ago. With every feature I developed I was documenting everything. Now 6 months later when somebody asks me about something, my memory is blank as if it was a different developer. But I look back in my notes, and I remember. My memory is in my notes.

Summary

A great engineer is not great because they remember things, they are great because they can figure things out. If it’s already been done, then it is through documentation and referencing they figure it out. Forget about your memory, get proficient at referencing.