Another aspect of (human) memory. It's similar to computer memory in that, if you store something in computer memory, it'll stay there until you tell it to forget, but, if you forget which address you put it in, then the thing is essentially lost.
Meaning that its possible that we still know everything we once learned, but due to non-use, the key to retreiving the information from our memories disappears. The things we use daily (or at least often) are of course the ones we remember better.

So, I think it's possible to know everything about a programming language (provided it doesnt evolve faster than we learn :) - But impossible to be able to recall all that knowledge, the more complex and different programms you write, the more parts of the language you will be able to recall. Which means that the day-to-day tasks are a limit, in my opinion.

Having a community such as this one, and not only asking questions, but also reading and answering others, is very important, if you want to go beyond your own boundaries.
I find I *like* to learn, reading questions I have no clue about usually makes me go look up the answer, and try things out. So I learn about things that I otherwise wouldnt have come across, and benefit from the view of others on the subject at the same time.

C.

In reply to Re: On human memory management by castaway
in thread On human memory management by bronto

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