[mattlondon]

I have in the past I have been in similar situations "Hmm I don't really know how this works but everyone else seems to know it". Stuff that keeps coming up at work with that nagging feeling of not knowing what is going on, but I should etc.

I've taken a deliberate approach to try to learn "bite sized" bits and then write it up like I am writing a blog-post or a training page or something with a bunch of "copy-pasteable" examples. Even if I am not going to show it to anyone else, I at least have my own reference material I can quickly jump back to to refresh my memory. Try to use something accessible from work/home/mobile etc - perhaps github or a personal wiki or something. I have a few nicely structured and interlinked things now that I like to refer back to from time to time when I forget the details of stuff I've had to go learn.

I think this is the "if you cant explain it simply, then you don't understand it" quote thing coming true. You need to learn it well enough to write it up. And then the process of writing up helps cement it in memory. And even if you forget, you have your own notes you can quickly flip up and re-read to remind yourself.

So e.g. you could start small with "basic OO concepts" write-up with a bunch of examples. For example I recently did this for HTTP CORS request and JavaScript modules. Now you've learnt it enough to write it down, and written your own personal learning material (that I find is way better than other people's since it is yours and your brain seems to prefer that IME) that you can go back and look at over and over.

The coolest bit I like about this approach is every time you come across the stuff you've gone out of your way to learn and write up when doing your job, you get a small little dopamine hit: "I know this. I've got this written down."