[bitshiftfaced]

Nah, there's such a thing as creative thinking, idea generation, and connecting existing ideas in new ways. I wouldn't mind a coder that has to look at stack overflow a lot but is able to figure out a new method to do something better.

[frogeyedpeas]

You absolutely would never hire a coder that needs to google "how to access an array by index" every-time they need to access an index of an array.

You can say a politically correct answer like "i don't care how they do it, as long as they get it done" but such a coder will DEFINITELY take months to finish what might take someone else hours.

Such a coder might still be able to suggest new methods to do something better and if there job description was "organizational optimizer" perhaps thats fine but as soon as you also expect software output out of this person you will quickly realize that you take for granted how valuable someone that has fully memorized a bunch of fundamentals up to and including some problem strategies truly is.

[youerbt]

That makes no sense to me. If this coder has to access array by index twenty times a day, then he is going to remember it, eventually, no? If is it rare that he has to do it, then why memorize it?

You really think there is more value in remembering how to do something in some arbitrary, shitty, programming language than understanding the concept of doing it? With understanding the idea you can do it in any language, at any time, it is just a few seconds away.

[mrmetanoia]

It makes no sense because it indeed makes no sense. People who successfully solve realworld problems understand concepts and ideas and how to apply them, they understand how to iterate and extrapolate.

I've met too many people who can do a specific thing but actually have no idea what's going on for the GP's logic to hold any water at all.

[kiba]

It's not about the value in remembering syntax. It's the value in being able to recall a concept from memory.

Memory is a key part of learning. Understanding is great for learning new concepts, but you want to already know a concept. That way lies knowledge and experience.

[paulpauper]

agree. how else do famous unsolved math problems eventually get solved?

[math_dandy]

It varies, but it often comes down to deep expertise combined with creativity, years of toil, and standing on the shoulders of giants. Cf. Fermat’s Last Theorem, bounded gaps between primes, the Weil conjectures, the Poincaré conjecture, etc.

[brigadier132]

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