I still have loose-leaf notebooks, written in using a number-two pencil, from projects I did many years ago. I still find it useful to keep that "captain's log." If you write down an issue or a question or a discovery as soon as it occurs to you, "now you have caught it." You can decide to pursue the white-rabbit down the rabbit hole now, or do it at some more-convenient time.

You get good at online research, and that includes discovering ... LQ! You know where to go and ask, and you learn how to ask a question effectively.

On teams that I have managed over these many years, I always introduced "the fifteen minute rule." If you're stuck on something for more than fifteen minutes, you're to go and ask a teammate. And, if you've decided to use online research to pursue an answer, you should tell someone else on the team what you're doing and why. The idea is to get the team working together, and talking to each other in real time about what each of them is doing. Many excellent programmers are not at all accustomed to doing this – and sometimes they waste a lot of time because of that, also frustrating themselves far more than they need be.

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Hi,

I also keep system logs and notes for changes to refer back to whenever I need refresh of my memory for all my equipment. Repetitive cli usage seems to keep on top and do not need recall. But my notes (spiral & 3-ring binders) have saved me many times whenever I need a refresh or back trace something that I have/had done. I still use my bash references from years ago. 'man command' is still used at times to help refresh.

System log habits are something everyone should do since as we get older then things tend to fade. If you don't use it, you will lose it!
Have fun & enjoy Gnu/Linux!

Going upstairs then forget what I look for ... things are tough for me.
At least I can remember the basic syntax of the 'find' command.

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My memory is quite terrible. I try to keep notes. Usually though the only thing I remember is how to use Google. I am trying to collect bookmarks in it but even that I forget to do when I find something.

I stopped to note when I realized I usually forget where I put these notes.

I once searched Google on how to set something up and found the answer on LQ. Turns out I had written it. I didn't have the faintest recollection.

I hate it, when i look into a bash script and I'm like... "how the F did i know this?". I'm getting angry about myself, when I see things i done but can't remember how I done them. When I need to lookup the same thing for multiple times, I'm memorizing them. If I don't use some commands for a longer period of time, I forget them. That's why I do little txt files and note down the things, so I can memorize them as good as possible but there are so many things, it's almost impossible to memorize everything. I agree, knowing where to look up things and to know how to use google is a valuable skill by itself!

A solid and resounding NO to the original question.

Learn to use the 'history' command.

Learn to search the web.

This is alo the main reason I started keeping a (we)blog - it's good to share it with others, but mostly it's really just a personal notebook for tips & tricks. I frequent it all the time.

I'd forgotten I'd posted in this thread 11 years ago.
I'll have another look in 2032 (if I'm still alive), to see if I remember posting this, unless I forget.

Since I've always had to struggle with memory issues, the advent of computers was a godsend.
First thing I did when I started using Linux was to begin a text file labelled Notes.txt which had segments of items I wanted to remember, separated by some marker (line of equal signs etc).
At first I'd use "less" to scan the file whenever I wanted to find something I'd recorded about an issue I'd figured out previously.
Later I wrote a short script to scan the Notes.txt file for only those segments relevant to the issue I wanted to check.
Second thing I did was learn to use cron & xmessage, so the computer could remind me of important dates & times I shouldn't forget.
Hooray for silicon; hooray for linux.

I forget many things, especially those things I didn't use since long. Nevertheless I sometimes recall some very old details from, say, the old Apple ][+ back in the early 80s, or even from the Multics system at the same years, at the Grenoble University. It is interesting that I can understand many things now more in depth, given that I did learn many things on operating systems all these years since then till now.

Another funny story: once at work we had to use the command line (dos terminal) in our mswindows server for a recovery restore. I'm not the IT in the company, just a good computer user. It seems that I knew more on the cli commands that the IT guy, much younger than me.

Let's go.

I use Linux since I was a child and I had been switching from Windows to Linux and vice-versa periodically, but I learnt enough to understand that Linux is kernel developed by Linus Torsvald, a Finnish man, which is also a father, a son, a brother, a friend and a descendant of the physical universe, a human, son of God, a true emphatic human being.

Linux was offered for free under the General Public License to create ease between the users in world wide range, It was developed to help us with our goals which will eventually help others in the same range of Linux, by the way GNU is a suit of tools developed to be used along side with Linux Kernel, together an entire open source Operational System.

GNU Linux is a motivational computer piece for students that want to spend their time acquiring knowledge and the hope that the most valuable human thing is the cooperation, so It is a source of knowledge.

Most programs compatible with Linux are also present in operational systems such as Apple OS X and Android, in built-in devices, in our pockets, GNU Linux is part of the human daily history, It isn't only GREP, SED, AWK, SH. Linux is a freedom pass to live the world.

Thanks.

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Here, here!
I second that emotion. And I'm going to write it down somewhere so I don't forget...

Thanks, brother.

The main aim of a human computer manager, be It GNU Linux, Windows or whatever, must be a similar job which is continuously maintained by Linus Torsvald and the whole Linux team and community. Linux gives a chance for each human to prepare himself to deal with the hardest problems of the world.

Each disease may be interpreted and compared to a body without the disease to find if not a cure a way to delay It so We all may be able to live entertaining together with our family and friends for a long time.

This program name is GREP which you can compare two files, imagine that one file is a body with a disease and the other is a body without a disease, with AWK you can certainly complete the job by creating a vaccine.

I'm not entirely sure about this, but If We can find diseases and anomalies by using GREP, then We can probably find out a way to clean a sea under pollution by creating a program which will detect each toxin, this would be certainly the most wanted entertainment of the humanity, not only a wish but a wishful dream.

Take care and never give up. Merry Xmas.

Obviously not in my case. I've occasionally done searches on LQ looking for a solution only to find that the problem was solved several years ago... in a thread that I started!

(Sucks to have so much stuff crammed into one's brain. It's sometimes hard to find things.)