"Engineers don't memorize documentation. They know how to use it."

Programming felt insurmountable to me before I started with it. This phrase blew my mind and changed my approach entirely.

A lot of programming is basic knowledge, documentation and a good internet connection

As long as you know how to Google, you can figure out 60% of programming. The rest is basic logic, some guesswork, and skill.

@GMR516 Yes. Same can be said about playing the guitar. It can be a hobby and you play for fun or you can be an artist or performer and take it to the next level.

So if you are a professional programmer, taking it to the next level means you must maintain (benchmark, test, update, refactor, ..) your code on a regular basis.

You must dedicate a significant amount of time both in the short-term and long-term to achieve those goals.