How do Expert SAS professionals manage to remember and apply so many options/functions/concepts?

[Reeza]

Considering the existence of WPS I understand why they've closed the documentation.

[jakarman]

Reeza, the WPS case is a good one for SAS in my opinion.  curia 122362   SAS Institute Inc v World Programming Ltd - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia  The SAS language is not protected but the documentation and all other parts/areas are. WPS was forced to not using the SAS docs as easy reference anymore, at they are allowed to build an own system. It is more like not getting a patent to the wheel or fire (too generic). It are solutions and dedicated tools that are closed. That too far protectional habit  of SAS and its high not clear licensing costs and policies (Gartner/Forrester) is feeding the discussion with negative sentiments ( R is for free) against SAS. UE was a good response by SAS.
A free competition is good for innovation and promotion. Instead of holding WPS off SAS could use that situation as a positive one. Having alternatives for them will result in a bigger total market.

The biggest threat for SAS is SAS themselves. Not wanting to innovate anymore but going for a consolidation and seeking the protection of being one the biggest in their area than can cause being overrun by others in some time. This has happened to Nokia and blackberry in a fast changing market but you can also take Kodak as most famous example What Happened To Kodak’s Moment? | TechCrunch   

[ronan]

Experts in their fields are all different, but they usually share this same motto :

In the kingdom of the blind, the one-eyed man is king. (Proverb)

How do Expert SAS professionals manage to remember and apply so many options/functions/concepts?

1. I would like to know how do you memorise and manage remember all of it?

Legendary chess champion Capablanca or Alekhine (sources may vary) once replied to a reporter asking him

How many moves ahead he was looking against his opponent, reportedly replied

"I only looked ahead one move, but it was always the best move."

Memory is unimportant. Memorisation is useless. Knowing by heart tens of thousand pages of SAS documentation won't serve you at all

to become an expert.

Sharpen your mind to answer with as much _relevance_ as possible. The personal decision rule you apply to select your choice

does not depend of either how large is your memory, or how fast can you recall accurately some small piece of information.

It depends upon how self-critical you are disposed to be regarding your own work .Self-criticism stands as a synonym for creativity.

Dont'try to memorise, put at work your own way of doing things and test it mercilessly.

To be more matter of fact, study both sample codes and the corresponding documentation, neither one of it independently.

2. Is there a knack you have developed to quickly  know where to look?

No. Personally, as a junior developer, I was much inspired by a Senior SAS Coder who applied a subtle blend of innovative technics

with proven ones , and based his technical choices also upon - sometimes unwritten - functional requirements. So I tried to start afresh each time

and begin my journey by looking extensively for SAS code samples already available.

Since Google has become our ubiquitous friend these last years, the only thing which can (could) save me time

would be to learn how to type faster on my keyboard. Playing the piano can help (I suppose).

3. Even if you do, don;t you tend forget whatever you learned just like normal human beings do?

I happen to know someone who possesses a fantastic memory, quite abnormal. He can remember almost instantly every line he as ever read, and

he has read extensively from a very young age. Yet he's more often than not 'aloof' and absent-minded to the point of

forgetting appointments all the time. Sometimes he doesn't even remind the name of the person he's talking to (funny to look at

but embarrassing for the other person). Social forgetfullness can be quite an impairment sometimes; I don't envy the guy.

"While differing widely in the various little bits we know, in our infinite ignorance we are all equal." (Karl Popper)

4. How long did it take for you to accomplish what you have so far?years/months?

My accomplishments so far are too few to even mention. Time span doesn't count in my opinion. Some experts I know

have developed amazingly in just a few years time. Other strive for many more years. I don't think their is common 'pace'.

5. If you achieved in a relatively short time, did you slog out reading voraciously for hours losing sleep?

A few year's back, I remember standing up at night when my first daughter was born , reading the MIT Open Course Ware on-line materials (e g . Python introductory course).

That kept me awake then when I needed to. However I cannot recall many things I read and now I would be

unable to run the simplest code in Python, for instance. Sleep deprivation and training your skills are two different things, I guess.

Please provide newbies some healthy and doable tips barring the 5th question, coz if that's the case I am afraid one would need to live a life after all. Make sense eh?

Perfectly sense.

Be what you are, expertise is just but a single word. Take your time to improve your own skills by observing how others have solved differently

than you the same problem. Dig deeper into their solution. Other's ingenuity at work is always amazing.

Some references to go further (Art Carpenter's SAS papers are my best source of inspiration) :

http://www2.sas.com/proceedings/sugi23/Training/p275.pdf

http://www.sascommunity.org/mwiki/images/c/ce/A_Walk_Thru_Time.pdf

http://support.sas.com/resources/papers/proceedings13/029-2013.pdf