First of all I’d like to say that there’s of course not a winning concept for everyone.

There are many technical books that become thicker and thicker and the pressure from the technical society is more and more to read them and remember many concepts described in them. But it’s so hard to do it.

How do you remember all that stuff? Lots of people use some cards with basic info so that they can remember the details when they look at it.

Sometimes I read a chapter, wait a while, and go back through the chapter with a highlighter. Then, if I ever have to go back in the book, I can just read the highlighted nuggets. But that’s just something you can do with your own books…

Generally, technical books come with lots of little example snippets of code or exercises. I always try (if there’s sufficient time) to do them. But after you’ve done them, think about where you can apply those concepts in code you’ve already written. Go back and refactor with those ideas in mind. Once you see how it can work in a real live project, it will be burned into your brain.

A really good coder once told me…If you read something in a technical book you don’t understand, do something with that concept 5 times in code.
Make 5 separate, little, non-related one-off projects. By the second time around you will probably understand it, and the other 3 are just to get your fingers used to typing it. Don’t proceed further in the book until you do.

If you do not practice it you will not learn it except you’re rain man but nobody is rain man except for rain man.

The learning by doing principle is good but my experience tells me that it is not enough. Moreover, remembering is no longer mandatory. Accessibility of resources is such that finding them is more important than learning them.