How Can We Actually Prevent This From Happening

Learning a new language or framework is that satisfying climb up the stairs—steady progress, dopamine hits with each concept mastered, Stack Overflow bookmarks multiplying. Then you take a two-week vacation, switch projects, or just look at production fires for a month straight. Suddenly you're staring at your own code like it's written in ancient Sumerian. The forgetting curve is real and it's exponential. The only prevention? Build useless side projects you'll never finish. It's not procrastination, it's spaced repetition.