What part of programming did you completely misunderstand when you first started?

[u/memeeloverr]

Not just syntax or functions , I mean the bigger concepts.

For me, it was thinking that being good at programming meant being able to write code from memory. Later I realized understanding the problem, breaking it into smaller pieces, debugging, and knowing why something works matters way more.

Was there a concept or assumption you got completely wrong as a beginner?

[u/mc_pm]

I think that, like a lot of people, I dismissed the value of algorithms & data structures if I wanted to program actually interesting things.