When I’m writing code, I often switch between an high-level mental description and the code itself. It’s not a one way interaction. The more I code, the more refined my mental solution becomes until they merge together. I don’t need to hold everything in my memory (which is why there are many browser tabs opened). The invariant is that I can hand over my work any time and describe the rest of my solution. And the other advantage is the growing expertise in the tech.