Naaaa, it's quite easy, if I may:

Use -s if you want a symbolic link (else use nothing),
and the order is always <from> <to>

So, some kind of spell to use:
link (ln) symbolic (-s) from to

or for hard links
link (ln) from to

After a few times you never forget this again.

Bonus:

if you want to replace or create a symbolic link (in a script for example), replace -s with -nsf

Easy going 😉
Be happy and SCNR 😎

This struck me as odd for a few reasons.

1. The main confusion with ln is not the "-s", it's the order of the two names, i.e., does "ln a b" link a to b or b to a?

2. I couldn't get confused about this daily because I don't use it anywhere near daily.

3. Seriously I can't remember ever using ln without the "-s". I do find "ln -s" sometimes handy.

alias softlink="ln -s"
alias hardlink-like-i-mean-it="ln"

Prevents errors on my desk.

"recursive":

chmod and chown: -R
cp: -r or -R
scp: -r

🤬🤬🤬

Simple solution: Always use -s

It is not like you should have to use hardlinks to save filesystem storage space these days.