Use ctrl-r a lot (navigate up/down with ctrl-p and ctrl-n) and try to “fuzzy-match” previously used commands.
There is a very useful command called fzf which, while only a search program at heart, can be configured to complement this nicely.
If you have fzf installed, it is easy to integrate it with your bash history.
In my .bashrc, I have:
# Introduce fzf-driven functionality as described here: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/fzf.
source /usr/share/fzf/key-bindings.bash
source /usr/share/fzf/completion.bash
Also, you may be interested in zoxide, which keeps track of paths you have navigated to.
Also from my .bashrc:
# Enable an autojump-like 'j' command. Use 'ji M' to select paths starting with M using fzf.
# This needs to always come last.
eval "$(zoxide init --cmd j bash)"
SOMA and Outer Wilds are still haunting me like this.