Becoming seriously proficient at anything seriously alters the way you think about it, no matter the field. For instance, I play the Cello. Lately, I noticed I

Becoming seriously proficient at anything seriously alters the way you think about it, no matter the field. For instance, I play the Cello. Lately, I noticed I only made progress when I understood something, or changed a habit, or let go of some subtle, but ultimately far reaching assumption. I played the Witness. There's a time based challenge at some point, that I could only beat when I changed the way I thought about those puzzle just so I could go through them faster. I learned to touch type. To do that, I stopped thinking visually, and instead think kinaesthetically. Then I developed some kind of intuition, where I think a word, and the letters just flow through my fingers. I don't really think at the letter level any more. Neither does anyone proficient with a keyboard. (50 WPM and up). Our untrained intuitions don't really matter. Seriously learning anything trains us out of them. Programming is no different.