I think main reason is our flawed education. The tasks you are being given at school are usually constructed so that they fit the idealized knowledge you just l

I think main reason is our flawed education. The tasks you are being given at school are usually constructed so that they fit the idealized knowledge you just learned. What it teaches people is to short cut the critical path of reasoning which is to first make sure you actually understand the problem and then the problem actually fits the assumptions. People are not taught that even a small divergence from assumptions can have dramatic difference on the actual solution or applicability of what they think is a solution. They are also not taught the actual assumptions or spot how they look. They talk about CS algorithms as if they worked on idealized computers, but then run them on real ones. At school this is not taught because when it seems the problem fits the material it almost always is. People are actually rewarded for jumping to conclusions as this helps them go through material faster. If you don't learn anything about the world you bring your learning with you and try to apply it to real world and that's how a lot of developers operate. Especially in tech, you can usually look up solution to any problem easily. But for some reason this is the part everybody emphasizes rather than recognize knowing when to apply the solution is way more valuable. I also think it is part of the wisdom behind "premature optimization is root of all evil".