“But some rote memorization can be good as a foundation for abstraction. I’ve seen some studies suggest people who can do arithmetic and basic algebra more quic

“But some rote memorization can be good as a foundation for abstraction. I’ve seen some studies suggest people who can do arithmetic and basic algebra more quickly can do higher level proofs more effectively. They are less “bogged down” with low level mechanics when doing higher level thinking. Musicians who want to creatively and improvisationally “jam out” might still drill scales to build that low level technique to unlock the high level creativity on top of it.” I personally find this to be true. I became significantly better at higher math and physics after I memorized and drilled on lower level concepts and algebraic/trigonometric manipulations.