I agree, our brains are good at recognizing patterns. So some amount of rote memorization of data can help us see these patterns. I remember learning the 9 * t

I agree, our brains are good at recognizing patterns. So some amount of rote memorization of data can help us see these patterns. I remember learning the 9 * table as a child and suddenly realizing that n * 9 = (n * 10) - n , thinking "hmm, does n * x = n * (x + 1) - n" why yes it does!