[desolate_muffin]

Why think when your phone or the AI can do it for you? I imagine there are a few people in this forum who might have some thoughts about that.

[jf22]

Recalling math trivia is not thinking... that's why it's called memorization...

[blululu]

I find this attitude to be really frustrating. Based on my experiences teaching math a student is not going to learn how to do the impressive things that you might call thinking if they don't have a solid foundation in how to do the basics. Imagine saying that learning the alphabet or spelling rules is just rote memorization and therefore not worth doing. If a person needs to spend all of their brain power thinking through elementary operations then they will have very little left over for the things that we might call thinking. I have seen too many kids who struggle with Algebra not because they can't understand the concepts but because they cannot do basic things like multiply 3x4 without needing to add 3 to 3 to 3 to 3.

[ThrowMeAway1618]

That's a great question! Let me go ask Claude and get back to you..