[araftery]

I totally agree. This is the way most of economics is taught; concrete numbers provide evidence for ideas/models, but when learning their concepts, they simply slow you down.

[npsimons]

I don't know why you were downvoted; it's the same thing in CS. Why else would we reduce all sorts of algorithms to simpler big-O notation other than to convey the more important concepts of complexity tradeoffs in algorithms? Also, Fermi estimation (always relevant: http://what-if.xkcd.com/84/)

[j2kun]

Mathematicians are also taught to think this way, as is everyone else. Humans don't think in terms of numbers.