The shortcut usually drops you back at the starting line with less time on the clock.

Skipping steps borrows against understanding. The route that avoids the slow part usually avoids the part where the learning was, so you arrive at the same wall later with less time and the same gap in what you know. It rarely feels like a mistake while you are taking it, because it is genuinely faster right up until it is not.

When a shortcut appears, ask what it is skipping rather than how much time it saves. Some are fine. The ones to refuse are those that remove the repetition you were supposed to get, because that debt always comes back.