Shortcuts are fine once you know the long way. Before that, they’re just ways to get lost faster.

A shortcut is a compression of understanding you already have. If you know the long route you can tell when the short one is about to fail and step back onto solid ground, and without that, a shortcut is only a rule you are following blindly. That is why the same trick helps one person and sinks another. The order you learn them in matters more than the methods do.

When you catch yourself using a trick you cannot explain, work the long version once. Do it slowly, on paper, start to finish. Then go back to the shortcut knowing what it stands on.