Recipe's are a very helpful fallback where you might be struggling with understanding the origins of material in a rigorous manner. You can inspect a triangle all you like, but at the end of the day it's much easier to simply remember the formula.

This, I am finding, is the only way I'm managing to actually understand complex analysis - take the formulas for the results, and remember how to apply them. It's revealing to me that what looks complex gets very simple in that manner (and also that I still get tripped up by elements of basic integration).

If I couldn't do this, then I'd be lost - and in a test simplification remembering how to work through the definition isn't possible (and isn't required thank god) because that's a path which leads to me spending 6 hours figuring out and trying to picture something in a way which makes sense.