I do refuse to use a car frequently, I’ll bike or walk because although it’s harder and sometimes scary, there are other times when it’s really great and I feel more connected to the world around me. Also more relaxed after the little bit of exercise.

Personally I also hurt my learning of trig identities and stuff because the symbolic algebra engine on my ti-89 was so good that I could rely on it instead of learning the material. Caught up to me in college with harder calc and physics classes.

I aced algebra and geometry in high school. Next was trigonometry and we had a new teacher who espoused the use of a thick pink and black trig book. It was absolutely alien, as well as ugly, to me. Once I realized the sine, cosine and tangent and co-relations were defined as geometric ratios, I put my mind at rest and determined to use my geometry skills to the max to avoid memorization. The teacher accepted my somewhat odd methodology for the time being.

That was good for a half-semester but then a formidable classroom opponent arose: a "new" boy who had been educated in another state using the very same textbook! I realized I'd have to commit at least a handful of the most useful trig identities to memory to solve problems quickly and remain at the head of the class. A weekend of furious comparison and selection ensued, but that was enough to carry me across the finish line in trig class.