It’s a sad state of affairs when so many think math is about “rote memorizing formulas and rules like a robot”. That’s how math is taught through freshman or sophomore material for a somewhat ‘general’ audience. But real math is nothing like that - it requires far more creativity. You need to discover formulas and rules. You invent new rules and see what the consequences are. This all requires a great deal of creativity. Nothing “rote” about it.

If you don’t believe me, crack open a text on something like graph theory (that’s pretty accessible, and if you’re a programmer, you’re familiar with graphs) and read through some proofs. Or better yet, try to prove some theorems yourself. No amount of rote memorization of formulas or rules will replace the creativity needed to write these proofs. Doubly so for discovering the facts in the first place.