Thanks! Yes, formatting messaged up.

I did read your article but I felt that it buckets all hacks together as an unnecessary evil in education.

I think it's quite a nice confidence booster to know a method that would speed them up (usually in basic arithmetic). It also provides a future learning opportunity when trying to derive why a hack works.

I agree with the article, but I would really be interested in some in-depth examples of what the alternative to tricks/hacks are? I don't ever remember a case where I was only taught the hack, for example. We learn it the long way and then the teacher/lecturer might show us a quick version in passing. Is this not the case all of the time?