[carbocation]

That's a tautology. Memorization of some facts is useful. It's probably best when the memorization happens as a side effect of the knowledge being used frequently.

[Cushman]

Let's invert that and close the loop: memorization is by nature a side-effect of accessing knowledge for some useful purpose. Accessing knowledge for no purpose but to memorize it is, by that definition, pointless.

[willvarfar]

I recall a Grace Hopper interview where she said you had to memorize the heirarchy of the navy; you couldn't derive it.