[ghufran_syed]

I think there are two separate issues here. One is 'just' another way of understanding or visualizing a concept or process: "look the problem over and see if you can understand the way it behaves, roughly, when you change some of the numbers". Isn't this exactly what you do with a debugger when you step through the code? Or if I'm designing a data structure or algorithm, I have to play around in my head, or with pen and paper, before even thinking about going near a keyboard.

The other issue is 'allowing' oneself to imagine and visualize these things (math/physics equations / software). I don't think the point is to restrict yourself to things for which you have physical intuition, it's more that it's easier to go from physical experience -> intuition about physics phenomena that are closely related to physical experience -> intuition about math /physics /software that don't have a counterpart in our physical experience as humans e.g. quantum mechanics