Theory is awesome simply because it lets you save your time for things that have not yet been thought of. Imagine you have to figure out a fast way to sort a random list:
9834765872
If you lack knowledge of theory, your internal dialogue may sound like this, "Hmm, if I keep taking the number on the front end and move it right until it... bah that doesn't work. How about moving from left and right.... argh!"
However, if your background in theory is sound, it may sound more like this, "Hmm, quicksort or multimerge?"
Lesson: Stand on the shoulders of giants.
