The truth of the matter is that, for most of us, when faced with a problem we work with what we know. If you ensure breadth of knowledge, you can get better at each aspect, but if you only know a few fundamental ideas, that means that you have to be capable of looking at a problem and rediscovering the right data structure to handle it with. Essentially, you have to be as smart as the guys who came up with it in the first place and more. Better to know the data structures and how they work.

Recognition is easier than rediscovery.