dudes used to be like "you dont actually have to learn kanji radicals or stroke order or anything just read enough and you'll recognize kanjis heuristically from their shape like when you skim a text in english and see the word 'apple' and know what word it is despite not parsing each individual letter"

i used to always forget the difference between 左 and 右 when i tried to read like that but realizing that the leftmost two strokes are a hand and remembering the bottom radical made it so i will literally never forget, think about the ancient world, 右 is the 手 that you bring food to your 口 with, 左 is the 手 that you 'ply your craft(工)'[wipe your butt] with