For many hundreds of years, blood-letting was an obvious thing to do. As was just giving people leeches for medical ailments. And ingesting mercury. We thought having sex with virgins would cure STDs. We thought doses of radiation was good for us. And tobacco. We thought it was obvious that the sun revolved around Earth.
It is enormously important to scientifically confirm things, even if they do seem obvious.
You mean I can go from being a terrible programmer to merely a bad one?