Using a film camera will force you to take the picture with your mind first. You will understand exposure and light in a fundamental way.

You always can use your phone, computational photography will give you the best result, algorithmically speaking.:)

You can force yourself by setting everything to manual on a digital camera. Especially on a non-pasm camera, like fujifilm, where you can see and control physical dials.

It's still way too easy with digital mirrorless where you have a tight feedback loop of being able to see the image respond to adjustment live, and also there's no cost associated with pulling the trigger.

I guess the best thing to do would be turn off exposure preview (so you can't see what settings are going to look like and the EVF becomes "dumb"), and perhaps buy a tiny 512MB SD card or something so you can only fit 26 or so RAW files on it :)

Why is it a virtue to make things hard? The analogy of "if you truly want to learn programming, you have to do it with punch cards" feels apt.

Instant feedback is good for learning. I sometimes feel that old-school photographers are just kinda bitter that it's a lot easier to take competent photos today than it was 20 years ago, and think it's not real unless you're carrying a light meter around.

Actually, today the quickest way is to start with a digital camera, but the caveat is that you must have discipline not to fall into the technography trap. Technography is not photography.

I can take a photo without a light meter or perfect focus. Zone focusing and the zone system are a thing, even today. https://petapixel.com/how-to-use-the-zone-system/

The idea behind making things hard for yourself is to develop a discipline and way of seeing the world without assistance. When you get this superpower, you will use the digital aids in a completely different manner.

The instant feedback is so bad for the development of photographers mind, that some brands like Leica and Fujifilm have a digital camera without screen on their back.

https://yewtu.be/watch?v=z-u3AoSV5e4

That would make the whole learning process way slower.

I remember a few old lecturers saying they learnt programming on punch card computers, which you have to wait a few hours just to get a simple code running. Usually, you are not lucky enough to get it right on first time. Fix some errors and compile... repeat until it runs. More waiting time.